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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 . 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 state is expected to lose 10% of its water over the next two decades, reports the . The price tag for construction would add to this hefty bill, along with the costs of powering the equipment needed to pump the water over the Western Continental Divide. Water thieves abound in dry California. 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. On the heels of Arizonas 2021 push for a pipeline feasibility study, former Arizona Gov. Lake Mead is at its lowest level since it was filled 85 years ago. Flooding along the Mississippi River basin appears to have become more frequent in recent years, as has the [] The federal Water Conservation Bureau gave approval Tuesday to piping 440 billion gallons of water per month to Arizona. The Mississippi used to flow through a delta full of bayous, shifting sad bars, And islets. About 33% of vegetables and 66% of fruits and nuts are produced in California for consumption for the nation. Theyre all such hypocrites. 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. And several approved diversions draw water from the Great Lakes. Trans-national pipelines would also impact ecological resources. 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. My state, your state. The diverted flow would require massive water tunnels, since a flow of 250,000. And there are several approved diversions that draw water from the Great Lakes. And, here in the land of the midnight 90-degree temperatures, we are building our very own ice hockey rink, because there is more than enough electricity to freeze that body of water and keep the arena cold enough to keep the ice from melting. All rights reserved. Stories of similar projects often share the same ending, from proposals in Iowa and Minnesota to those between Canada and the United States. All that snow in Arizona is nice now but officials worry that it could create disastrous flooding and wildfire conditions. In 1982,efforts were made to revive the plan by a Parsons company engineer, and the Lyndon Larouche movement supported itas recently as 2010. Why not begin a grand national infrastructure project of building a water pipeline from those flooded states to the Southwest? Widespread interest in the plan eventually fizzled. On Tuesday, the Scottsdale City Council agreed on a proposal to treat water and deliver it to the community for three years. Pipe water from the plentiful Great Lakes to deserted towns in the West like Phoenix and Las Vegas. From winter lettuce in grocery stores to the golf courses of the Sun Belt, the Wests explosive growth over the past century rests on aqueducts, canals and drainage systems. Diverting that water also means spreading problems, like pollutants,. 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. Your support keeps our unbiased, nonprofit news free. At one point, activists who opposed the project erected three large billboards warning about the high cost and potential consequences, such as the possibility that drawing down the Green River could harm the rivers fish populations. The Nevada Legislature is considering a bill that, if passed, would require restaurants to only provide water upon customer request. Snowpacks in the Sierra Nevada Mountains have swelled to more than 200% their normal size, and snowfall across the rest of the Colorado River Basin is trending above average, too. [1] Most recently, in 2012, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation produced a report laying out a potentially grim future for the Colorado River, and had experts evaluate 14 big ideas commonly touted as potential solutions. We need to protect our water supply, at allcosts, and forgo our financialgains. The basic idea is to take water from the Mississippi River, pump it a thousand miles west, and dump it into the overtaxed Colorado River, which provides water for millions of Arizona residents but has reached historically low levels as its reservoirs dry up. You couldbuild a pipeline from the Mississippi or Missouri Rivers. 10/4/2021. 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. He said hes open to one but doesnt think its necessary. As western states grew over the twentieth century, the federal government helped them build several massive water diversion projects that would hydrate their growing urban populations: The Central Arizona Project aqueduct brought water from the Colorado River to Phoenix, for instance, and the Big Thompson system piped water across the Colorado Rockies to Denver. 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. The ongoing drought in California has hit its fourth year. document.getElementById( "ak_js_2" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); This story is part of the Grist seriesParched, an in-depth look at how climate change-fueled drought is reshaping communities, economies, and ecosystems. Noting about 4.5 million gallons per second of Mississippi River flow past the Old River Control Structure in Louisiana, the letter writer explains diverting 250,000 gallons per second would. Among its provisions, the law granted the states water infrastructure finance authority to investigate the feasibility of potential out-of-state water import agreements. 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. Absolutely. Grab hydrogen and oxygen from the air and make artificialrain. The massive river, with tributaries from Montanato Ohio, is a national artery for shipping goodsout to sea. Today, any water pipeline could cost from $10 billion to $20 billion with another $30 billion in improvements just to get the water to thirsty people and farms. It is time to think outside the box of rain. When that happens, it wont be just tourists and recreational boaters who will suffer. 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. Heproposed usingnuclear explosionsto excavate the system's trenches and underground water storage reservoirs. I find it interesting that households have to watch how much water theyare usingfor washing clothes, wateringlawns, washing cars,etc. Drought conditions plagued the region throughout 2022, for instance, prompting concerns over river navigation. A Kansas groundwater management agency, for instance, received a permit last year to truck 6,000 gallons of Missouri River water into Kansas and Colorado in hopes of recharging an aquifer. A man from Minnesota wrote to the Palm Springs Desert Sun earlier this month and expressed similar sentiments, warning, If California comes for Midwest water, we have plenty of dynamite.. "This sounds outlandish, but we have a massive problem," Paffrath said. If we had a big pipeline from Lake Sakakawea, we wouldn't just dump it into Lake Powell. To be talking about pipe dreams when thats not even feasible for decades, if at all Its a disservice, Scanlan said. To the editor: While theres no question that the receding waters of Lake Mead are having a detrimental effect on recreation and tourism, the real looming catastrophe is that if the water level of the nations largest reservoir continues to fall and hits a certain level, the hydroeclectic power plant at Hoover Dam will have to shut down. The concepts fell into a few large categories: pipe Mississippi or Missouri River water to the eastern side of the Rockies or to Lake Powell on the Arizona-Utah border, bring icebergs in. "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. 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. He said hes open to one but doesnt think its necessary. 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? But we need to know a lot more about it than we currently do.. Proponents of these projects argue that they could stabilize western cities for decades to come, connecting populations with unclaimed water rights. And biologists andenvironmental attorneys saidNew Orleans and the Louisiana coast, along with the interior swamplands, need every drop of muddy Mississippi water. 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. An acre-foot is enough water to serve about two households for a year, so it could supply water to 150 million customers. In the 20 years since he first had the idea, Million has suffered a string of regulatory and legal defeats at the hands of state and federal agencies, becoming a kind of bogeyman for conservationists in the process. Savor that while your lawns are dying. "Recently I have noticed several letters to the editor in your publication that promoted taking water from the Mississippi River or the Great Lakes and diverting it to California via pipeline or . Letters to the Editor: Antigovernment ideology isnt working for snowed-in mountain towns, Letters to the Editor: Ignore Marjorie Taylor Greene? 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. Photos of snowfall around northern Arizona. The elephant in the room, according to Fort, is agriculture, which accounts for more than 80 percent of water withdrawals from the Colorado River. People fish in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta's Elk Slough near Courtland, California, on Tuesday, March 24, 2020. Each year . 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. 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 if he's. The idea of diverting water from the Mississippi to the Colorado River basin is an excellent one, albeit also fantastically expensive. 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. 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. Its one of dozens of letters the paperhas received proposing or vehemently opposing schemes to fix the crashing Colorado River system, which provides water to nearly 40 million people and farms in seven western states. These canals and pipelines are . No one wants to leave the western states without water, said Melissa Scanlan, a freshwater sciences professor at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. No. People need to focus on their realistic solutions.. 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. But interest spans deeper than that. Grist is powered by WordPress VIP. But pipelines and other big ideaswill always attract interest, hydrology experts said, because they falsely promise an innovative, easy way out. 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. Improved simulations of streamflow and base flow for selected sites within and adjacent to the Mississippi River Alluvial Plain area are important for modeling groundwater flow because surface-water flows have a substantial effect on groundwater levels. Politics are an even bigger obstacle for making multi-state pipelines a reality. and Renstrom says that unless Utah builds a long-promised pipeline to pump water 140 miles from Lake . Most notably, the Mississippi River basin doesnt always have enough water to spare. 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. Still, its physically possible. It's the lowest level since the lake was filled in the. Studies and modern-day engineering have proven that such projects are possible but require decades of construction and billions of dollars. But interest spans deeper than that. Millions in the Southwest will literally be left in the dark and blistering heat when theres no longer enough water behind the dam to power the giant electricity-producing turbines. 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. WATER WILL SOON be flowing from Lake Superior to the parched American Southwest. Makes me wonder how this got this far, whose interests are being served and who's benefiting. We've had relatively rich resources for so long,we've never really had to deal withthis before, andwe don't want to change.". A drive up Interstate 5 shows how muchland has been fallowed due tolack of water. Nevertheless, Million hasnt given up, and hes currently working to secure permitting for the fourth iteration of the project. 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. Certainly not the surrounding communities. 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. About 33% of vegetables and 66% of fruits and nuts are produced in California for consumption for the nation. Whereas I understand water rights, but globalwarming has introduced new priorities. But moving water from one drought-impacted area to another is not a solution.. In fact, she and others noted, many such ideas have been studied since the 1940s. The Associated Press Climate team contributed images and page design. of Engineers has turned back official requests for more water from the Missouri River to alleviate shortages on the Mississippi. YouTube, Follow us on The . 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. Some plans call for a connection to. Infrastructure is one of the few ways well turn things around to assure that theres some supply.. But, he said, the days of mega-pipelines in the U.S. are likely over due to lack of environmental and political will. Drought conditions plagued the region throughout 2022, prompting concerns over river navigation. The main pipeline would span about 1,000 miles from Jackson, Miss., along the southern borders of Colorado and Utah to Lake Powell, at an elevation of about 3,700 feet. As an engineer, I can guarantee you that it is doable, Viadero said. He frames the pipeline as a complement to water-saving policies. "Yes, a Superior-Green River pipeline seems unrealistic, even impossible at first glance," Huttner wrote for Minnesota Public Radio. I have dystopian nightmares aboutpipelines marching across the landscape, saidglobal water scarcity expert Jay Famiglietti. Doug Ducey signed legislation this past July that invested $1.2 billion to fund projects that conserve water and bring more into the state. 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. The pipeline would help it tap another 86,000 acre-feet of . Stories of similar projects often share the same ending, from proposals in Iowa and Minnesota to those between Canada and the United States. Lower Mississippi River flow means less sediment carried down to Louisiana, where it's used for coastal restoration. Instagram, Follow us on 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. "Mexico has said it didn't although there has been a recent change ingovernment.". Experts we spoke with agreed the feat would be astronomical. Imagine a Five foot diameter, half burried pipeline covered with photovoltaic cells on the upper half. But the loss of so much water from the. It was the Bureau of Reclamation. . Lower Mississippi River flow means less sediment carried down to Louisiana, where its used for coastal restoration. Janet Wilson is senior environment reporter for The Desert Sun, and co-authors USA Today'sClimate Point newsletter. Those will require sacrifices, no doubt but not as many as building a giant pipeline would require, experts said.