Famiglietti also said while oil companies are willing to spend millions because their product yields high profits per gallon, that's not the case with water, typically considered a public resource. Drought conditions plagued the region throughout 2022, for instance, prompting concerns over river navigation. On the heels of Arizonas 2021 push for a pipeline feasibility study, former Arizona Gov. Whereas I understand water rights, but globalwarming has introduced new priorities. More by The Associated Press, Got a story tip? Million sued, and he says he expects a ruling this year. A multi-state pipeline could easily require decades before it delivers a drop of water," said Michael Cohen, senior researcher with the Pacific Institute. Donate today tohelp keep Grists site and newsletters free. Booming Utah metro wants to pipe in water from Lake Powell so it can Vessels ran aground and had to navigate very carefully. I find it interesting that households have to watch how much water theyare usingfor washing clothes, wateringlawns, washing cars,etc. Stop letting excess water flow out to sea. The state should do everything possible to push conservation, but thats not going to cure the issue, he told Grist. The diverted flow would require massive water tunnels, since a flow of 250,000. Booming Utah metro wants to pipe in water from Lake Powell so it can Politics are an even bigger obstacle to making multi-state pipelines a reality. Not mentioned was the great grand-daddy of all schemes for re-allocating water, known as the North American Water and Power Authority Plan. But interest spans deeper than that. A drive up Interstate 5 shows how muchland has been fallowed due tolack of water. The project would require more than 300 new dams,canals, pipelines, tunnels, and pumping stations. Heres how that affects Indigenous water rights, Salton Sea public health disaster gets a $250 million shot in the arm. Democrat recall candidate Kevin Paffrath wants filter systems | The Pipe water from the plentiful Great Lakes to deserted towns in the West like Phoenix and Las Vegas. He raised the possibility that policymakers will seek to build a 900-mile pipeline from Lake Superior to the Green River watershed in southwest Wyoming. These canals and pipelines are . Local hurdles include endangered species protections, wetlands protections, drinking water supply considerations and interstate shipping protections. The state also set aside funds in 2018 to study possible imports from the Missouri or Mississippi Rivers, but to date, the study hasnt been done, he said. If a portion of the farmers in the region were to change crops or fallow their fields, the freed-up water could sustain growing cities. As recently as 2021, the Arizona state legislature urged Congress to fund a technological and feasibility study of a diversion dam and pipeline scheme to harvest floodwater from the Mississippi River to replenish the Colorado River. A pipeline taking water from the Missouri River west makes perfect sense, if you don't care about money, energy, or the environment. The idea is as old and dusty as the desert Southwest: Pipe abundant Great Lakes water to parched cities out West, such as Phoenix and Las Vegas. The lawsuit, originally filed in southern Texas' federal courts Jan. 18, was amended to include Idaho on Monday. States wish they wouldnt. Filling Lake Mead with Mississippi River Water No Longer a Pipe Dream. Most recently, the Arizona state legislature passed a measure in 2021 urging Congress to investigate pumping flood water from the Mississippi River to the Colorado River to bolster its flow. CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa Waves of torrential rainfall drenched California into the new year. . Most notably, the Mississippi River basin doesnt always have enough water to spare. The conceptsfell into a few large categories: pipe Mississippi or Missouri River water to the eastern sideof the Rockies or to Lake Powell on the Arizona-Utah border, bring icebergs in bags, on container ships or via trucks to Southern California, pump water from the Columbia River in the Pacific Northwest to California via a subterranean pipeline on the floor of the Pacific Ocean, or replenish the headwaters of the Green River, the main stem of the Colorado River, with water from tributaries. She can be reached at jwilson@gannett.com or @janetwilson66 on Twitter. A plan to divert Mississippi flood waters to west is proposed Reader support helps sustain our work. When that happens, it wont be just tourists and recreational boaters who will suffer. We have already introduced invasive species all over the continentzebra mussels, quagga mussels, grass carp, spiny water flea, lampreys, ru. California uses 34 million acre-feet of water per year for agriculture. Any water diversion from the Mississippi to Arizona must be pumped about 6,000 feet up, over the Rockies. If we had a big pipeline from Lake Sakakawea, we wouldn't just dump it into Lake Powell. ", But desert defenders pushed back. Take for instance the so-called Water Horse pipeline, a pet project of a Colorado investor and entrepreneur named Aaron Million. A multi-state compact already prohibits any sale of water from the Great Lakes unless all bordering states agree to it, and its almost certain that Mississippi River states would pass laws restricting water diversions, or file lawsuits against western states, if the project went forward. So moving water that far away to supplement the ColoradoRiver, I don't think is viable. The largest eastern river, the Mississippi, has about 30 times the average annual flow of the Colorado, and the Columbia has close to 10 times. A pipeline to the Mississippi River Perhaps the biggest achievement Paffrath said he would accomplish if elected governor would be to solve California's water crisis by building a. As an engineer, I can guarantee you that it is doable, Viadero said. But the idea hasnever completely died. The Arizona Legislature wants the federal government to study the feasibility of constructing a pipeline . Lower Mississippi River flow means less sediment carried down to Louisiana, where it's used for coastal restoration. He said hes open to one but doesnt think its necessary. By the way, none of this includes the incredible carbon footprints about to be stomped on the environment. Rescue the oceans from the pollution that flood waters pick up and dump into the ocean, creating dead zones. But moving water from one drought-impacted area to another is not a solution.. Petition End Floods in America by Creating a Pipeline Network to It would cost at least $1,700 per acre-feet of water, potentially yield 600,000 acre-feet of water per year by 2060 and take 30 years to construct. To the editor: With the threat of brownouts and over-stressed power grids, dwindling water resources in California and the call to reduce consumption by 15%, I want to point out we are not all in this together. A federal report from a decade ago pegged an optimistic cost estimate for a similar pipeline at $14 billion and said the project would take 30 years to build; a Colorado rancher who championed the idea around the same time, meanwhile, estimated its costs at $23 billion. A water pipeline from the Mississippi River to the west? - Los Angeles Why hasn't the U.S. built an aqueduct or pipeline to divert - Quora This latest version would curve up through the Wyoming flatlands and back down to Fort Collins, a distance of around 340 miles. Subscribe today to see what all the buzz is about. Here are some facts to put perspective to severalof the opinions already expressed here: An aqueduct running from thelower Mississippi to the Colorado River (via the San Juan River tributary, at Farmington, New Mexico), with the same capacity as the California Aqueduct, would roughly double the flow of thelatter while taking merely 1-3% of the formers flow. Twitter, Follow us on Drainage area 171,500 square miles . Every year, NAWAPA would deliver 158 million acre-feet of water to the US, Canada, and Mexico more than 10 times the annual flow of the Colorado River. What if our droughts get worse? California wants to build a $16 billion pipeline to draw water out of the Sacramento River Delta and down to the southern part of the state, but critics say the project would deprive Delta farmers of water and destroy local ecosystems. Another businessman in New Mexico has pushed plans to pump river water 150 miles to the city of Santa Fe, but that water would have to be pumped uphill. People need to focus on their realistic solutions.. This One thousand mile long pipeline could move water from the Eastern USA (Great Lakes, Ohio River, Missouri River, and Mississippi River) to the Colorado River via the Mississippi River. Can you solve drought by piping water across the country? - New York Times If officials approve this, the backlash willresult in everyone using as much water as wecare to. Certainly not the surrounding communities. Water from these and other large rivers pour. Safety concerns increased in 2020 after a pipeline in Mississippi ruptured in a landslide, releasing a heavier-than-air plume of carbon dioxide that displaced oxygen near the ground. The water will drain into the headwaters of the Colorado river. Wildfire, flooding concerns after massive snowfall in Arizona, Customers will have to ask for water at Nevada restaurants if bill passes, Snow causes semi truck to crash into Arizona DPS Trooper SUV near Williams, A showdown over Colorado River water is setting the stage for a high-stakes legal battle, In Arizona and other western states, pressure to count water lost to evaporation, While the much-needed water has improved conditions in the parched West, Arizona state legislature passed a measure in 2021, RELATED: Phoenix city officials celebrate final pipe installation in the Drought Pipeline Project, the most comprehensive analysis ever undertaken within the Colorado River Basin. Butbig water infrastructure projects aren't just of interest to the general public. Infrastructure is one of the few ways well turn things around to assure that theres some supply.. My water, your water. Last updated on: February 10, 2023, 10:54h. Asked about a Mississippi River pipeline or other new infrastructure to rescue the Colorado River, federal and state officials declined to respondor said there was no realistic chance such a major infrastructure project is in the offing. To the editor: The states near the Gulf of Mexico are often flooded with too much water, while the Southwest is suffering a long-term drought. The . Letter writers have asked why a water pipeline is not constructed from the Mississippi River to the Colorado River. Facebook, Follow us on We are already in a severe drought. What states in the Southwest have failed to do is curtail growth and agriculture that is, of course, water-driven. In northwestern Iowa, a river has repeatedly been pumped dry by a rural water utility that sells at least a quarter of the water outside the state. Its easy to understand why politicians want to throw their weight behind similar present-day projects, Fort told Grist, but projects of this size just arent practical anymore. Still, its physically possible. Absolutely not," said Meena Westford, executive director of Colorado River resource policy for the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California. [1] You could do it.". Their technical report, which hasnt been peer-reviewed, calculated that a pipe for moving this scale of water would need to be 88 feet in diameter around twice the length of a semi-trailer or a 100-foot-wide channel thats 61 feet deep. In southeastern California,officials at the Imperial Irrigation District, which is entitled toby far the largest share of Colorado River water, say any move to strip theirrights would result in legal challenges that could last years. The Great Lakes Compact, signed by President George W. Bush in 2008,bans large waterexportsoutside of the areawithout the approval of all eight states bordering them andinput fromOntario and Quebec. Environmental writerMarc Reisner said the plan was one of "brutal magnificence" and "unprecedented destructiveness." Diverting the Missouri River to the West: 'Can' Does Not - HuffPost Gavin Newsom if he's. CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (AP) Waves of torrential rainfall drenched California into the new year. Paffrath proposed building a pipeline from the Mississippi River to bring water to drought-stricken California. "The engineering is feasible. Just this past summer, the idea caused a firestorm of letters to the editor at a California newspaper. Las Vegas' grand proposal is to take water from the mighty Mississippi in a series of smaller pipeline-like exchanges among states just west of the Mississippi to refill the overused. WATER WILL SOON be flowing from Lake Superior to the parched American Southwest. Similar ideas have been suggested about Great Lakes water. Yes. When finished, the $62 billion project will link Chinas four main rivers and requiresconstruction of three lengthy diversion routes, one using as its basethe1,100-mile longHangzhou-to-Beijing canal, which dates from the 7th century AD. The only newsroom focused on exploring solutions at the intersection of climate and justice. Is Getting Great Lakes Water To The Southwest Just A Pipedream No. Viaderos team estimated that the sale of the water needed to fill the Colorado Rivers Lake Powell and Lake Mead the largest reservoirs in the country would cost more than $134 billion at a penny a gallon. John Neely ofPalm Desert responded: "All of these river cities who refuse to give us their water can stop snowbirding to the desert to use our water. The pipeline would provide the Colorado River basin with 600,000 acre-feet of water annually, which could serve roughly a million single-family homes. The list of projects that run on similarly magical thinking goes on: Utah wants to build a pipeline of its own from Lake Powell to the fast-growing city of St. George, but Lake Powell has almost no water left. We have to conserve water, butnota ridiculous wave parkthat willprobably go bankrupt? Pipeline | Definition, History, Types, Uses, & Facts | Britannica The other alternatives have political costs, and they have costs that are maybe more likely to be borne locally, including by farmers and other large water users, she said. Diverting that water also means spreading problems, like pollutants, excessive nutrients, and invasive species. Large amounts of fossil fuelenergy neededto pump water over the Rockies would increase the very climate change thats exacerbating the 1,200-year drought afflicting the Colorado River in the first place, said Newman, who in his previous job helped the state of Colorado design a long-term water conservation plan. Great Lakes water piped to Southwest 'our future,' says NASA scientist Can drought-stricken CA get water from Midwest via pipeline? All rights reserved. Runa giant hose from the Columbia River along the bottom of the Pacific Ocean to refill Diamond Valley Reservoir. But it's doable. California uses 34 million acre-feet of water per year for agriculture. No, lets talk about her, Desperate mountain residents trapped by snow beg for help; We are coming, sheriff says, Newsom, IRS give Californians until October to file tax returns, 15 arrested across L.A. County in crackdown on fraudulent benefit cards, Calmes: Heres what we should do about Marjorie Taylor Greene, Column: Did the DOJ just say Donald Trump can be held accountable for Jan. 6? On the heels of Arizonas 2021 push for a pipeline feasibility study, former Arizona Gov. Leading environmental engineering firm to study alternative water Stories of similar projects often share the same ending, from proposals in Iowa and Minnesota to those between Canada and the United States. He said wastewater reuse by area agencies has already swelled from 0.20% in the 1980sto 12% of regional water supply. Trans-national pipelines would also impact ecological resources. "I don't think that drought, especially in the era of climate change, is something we can engineer our way out of.". As politicians across the West confront the consequences of the climate-fueled Millennium Drought, many of them are heeding the words of Chinatown and trying to bring in outside water through massive capital projects. Studies and modern-day engineering have proven that such projects are possible but would require decades of construction and billions of dollars. But, as water scarcity in the West gets more desperate, the hurdles could be overcome one day. California Gov. Even smaller projects stand to be derailed by similar hiccups. But interest spans deeper than that. Each year . To be talking about pipe dreams when thats not even feasible for decades, if at all Its a disservice, Scanlan said. Two hundred miles north of New Orleans, in the heart of swampy Cajun country, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in 1963 cut a rogue arm of the Mississippi River in half with giant levees to keep the main river intact and flowing to the Gulf of Mexico. Over the years, a proposed solution has come up again and again: large-scale river diversions, including pumping Mississippi River water to the parched west. Your California Privacy Rights / Privacy Policy. On Tuesday, the Scottsdale City Council agreed on a proposal to treat water and deliver it to the community for three years. About 33% of vegetables and 66% of fruits and nuts are produced in California for consumption for the nation. The massive river, with tributaries from Montanato Ohio, is a national artery for shipping goodsout to sea. This would take 254 days to fill.. The project would require more than 300 new dams,canals, pipelines, tunnels, and pumping stations, bans large waterexportsoutside of the area. An in-depth feasibility study specifically on pumping Mississippi River water to the West hasnt been conducted yet to Larsons knowledge. Meanwhile, a rookie Democrat running for governor in Californias recall election last year proposed declaring a state of emergency in order to build a similar project. While the much-needed water has improved conditions in the parched West, experts warn against claiming victory. The mountains are green now but that could be harmful during wildfire season. He said a major wastewater reuse project that MWD plans to implement by 2032 could ultimately yield up 150 million gallons of potable water a day from treated waste.
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