Is Getting Great Lakes Water To The Southwest Just A Pipedream 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. 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. Donate today tohelp keep Grists site and newsletters free. The actual costs to build such a pipeline today would likely be orders of magnitude higher, thanks to inflation and inevitable construction snags. Lower Mississippi River flow means less sediment carried down to Louisiana, where its used for coastal restoration. It might be in the trillions, but it probably does exist.. of Engineers has turned back official requests for more water from the Missouri River to alleviate shortages on the Mississippi. But the loss of so much water from the. All rights reserved. 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. 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. In fact, she and others noted, many such ideas have been studied since the 1940s. 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. Leading environmental engineering firm to study alternative water Why can't California build a pipeline for water from other states States wish they wouldnt. An acre-foot is enough water to serve about two households for a year, so it could supply water to 150 million customers. 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. All that snow in Arizona is nice now but officials worry that it could create disastrous flooding and wildfire conditions. Imagine a Five foot diameter, half burried pipeline covered with photovoltaic cells on the upper half. Gavin Newsom reaffirming his support for the ambitious proposal. In any case, Utah rejected a permit for the project in 2020, saying it would jeopardize the states own water rights. My state, your state. Savor that while your lawns are dying. Sharing Mississippi River water with California would feed America Booming Utah metro wants to pipe in water from Lake Powell so it can Ive cowboyed enough in my life to know that you just got to stick to the trail, he said. The massive river, with tributaries from Montanato Ohio, is a national artery for shipping goodsout to sea. Grist is powered by WordPress VIP. He frames the pipeline as a complement to water-saving policies. One benefit would be flood control for the Eastern USA . "I think that societally, we want to be more flexible. Drought conditions plagued the region throughout 2022, for instance, prompting concerns over river navigation. Water use has gone down 40% per capita in recent years, said Coffey. Could a water pipeline from the Mississippi River to Arizona be a real 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. Absolutely. Stop letting excess water flow out to sea. The 2012 study didn't discount either option but. All three officials said the construction of a45-mile Delta Water Project tunnel to keep supply flowing from the middle of the state to thirsty cities in the south isvital. 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. The delta was tricky for barge traffic and shipping to navigate. Booming Utah metro wants to pipe in water from Lake Powell so it can No. 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. Page Contact Information: Missouri Water Data Support Team Page Last Modified: 2023-03-04 08:46:14 EST . The water will drain into the headwaters of the Colorado river. 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. 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. Each year worsens our receipt of rain and snow. We are already in a severe drought. Can you solve drought by piping water across the country? - New York Times Others said the costs of an Arizona-Mexico desalination plant would also likely prove infeasible. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson), Lawmakers targeting hospital facility fees, Whats Working: How a Denver nonprofit is expanding the benefits of work. Among its provisions, the law granted the states water infrastructure finance authority to investigate the feasibility of potential out-of-state water import agreements. The idea of diverting water from the Mississippi to the Colorado River basin is an excellent one, albeit also fantastically expensive. Each edition is filled with exclusive news, analysis and other behind-the-scenes information you wont find anywhere else. 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. 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. Their technical report, which hasnt been peer-reviewed. An earlier version of this story misidentified for which agency Jennifer Pitt was a technical adviser. The pipeline will end in the Rocky Mountain National park. Above, the droughts effects can be seen at a marina on June 29. Just pump water a few miles from the Mississippi near Des Moines into the Ogallala aquifer. 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. To Larsons knowledge, an in-depth feasibility study specifically on pumping Mississippi River water to the West hasnt been conducted yet. 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. Don't bother sending notices on conservation; they willbe ignored. States have [historically] been very successful in getting the federal government to pay for wasteful, unsustainable, large water projects, said Denise Fort, a professor emerita at the University of New Mexico who has studied water infrastructure. 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. Weve had a few blizzards along the way, and some gun battles, but it is what it is.. "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. No one wants to leave the western states without water, said Melissa Scanlan, a freshwater sciences professor at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Your support keeps our unbiased, nonprofit news free. "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 . Were doing everything we can to minimize impacts, maximize benefits, and this project has a lot of benevolence associated with it. In his vision of the Wests future, urban growth will necessitate more big infrastructure projects like his. You should worry, Hidden, illegal casinos are booming in L.A., with organized crime reaping big profits, Look up: The 32 most spectacular ceilings in Los Angeles, Elliott: Kings use their heads over hearts in trading Jonathan Quick, This fabled orchid breeder loves to chat just not about Trader Joes orchids. 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. 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. Most notably, the Mississippi River basin doesn't always have enough water to spare. To support our nonprofit environmental journalism, please consider disabling your ad-blocker to allow ads on Grist. The sharing of water would greatly contribute to California being able to feed the nation. "Arizona really, really wants oceanfront," she chuckled. As the West bakes, Utah forges ahead with water pipeline For as long as this idea has been proposed. You tellgolf courses how much water they can use, but one of thelargest wave basins in the world is acceptable? Last updated on: February 10, 2023, 10:54h. It is time to think outside the box of rain. To be talking about pipe dreams when thats not even feasible for decades, if at all Its a disservice, Scanlan said. Twitter, Follow us on 10/4/2021. Why are they so hard to catch? People need to focus on their realistic solutions.. Steps are being taken to address water issues in Buckeye. 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. 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. 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 son will never know what a six-gallon toilet looks like," she said. WATER WILL SOON be flowing from Lake Superior to the parched American Southwest. 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. Your California Privacy Rights / Privacy Policy. California uses 34 million acre-feet of water per year for agriculture. Column: Building a pipeline to the Mississippi? An idea as harebrained That's a big pipe: Retired engineer suggests aqueduct from Mississippi Photos of snowfall around northern Arizona. The memorial also suggests that the pipeline could be used as stormwater infrastructure to prevent regular flooding along the . Flooding along the Mississippi River basin appears to have become more frequent in recent years, as has the [] Whereas I understand water rights, but globalwarming has introduced new priorities. 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. Plus, the federal report found the water would be of much lower quality than other western water sources. "People are spoiled in the United States. "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. Local hurdles include endangered species protections, wetlands protections, drinking water supply considerations and interstate shipping protections. He said hes open to one but doesnt think its necessary. Pumping Mississippi River water west: solution or pipe dream? CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa Waves of torrential rainfall drenched California into the new year. To the editor: I'd like to ask if the reader from Chatsworth calling for the construction of a water pipeline from the Mississippi River to Colorado River reservoirs has ever been to . Parsons said theplanwould replenishthe upper Missouri and Mississippi Rivers during dry spells, increase hydropower along the Columbia Riverand stabilize the Great Lakes. Follow us on An "interstate water system" could fix the West's water woes "I don't think that drought, especially in the era of climate change, is something we can engineer our way out of.". 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. 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. 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. 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. Absolutely not," said Meena Westford, executive director of Colorado River resource policy for the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California. Can drought-stricken CA get water from Midwest via pipeline? 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. Most notably, the Mississippi River basin doesnt always have enough water to spare. These realities havent stopped the Wests would-be water barons from dreaming. 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. But interest spans deeper than that. Shipping Snow: Could Eastern Water Ease Western Drought? But we need to know a lot more about it than we currently do.. To be talking about pipe dreams, when thats not even feasible for decades, if at all Its a disservice, Scanlan said. But it's doable. Design and build by Upstatement. Since about 1983, Lake Mead has dropped in volume from full capacity at. Petition End Floods in America by Creating a Pipeline Network to Pipeline debate at center of California carbon capture plans Among its provisions, the law granted the states water infrastructure finance authority to investigate the feasibility of potential out-of-state water import agreements. 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. Any water diversion from the Mississippi to Arizona must be pumped about 6,000 feet up, over the Rockies. Yes. Take for instance the so-called Water Horse pipeline, a pet project of a Colorado investor and entrepreneur named Aaron Million. By Brittney J. Miller, The Cedar Rapids Gazette. 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. This aerial photo of Davenport, Iowa, shows Mississippi River floodwaters in May 2019. 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. Diverting that water also means spreading problems, like pollutants,. Terms of Use | Privacy Policy. Environmental writerMarc Reisner said the plan was one of "brutal magnificence" and "unprecedented destructiveness." Heres how that affects Indigenous water rights, Salton Sea public health disaster gets a $250 million shot in the arm. Has no one noticed how much hotter the desert is getting, not to mention the increase in fires in our area. 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. 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. 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. Latitude 3853'06", Longitude 9010'51" NAD27. 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. And several approved diversions draw water from the Great Lakes. Much of the sediment it was carrying was dropped in the slow moving water of the Delta. Most notably, the Mississippi River basin doesnt always have enough water to spare. Similar ideas have been suggested about Great Lakes water. About 60% of the region remains in some form of drought, continuing a decades-long spiral into water scarcity. 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? Pipe water from the plentiful Great Lakes to deserted towns in the West like Phoenix and Las Vegas. Diverting that water also means spreading problems, like pollutants, excessive nutrients, and invasive species. 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 water expertssaid it would likely take at least 30 years to clear legal hurdles to such a plan. Dothey pay extra for using our water? As part of our commitment to sustainability, in 2021 Grist moved its office headquarters to the Bullitt Center in Seattles vibrant Capitol Hill neighborhood. If you dont have enough of it, go find more. Could massive water pipelines solve the West's drought crisis? | Grist Politics are an even bigger obstacle for making multi-state pipelines a reality. Widespread interest in the plan eventually fizzled. 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. Stories of similar projects often share the same ending, from proposals in Iowa and Minnesota to those between Canada and the United States. So come on out for the plastic Marilyn on our dashboard, and stay for the stupendous waste of water, electricity and clean air. In the meantime, researchers encourage more feasible and sustainable options, including better water conservation, water recycling, and less agricultural reliance. Here are 2 reasons why the drought in California won't open the door to 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. A water pipeline from the Mississippi River to the west? - Los Angeles Still, its physically possible. Would itbe expensive? 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 . Drought conditions plagued the region throughout 2022, prompting concerns over river navigation. Such major infrastructure is an absolute necessity, said Tom Buschatzke, director of the Arizona Department of Water Resources, who said he represents the governor on all things Colorado River.. On the heels of Arizonas 2021 push for a pipeline feasibility study, former Arizona Gov. Mississippi River drought will impact your grocery bill. California uses 34 million acre-feet of water per year for agriculture. 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. 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. But there are tons of things that can be done but arent ever done.. The trooper inside suffered minor injuries. YouTube, Follow us on 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. 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. The project would require more than 300 new dams,canals, pipelines, tunnels, and pumping stations, bans large waterexportsoutside of the area. But Denver officials have expressed skepticism,because Missouri or Mississippi water isof inferior quality to pure mountain water. [1] Is sending Mississippi water to West feasible? Experts weigh in One proposed solution to the Colorado River Basin's water scarcity crisis has come up again and again: large-scale river diversions, including pumping Mississippi River water to the parched West . The Unaffiliated is our twice-weekly newsletter on Colorado politics and policy. Under the analyzed scenario, water would be conveyed to Colorados Front Range and areas of New Mexico to help fulfill water needs. Colorado River crisis: Can water be piped from Mississippi, Missouri? after the growth in California . The idea of diverting water from the Mississippi to the Colorado River basin is an excellent one, albeit also fantastically expensive. The ongoing drought in California has hit its fourth year. Drought conditions plagued the region throughout 2022, for instance, prompting concerns over river navigation. The . Why hasn't the U.S. built an aqueduct or pipeline to divert - Quora 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. Proposed interstate water pipelines to California - Wikipedia
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