Last time I heard, we are still the United States of America.". A Mississippi pipeline to Lake Powell would need to cut across four states, he and Johnson said, including hundreds of miles of wetlands in Louisiana and west Texas. Telling stories that matter in a dynamic, evolving state. But we need to know a lot more about it than we currently do.. The agency is moving forward with smallerprojects across the state to reduce seismic and hydrologic risks, like eliminating leaks or seepage, including at four existing dams and related spillways in Riverside and Los Angeles counties. Power from its hydroelectric dams would boost U.S. electricity supplies. But in the face of continuing, ever-worsening drought and ongoing growth of the cities of the desert Southwest, is there a better idea out there? Clouds of birds hundreds of species live in or travel through Louisianas rich Atchafalaya forests each year, said National Audubon Society Delta Conservation Director Erik Johnson. Snowpacks in the Sierra Nevada Mountains have swelled to more than 200 percent of their normal size, and snowfall across the rest of the Colorado River Basin is trending above average, too. Follow us on One benefit would be flood control for the Eastern USA . Los Angeles-area water districts have implemented much of what Famiglietti mentioned. Since about 1983, Lake Mead has dropped in volume from full capacity at. 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? You tellgolf courses how much water they can use, but one of thelargest wave basins in the world is acceptable? Citizens of Louisiana and Mississippi south of the Old River Control Structure dont need all that water. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, prodded by members of Congressfrom western states, studied the massive proposal. Specifically, start with a line from the Mississippi River to the Colorado River at Lake Powell, where a seven-state compact divvies up the water. Gavin Newsom reaffirming his support for the ambitious proposal. She said extensive public education, aided by federal mandates and financial incentives, eventually led toa wholesale transition that saves millions of gallons of water. Seeking answers,The Desert Sun consultedwater experts, conservation groups and government officials for their assessments. The California water wars of the early twentieth century are summed up in a famous line from the 1974 film Chinatown: Either you bring the water to L.A., or you bring L.A. to the water. Nearly a hundred years have elapsed since the events the film dramatizes, but much of the West still approaches water the same way. If you dont have enough of it, go find more. The project would require more than 300 new dams,canals, pipelines, tunnels, and pumping stations, bans large waterexportsoutside of the area. Politics are an even bigger obstacle to making multi-state pipelines a reality. Drought conditions plagued the region throughout 2022, prompting concerns over river navigation. 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. Moving water from the Mississippi River to west would require massive Democrat recall candidate Kevin Paffrath wants filter systems | The Guess Who Proposed the Missouri River Pipeline in the Federal An additional analysis emerged a decade later when Roger Viadero, an environmental scientist and engineer at Western Illinois University, and his graduate students assessed proposals suggested in last summers viral editorials. In 2012, the U.S. Department of the Interiors Bureau of Reclamation completed the most comprehensive analysis ever undertaken within the Colorado River Basin at the time, which analyzed solutions to water supply issues including importing water from the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers. Diverting the Missouri River to the West: 'Can' Does Not - HuffPost Under the analyzed scenario, water would be conveyed to Colorados Front Range and areas of New Mexico to help fulfill water needs. That's a big pipe: Retired engineer suggests aqueduct from Mississippi Politics are an even bigger obstacle for making multi-state pipelines a reality. Pipeline from the Mississippi River to Colorado? - Coyote Gulch The drought is so critical that this recent rainfall is a little like finding a $20 bill when youve lost your job and youre being evicted from your house, said Rhett Larson, a professor of water law at Arizona State University. Water Pipeline: From Mississippi River To The West? - YouTube The water, more than 44 million gallons a day, would come from 115 wells drilled between 1,000 and 5,000 feet deep in Beryl-Enterprise, a basin where the state has restricted use of shallow groundwater due to over-extraction. Their detractors counter that, in an era of permanent aridification driven by climate change, the only sustainable solution is not to bring in more water, but to consume less of it. An in-depth feasibility study specifically on pumping Mississippi River water to the West hasnt been conducted yet to Larsons knowledge. You couldbuild a pipeline from the Mississippi or Missouri Rivers. Proponents of these projects argue that they could stabilize western cities for decades to come, connecting populations with unclaimed water rights. For as long as this idea has been proposed. "People are spoiled in the United States. What states in the Southwest have failed to do is curtail growth and agriculture that is, of course, water-driven. Yahoo, Reddit and ceaseless headlines about a 22-year megadrought and killer flash floods, not to mention dead bodies showing up on Lake Meads newly exposed shoreline, have galvanized reader interest this summer. Pumping Mississippi River water west: solution or pipe dream? In 1982,efforts were made to revive the plan by a Parsons company engineer, and the Lyndon Larouche movement supported itas recently as 2010. Letter writers have asked why a water pipeline is not constructed from the Mississippi River to the Colorado River. Local hurdles include endangered species protections, wetlands protections, drinking water supply considerations and interstate shipping protections. Meanwhile, watershed states in the U.S., and even counties havetaken actionto preventsuch schemes. Title: USGS Surface-Water Daily Data for the Nation URL: https://nwis.waterdata.usgs.gov/nwis/dv? Theyre all such hypocrites. Nonetheless, Siefkes trans-basin pipeline proposal went viral, receiving nearly half a million views. Engineers said the pipelineidea is technically feasible. Other legal constraints include the Endangered Species Act, the National Environmental Protection Act and variousstate environmental laws, said Brent Newman, senior policy director for the National Audubon Society's Delta state programs. "Mexico has said it didn't although there has been a recent change ingovernment.". Much of the sediment it was carrying was dropped in the slow moving water of the Delta. Water pipeline not feasible - Las Vegas Sun Newspaper Similar ideas have been suggested about Great Lakes water. The actual costs to build such a pipeline today would likely be orders of magnitude higher, thanks to inflation and inevitable construction snags. The two reasons: 1) the process of moving water that far, and that high, wouldn't make economic sense; 2) Great Lakes water is locked down politically. Water Piped to Denver Could Ease Stress on River - The New York Times Studies and modern-day engineering have proven that such projects are possible but would require decades of construction and billions of dollars. ", Westford of Southern California's Metropolitan Water District agreed. 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. 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. and planned for completion in 2050, it willdivert 44.8 billion cubic metersof water annually to major cities and agricultural and industrial centers in the parchednorth. Buying land to secure water rights would cost a chunk of cash, too, which leads to an even larger obstacle for such proposals: the legal and political hoops. Here are some facts to put perspective to several of the. 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. Still, its physically possible. Precedents set by other diversion attempts, like those that created the Great Lakes Compact, also cast doubt over the political viability of any large-scale Mississippi River diversion attempt, said Chloe Wardropper, a University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign professor researching environmental governance. It was the Bureau of Reclamation. The idea of diverting water from the Mississippi to the Colorado River basin is an excellent one, albeit also fantastically expensive. The Colorado River's 1922 compact allocated about 23% of the Upper Basin's water to Utah, and the state uses about 72% of that water. Drainage area 171,500 square miles . The Arizona Legislature wants the federal government to study the feasibility of constructing a pipeline . Steps are being taken to address water issues in Buckeye. Why not begin a grand national infrastructure project of building a water pipeline from those flooded states to the Southwest? Letters to the Editor: Antigovernment ideology isnt working for snowed-in mountain towns, Letters to the Editor: Ignore Marjorie Taylor Greene? All it does is cause flooding and massive tax expenditures to repair and strengthen dikes, wrote Siefkes.New Orleans has a problem with that much water anyway, so lets divert 250,000 gallons/secondto Lake Powell, which currently has a shortage of 5.5 trillion gallons. We can move water, and weve proven our desire to do it. So what are the solutions to the arid West's dilemma, as climate change heats up and California's State Water Project, along with Lake Mead and Lake Powell, shrivels due to reduced snowmelt and rainfall? Under the analyzed scenario, water would be conveyed to Colorados Front Range and areas of New Mexico to help fulfill water needs. To be talking about pipe dreams when thats not even feasible for decades, if at all Its a disservice, Scanlan said. Arizona lawmakers want to build a pipeline from the Mississippi River more than a thousand miles away, a Colorado rancher wants to pipe water 300 miles across the Rockies, and Utah wants to pump even more water out of the already-depleted Lake Powell. Pipeline sizes vary from the 2-inch- (5-centimetre-) diameter lines used in oil-well gathering systems to lines 30 feet (9 metres) across in high-volume water and sewage networks. In their technical report, which hasnt been peer-reviewed, they 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. PROVISIONAL DATA SUBJECT TO REVISION. The water pipelines from the Mississippi River in Davenport, Iowa connecting to the headwaters of the Colorado River at the Rocky Mountain National Park. The 800-mile system of pipelines, ditches and reservoirs would cost an estimated $23 billion and could provide 1 million acre-feet of water a year to Colorado. Lake Superior Water Headed to the Southwest - Word on the Street In 1964, a California engineering company proposed diverting flows from the Yukon and Mackenzie River watersheds, shared by Canada and the U.S., all the way to southern California and into Mexico. Siphon off a big portion, and youd be swapping oneecological catastrophe for another, said Audubons Johnson. Photos of snowfall around northern Arizona. of Engineers has turned back official requests for more water from the Missouri River to alleviate shortages on the Mississippi. Yet their persistence in the public sphere illustrates the growing desperation of Western states to dig themselves out of droughts. after the growth in California . The Colorado Sun is a journalist-owned, award-winning news outlet based in Denver that strives to cover all of Colorado so that our state our community can better understand itself. Why it's a longshot: First, to get across the Continental Divide and into the Colorado River, you'd need an uphill pipeline about 1,000 miles long, which is longer than any other drinking water . Posted on: February 7, 2023, 02:30h. Your support keeps our unbiased, nonprofit news free. Above, the droughts effects can be seen at a marina on June 29. People fish in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta's Elk Slough near Courtland, California, on Tuesday, March 24, 2020. Once again, Arizona hopes to import out-of-state water in face of crisis About 33% of vegetables and 66% of fruits and nuts are produced in California for consumption for the nation. Page Contact Information: Missouri Water Data Support Team Page Last Modified: 2023-03-04 08:46:14 EST Could a water pipeline from the Mississippi River to Arizona be a real solution? Known as one of the greenest commercial buildings in the world, since it opened its doors on Earth Day in 2013 the Bullitt Center has been setting a new standard for sustainable design. Its much easier to [propose] a shining pipeline from the Mississippi River that will never be built than it is to grapple with this really unpleasant truth.. Your California Privacy Rights / Privacy Policy. Newsom said the state must capture 100 million metric tons of carbon each year by 2045 about a quarter of what the state now emits annually. The idea's been dismissed for as long as it's. The idea of a pipeline transecting the continent is not a new idea. Still, he admits the road hasnt always been easy, and that victory is far from guaranteed. This summer, as seven states and Mexico push to meet a Tuesday deadline to agree on plans to shore up the Colorado River and itsshrivelingreservoirs, retired engineer Don Siefkes of San Leandro, California,wrote a letter to The Desert Sun with what he said was asolution to the West's water woes: build an aqueduct from the Old River Control Structure to Lake Powell, 1,489 miles west, to refill the Colorado River system with Mississippi River water. It's the lowest level since the lake was filled in the. Famiglietti saidit's time for a national water policy, not to figure out where to lay down hundreds of pipesbut to look comprehensively at the intertwining of agriculture and the lion's share ofwater it uses. 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. 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. Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. This is the country that built the Hoover Dam, and where Los Angeles suburbs were created by taking water from Owens Lake. From The Pueblo Chieftain (Chris Woodka): Hausler's idea is to bring water from the Mississippi just below its confluence with the Ohio River across Missouri and Kansas into Colorado. 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. No. Water is the new oil: Piping Lake Superior water West? 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. USGS 05587500 Mississippi River at Alton, IL "Yes, a Superior-Green River pipeline seems unrealistic, even impossible at first glance," Huttner wrote for Minnesota Public Radio. Grist is powered by WordPress VIP. He said wastewater reuse by area agencies has already swelled from 0.20% in the 1980sto 12% of regional water supply. Pipeline debate at center of California carbon capture plans I think the feasibility study is likely to tell us what we already know, he said, which is that there are a lot less expensive, less complicated options that we can be investing in right now, like reducing water use. Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window), Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window), Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window), Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window), FILE - Dredge Jadwin, a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers dredging vessel, powers south down the Mississippi River Wednesday, Oct. 19, 2022, past Commerce, Mo. All rights reserved. The project would require more than 300 new dams,canals, pipelines, tunnels, and pumping stations. Absolutely. Would itbe expensive? Just this past summer, the idea caused a firestorm of letters to the editor at a California newspaper. Proposed interstate water pipelines to California - Wikipedia "I think that societally, we want to be more flexible. Local hurdles include endangered species protections, wetlands protections, drinking water supply considerations and interstate shipping protections. Pipeline from Mississippi - Coyote Gulch 10/4/2021. I have dystopian nightmares aboutpipelines marching across the landscape, saidglobal water scarcity expert Jay Famiglietti. Experts we spoke with agreed the feat would be astronomical. Releasing more water downstream would come at the expense of upstream users . 1999-2023 Grist Magazine, Inc. All rights reserved. Flooding along the Mississippi River basin appears to have become more frequent in recent years, as has the [] "Sometimes there is a propensity in areas like Louisiana or the Southwest, where we've had such success in our engineering marvels, to engineer our way out of everything," Newman said. The diverted flow would require massive water tunnels, since a flow of 250,000. Then take it out of the southern tip of the aquifer in Southern Colorado. Twitter, Follow us on What if our droughts get worse? We have already introduced invasive species all over the continentzebra mussels, quagga mussels, grass carp, spiny water flea, lampreys, ru. California Departmentof Water Resourcesspokeswoman Maggie Maciasin an email: In considering the feasibility of a multi-state water conveyance infrastructure, the extraordinary costs that would be involved in planning, designing, permitting, constructing, and then maintaining and operating such a vast system of infrastructure would be significant obstacles when compared to the water supply benefits and flood water reduction benefits that it would provide. Heres how that affects Indigenous water rights, Salton Sea public health disaster gets a $250 million shot in the arm. CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa Waves of torrential rainfall drenched California into the new year. The Nevada Legislature is considering a bill that, if passed, would require restaurants to only provide water upon customer request. 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. Drop us a note at tips@coloradosun.com. Do we have the political will? Each year worsens our receipt of rain and snow. Drought Revives Mississippi River Pipe Dreams - The Waterways Journal At comment sessions on Colorado's plan, he said, long-distance pipelines wereconstantly suggested by the public. Widespread interest in the plan eventually fizzled. It might be in the trillions, but it probably does exist.. I find it interesting that households have to watch how much water theyare usingfor washing clothes, wateringlawns, washing cars,etc. Kaufman is the general manager of Leavenworth Water, which serves 50,000 people in a town that welcomed Lewis and Clark in 1804 during the duo's westward exploration. Not mentioned was the great grand-daddy of all schemes for re-allocating water, known as the North American Water and Power Authority Plan. Moreover, we need water in our dams for hydroelectric power as well as for drinking and irrigation, so we would power the Hoover, Glen Canyon and Parker dams. A 45-mile, $16 billion tunnel that would mark California's largest water project in nearly 50 years took a step closer to reality this week, with Gov. She points to her earlyworkfor comparison. The Colorado River is drying up. Pumping Mississippi River water west: solution or dream? "Should we move the water to where the food is grown, or is it maybe time to think about moving the food production to the water?" A drive up Interstate 5 shows how muchland has been fallowed due tolack of water. The federal Water Conservation Bureau gave approval Tuesday to piping 440 billion gallons of water per month to Arizona. And several approved diversions draw water from the Great Lakes. Senior citizens dont go to wave parks. The letter and others with an array of ideasgenerated hugeinterest from readers around the country and debate about whether the conceptsare technically feasible, politically possible orenvironmentally wise. 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. I can't even imagine what it would all cost. Too wacky? Moving water from flood to drought - Phys.org
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