Drought conditions plagued the region throughout 2022, prompting concerns over river navigation. Its largestdam would be 1,700 feet tall, more than twice the height of Hoover Dam. Terms of Use | Privacy Policy. Local hurdles include endangered species protections, wetlands protections, drinking water supply considerations and interstate shipping protections. Martinez, an engineer who oversaw the construction of pipelines in the Sierra Nevada for Southern California Edison, agrees a 1,500-mile pipeline from the Mississippicould physically be built. Booming Utah metro wants to pipe in water from Lake Powell so it can "I'm an optimist," said Coffey, who said local conservation is key. "I don't think that drought, especially in the era of climate change, is something we can engineer our way out of.". 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. For him, thatincludessetting aside at leastportions of the so-called "Law of the River," a complicated, century-old set of legal agreements that guarantees farmers in Southern California the largest share of water. The project would require more than 300 new dams,canals, pipelines, tunnels, and pumping stations, bans large waterexportsoutside of the area. The trooper inside suffered minor injuries. Asked what might be the requirements and constraints of a pipeline from the Mississippi River to the Colorado River, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers spokesman Gene Pawliksaid, Since (the Army Corps) has not done a formal study related to the use of pipelines to move water between watersheds, we cannot speculate on the details or cost of such projects.. The state should do everything possible to push conservation, but thats not going to cure the issue, he told Grist. Take that, Lake Mead. Even at its cheapest, the project would cost about twice as much per acre-foot of water delivered than other solutions like water conservation and reuse. Facebook, Follow us on Almost two decades ago, when Million was working on a masters thesis, he happened upon a map that showed the Green River making a brief detour into Colorado on its way through Utah. 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. Heproposed usingnuclear explosionsto excavate the system's trenches and underground water storage reservoirs. 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. But Denver officials have expressed skepticism,because Missouri or Mississippi water isof inferior quality to pure mountain water. China, unlike the US, is unencumbered by NEPA, water rights and democratic processes in general. For instance, a Kansas groundwater management agency received a permit last year to truck 6,000 gallons of Missouri River water into Kansas and Colorado in hopes of recharging an aquifer. Palm Springs newspaper readers' drought fix: Siphon Mississippi 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. Gavin Newsom reaffirming his support for the ambitious proposal. Pipelines usually consist of sections of pipe made of . Can drought-stricken CA get water from Midwest via pipeline? No. Pumping Mississippi River water west: solution or dream? Why not begin a grand national infrastructure project of building a water pipeline from those flooded states to the Southwest? Most notably, the Mississippi River basin doesnt always have enough water to spare. Not mentioned was the great grand-daddy of all schemes for re-allocating water, known as the North American Water and Power Authority Plan. My water, your water. And several approved diversions draw water from the Great Lakes. 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. Let's be really clear here. The distance between Albuquerque, for example, and the Mississippi River perhaps the closest hypothetical starting point for such a pipeline is about 1,000 miles, crossing at least three. LAS VEGAS -- Lake Mead has nearly set a new record when its water level measured at 1081.10 feet, according to the Bureau of Reclamation. 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. The total projected cost of the plan in 1975 was $100 billion or nearly $570billion in today's dollars,comparable to theInterstate Highway System. 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. In it, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and Idaho Attorney General Ral Labrador contend that a new interpretation of a Clean Water Act rule is too vague, oversteps the bounds of federal authority and puts the liberties of states and private property owners at risk. Famiglietti said as long as urban areas in the West don't persist in untrammeled growth, they have enough supply for the immediate future, with the ability to rip out lawns, capture stormwater runoff in local reservoirs, do municipal audits to fix leaks and other tools. Just this past summer, the idea caused a firestorm of letters to the editor at a California newspaper. If you dont have enough of it, go find more. Telling stories that matter in a dynamic, evolving state. You tellgolf courses how much water they can use, but one of thelargest wave basins in the world is acceptable? To Larsons knowledge, an in-depth feasibility study specifically on pumping Mississippi River water to the West hasnt been conducted yet. Each state along the Colorado River basin had the rights to a certain quantity of river water, divided among major users like farms and cities, and the projects were designed to help the states realize those abstract rights. Water use has gone down 40% per capita in recent years, said Coffey. Pitt, who was a technical adviser on Reclamation's2012 report,decried ceaselesspipeline proposals. Nevertheless, Million hasnt given up, and hes currently working to secure permitting for the fourth iteration of the project. Your support keeps our unbiased, nonprofit news free. The pipeline would help it tap another 86,000 acre-feet of . Either way, most of these projects stand little chance of becoming reality theyre ideas from a bygone era, one that has more in common with the world of Chinatown than the parched west of the present. USGS 05587500 Mississippi River at Alton, IL. The project entails the construction of thousands of miles of pipelines and canals, 427 water treatment facilities, countless pumping facilities, and the displacement of 300,000 residents. "To my mind, the overriding fatal flaw for large import schemes is the time required to become operational. And contrary to Siefkes' claims, experts said, the silty river flows provide sediment critical to shore up the rapidly disappearing Louisiana coast andbarrier islands chewed to bits by hurricanes and sea rise. The Arizona state legislature allocated seed money toward a study of a thousand-mile pipeline that would do exactly this last year, and the states top water official says hes spoken to officials in Kansas about participating in the project. The pipeline will end in the Rocky Mountain National park. Local hurdles include endangered species protections, wetlands protections, drinking water supply considerations and interstate shipping protections. Drought looms over midterm elections in the arid West, From lab to market, bio-based products are gaining momentum, The hazards of gas stoves were flagged by the industry and hidden 50 years ago, How Alaskas coastal communities are racing against erosion, Construction begins on controversial lithium mine in Nevada. It is time to think outside the box of rain. By the way, none of this includes the incredible carbon footprints about to be stomped on the environment. Just this past summer, the idea caused a firestorm of letters to the editor at a California newspaper. The idea of diverting water from the Mississippi to the Colorado River basin is an excellent one, albeit also fantastically expensive. "Nebraska wants to build a canal to pull water from the SouthPlatte River in Colorado, and downstream, Colorado wants to take water from the Missouri River and pull it back across Nebraska. Would itbe expensive? Then take it out of the southern tip of the aquifer in Southern Colorado. Yet their persistence in the public sphere illustrates the growing desperation of Western states to dig themselves out of droughts. The water would be drained via a 36 inch pipe already installed four miles west of Sugarloaf Mountain outside Marquette. 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. The snowbirds commonly stay here for at least six months. No one wants to leave the western states without water, said Melissa Scanlan, a freshwater sciences professor at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. The idea of drinking even heavily treated liquid wastemay seem unpalatable, but Westfordthinks people will adapt. 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. Simulation of monthly mean and monthly base flow of streamflow using As a resident of Wisconsin, a state that borders the (Mississippi) river, let me say: This is never gonna happen, wrote Margaret Melville of Cedarburg, Wisconsin. Each year . Developed in 1964 by engineer Ralph Parsons and his Pasadena-basedParsons Corporation,the plan would provide 75million acre-feet of water to arid areas inCanada, the United States and Mexico. I think it would be foolhardy to dismiss it as not feasible, said Richard Rood, professor of Climate and Space Sciences and Engineering at the University of Michigan. Reader support helps sustain our work. 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. A water pipeline from the Mississippi River to the west? - Los Angeles Guess Who Proposed the Missouri River Pipeline in the Federal Pipeline from the Mississippi River to Colorado? - Coyote Gulch and Renstrom says that unless Utah builds a long-promised pipeline to pump water 140 miles from Lake . 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, an Arizona State University professor of water law. Million told Grist that hes secured partial funding for the project from multiple banks and the infrastructure company MasTec, but it remains unclear how much he would have to charge to make the project profitable. 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. Could a water pipeline from the Mississippi River to Arizona be a real solution? Scientists estimate a football field's worth of Louisiana coast is lost every 60 to 90 minutes. Physically, some could be achieved. 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. That project, which also faces heavy headwinds from environmentalists, wouldcost an estimated $12 billion. Butbig water infrastructure projects aren't just of interest to the general public. Once again, Arizona hopes to import out-of-state water in face of crisis Tribes in the Colorado River Basin are fighting for their water. 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. She points to her earlyworkfor comparison. Its possible that the situation gets so dire that there is an amount of money out there that could overcome all of these obstacles, Larson said. "Mexico has said it didn't although there has been a recent change ingovernment.". Arizona and Nevada residents must curb their use of water from the Colorado River, and California could be next. PROVISIONAL DATA SUBJECT TO REVISION. Diverting that water also means spreading problems, like pollutants,. Letters to the Editor: Really, Californians? Another call for a water 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. Most notably, the Mississippi River basin doesnt always have enough water to spare. Opinion: How has American healthcare gone so wrong? Buying land to secure water rights would also cost a chunk of cash, which leads to an even larger obstacle for such proposals: the legal and political hoops. Why can't California build a pipeline for water from other states Anyone who thinks we can drain the aquifer and survive is grossly misinformed. Among its provisions, the law granted the states water infrastructure finance authority to investigate the feasibility of potential out-of-state water import agreements. Drainage area 171,500 square miles . But moving water from one drought-impacted area to another is not a solution.. 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. 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. He said hes open to one but doesnt think its necessary. By George Skelton Capitol Journal Columnist Aug. 30, 2021 5 AM PT SACRAMENTO The award for dumbest idea of the recall election goes to the rookie Democrat who proposed building a water. "I think that societally, we want to be more flexible. A water pipeline like Millions would help, if he could wave a magic wand and build it, but Fort believes the present scramble over the Colorado River will likely make such projects impossible to realize. Do we have the political will? Canadian water for California's drought? - High Country News Pipeline debate at center of California carbon capture plans . Thats not to mention the housing development again, for the very wealthy with its own lagoon. 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. Pipe water from the plentiful Great Lakes to deserted towns in the West like Phoenix and Las Vegas. 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. Donate today to keep our climate news free. Doug Ducey signed legislation this past July that invested $1.2 billion to fund projects that conserve water and bring more into the state. 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. "People are spoiled in the United States. We are already in a severe drought. We need to protect our water supply, at allcosts, and forgo our financialgains. of Engineers has turned back official requests for more water from the Missouri River to alleviate shortages on the Mississippi. Water Pipeline of America - Colorado-Mississippi Pipeline - Zamboanga CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa Waves of torrential rainfall drenched California into the new year. Design and build by Upstatement. A Canadian entrepreneur's plan published in 1991 diverted water from eastern British Columbia to the Columbia River, then envisioned a 300-mile pipeline from the river through Oregon to a reservoir near Alturas, California. Yet some smaller-scale projects have become reality. 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. The federal Water Conservation Bureau gave approval Tuesday to piping 440 billion gallons of water per month to Arizona. Grab hydrogen and oxygen from the air and make artificialrain. The most obvious problem with this proposal is its mind-boggling cost. The state is expected to lose 10% of its water over the next two decades, reports the . Can you solve drought by piping water across the country? - New York Times 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. YouTube star and Democratic political novice Kevin Paffrath proposed the Mississippi River pipeline last week during a debate among candidates seeking to replace Gov. For one, theres no longer enough unclaimed water to make most pipeline projects cost-effective. About 33% of vegetables and 66% of fruits and nuts are produced in California for consumption for the nation. "Yes, a Superior-Green River pipeline seems unrealistic, even impossible at first glance," Huttner wrote for Minnesota Public Radio. It dawned on Million that Colorado had unclaimed rights to water from the Green, since the river was part of the Colorado River system, and he devised a plan to build a pipeline that would pump water around the Rockies to the city of Fort Collins, where he lives. She and others worked to persuade reluctant consumers, builders and policymakers to ditchwidely usedsix-gallon flush toilets in favor of perfectly effective two-gallon versions. (Unrecognizable. Lake Mead, a lifeline for water in Los Angeles and the West, tips toward crisis, July 11). She can be reached at jwilson@gannett.com or @janetwilson66 on Twitter. Much of the sediment it was carrying was dropped in the slow moving water of the Delta. Too wacky? Moving water from flood to drought - Phys.org Amid a major drought in the Western U.S., a proposed solution comes up repeatedly: large-scale river diversions, including pumping Mississippi River water to parched states. Inspired by Mao Zedong, who in 1952 observed, "The south has plenty of water and the north lacks it, so if possible why not borrow some?" The memorial is seeking Mississippi River water as a solution to ongoing shortages on the Colorado River as water levels reach historic lows in the two largest reservoirs on the river, Lake Powell and Lake Mead. Do they thank us for using our water? Is this a goo. Is pumping Mississippi River water west a solution or pipe dream? Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. Run a pipeline a few hundred miles to the San Juan River in Pagosa Springs CO which drains into Lake Powell and you are good to go. It willtake liquid sewage, treat it, and either percolate it back into area groundwater, or, if California law is changed,pipe itto water tanks across the basin. But it's doable. He said the most pragmatic approach would only pump Midwest water to the metro Denver area, to substitute forimports to the Front Range on the east side of the Rockies, avoiding "staggering" costs to pump water over the Continental Divide. For as long as this idea has been proposed. Theyre all such hypocrites. To support our nonprofit environmental journalism, please consider disabling your ad-blocker to allow ads on Grist. It is a minimum of 1,067 miles from the Mississippi River to the Colorado River if it could be built in a fairly straight line (St. Louis to Grand Junction, Colorado, based on the route of. They includegawky pink roseate spoonbills, tiny bright yellow warblers, known as swamp candles because of their bright glow in the humid, green woods, and more. Fort, the University of New Mexico professor, worries that the bigwigs who throw their energy behind large capital projects may be neglecting other, more practical options. Is Getting Great Lakes Water To The Southwest Just A Pipedream Each year worsens our receipt of rain and snow. The plan would divert water from the Missouri River which normally flows into the Mississippi River and out to the Gulf of Mexico through an enormous pipeline slicing some 600 miles (970 . But the loss of so much water from the. What did Disney actually lose from its Florida battle with DeSantis? Posted on: February 7, 2023, 02:30h. It's 2011 and the technology exists to build a series of water pipelines across the US, to channel flood water to holding tanks in other areas, and to supply water to drought stricken areas. Just this past summer, the idea caused a firestorm of letters to the editor at a California newspaper. Why hasn't the U.S. built an aqueduct or pipeline to divert - Quora Formal large-scale water importation proposals have existed in the United States since at least the 1960s, when an American company devised the North American Water and Power Alliance to redistribute Alaskan water across the continent using reservoirs and canals. The delta was tricky for barge traffic and shipping to navigate. 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. Stories of similar projects often share the same ending, from proposals in Iowa and Minnesota to those between Canada and the United States. 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.. 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. Why are they so hard to catch? Arizona Legislators Want to Ship Mississippi River - Planetizen CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (AP) Waves of torrential rainfall drenched California into the new year. While the much-needed water has improved conditions in the parched West, experts warn against claiming victory. The federal Bureau of Reclamation has already looked at piping 600,000 acre-feet of water a year from either the Missouri or the Mississippi. "We're going to start to see these reservoirs, which nine of them are already filled from the rain water, so then you add on snow melt and we may have some problems with that as far as flooding . Despite the recent defeat of a major plant in Huntington Beach, after the California Coastal Commission said it was too environmentally damaging, "ocean desalination can't be off the table," said Coffey. If this gets any traction at all, people in the flyover states of the Missouri River basin probably will scream, one water official told the New York Times when the project first received attention. 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. Weve had a few blizzards along the way, and some gun battles, but it is what it is.. On the heels of Arizonas 2021 push for a pipeline feasibility study, former Arizona Gov. Any water diversion from the Mississippi to Arizona must be pumped about 6,000 feet up, over the Rockies. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, prodded by members of Congressfrom western states, studied the massive proposal.
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