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. Even if the government could clear these hurdles, the odds that Midwestern states would just let their water go are slim. . Water from these and other large rivers pour. Ultimately the rising environmental movement squelched it the project woulddestroyvast wildlife habitats in Canada and the American West,submergewild rivers in Idaho and Montana,and requirethe relocation of hundreds of thousands of people. All that snow in Arizona is nice now but officials worry that it could create disastrous flooding and wildfire conditions. 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. Arizonas main active management areas are in Maricopa, Pinal, Pima, and Santa Cruz counties, leaving much of rural Arizona water use unregulated. Power from its hydroelectric dams would boost U.S. electricity supplies. 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. But there are tons of things that can be done but arent ever done..
Simulation of monthly mean and monthly base flow of streamflow using 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. We have to conserve water, butnota ridiculous wave parkthat willprobably go bankrupt? 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. The snowbirds commonly stay here for at least six months. He said hes open to one but doesnt think its necessary. Even smaller projects stand to be derailed by similar hiccups. 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.
Mississippi River to Colorado River Solar Powered Pipeline - Halfbakery 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. 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. Butbig water infrastructure projects aren't just of interest to the general public. There are at least half a dozen major water pipeline projects under consideration throughout the region, ranging from ambitious to outlandish.
Arizona needs water. But a Mississippi pipeline is a pipe dream 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. Take for instance the so-called Water Horse pipeline, a pet project of a Colorado investor and entrepreneur named Aaron Million. Experts say those will require sacrifices but not as many as building a giant pipeline would require. Well, kind of, Letters to the Editor: Shasta County dumps Dominion voting machines at its own peril, Editorial: Bay Area making climate change history by phasing out sales of gas furnaces and water heaters, Column: Mike Lindell is helping a California county dump voting machines. Local hurdles include endangered species protections, wetlands protections, drinking water supply considerations and interstate shipping protections. There are no easy fixes to a West that has grown and has allocated all of its water theres no silver bullet, she said. 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. Facebook, Follow us on A recent edition of The Desert Sun had twoletters objectingto piping water from the Mississippi River to the Colorado River, and on to California. Gavin Newsom also touted desalination in adrought resilience plan he announcedlast week, though in brackish inland areas. . On Tuesday, the Scottsdale City Council agreed on a proposal to treat water and deliver it to the community for three years. Widespread interest in the plan eventually fizzled. I have dystopian nightmares aboutpipelines marching across the landscape, saidglobal water scarcity expert Jay Famiglietti.
Great Lakes water piped to Southwest 'our future,' says NASA scientist Each year .
Shipping Snow: Could Eastern Water Ease Western Drought? Hydrologic Unit Code 07110009. 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. Pipe water from the plentiful Great Lakes to deserted towns in the West like Phoenix and Las Vegas. 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. For one, theres no longer enough unclaimed water to make most pipeline projects cost-effective.
Arizona Legislators Want to Ship Mississippi River - Planetizen In fact, she and others noted, many such ideas have been studied since the 1940s. 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. 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. The bigger obstacles are fiscal, legal, environmentaland most of all, political. What did Disney actually lose from its Florida battle with DeSantis? 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. 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. 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 most obvious problem with this proposal is its mind-boggling cost. You could do it.".
Pipeline debate at center of California carbon capture plans Drought conditions plagued the region throughout 2022, for instance, prompting concerns over river navigation. Last updated on: February 10, 2023, 10:54h.
Pumping Mississippi River water west: solution or dream? But the loss of so much water from the. Don't bother sending notices on conservation; they willbe ignored. No one wants to leave the western states without water, said Melissa Scanlan, a freshwater sciences professor at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. 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. 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. 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. Latitude 3853'06", Longitude 9010'51" NAD27. The Arizona Legislature wants the federal government to study the feasibility of constructing a pipeline . But interest spans deeper than that. Most notably, the Mississippi River basin doesn't always have enough water to spare. It boggles the mind. Weve had a few blizzards along the way, and some gun battles, but it is what it is.. 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. 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. Why are they so hard to catch? Savor that while your lawns are dying. Here are some facts to put perspective to several of the. The elephant in the room, according to Fort, is agriculture, which accounts for more than 80 percent of water withdrawals from the Colorado River. Scientists estimate a football field's worth of Louisiana coast is lost every 60 to 90 minutes. 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. Then take it out of the southern tip of the aquifer in Southern Colorado. Here in the scorching Coachella Valley, local governments have approved construction of four surf resorts for the very wealthy. A drive up Interstate 5 shows how muchland has been fallowed due tolack of water. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); A nonprofit, independent media organization dedicated to telling stories of climate solutions and a just future. In any case, Utah rejected a permit for the project in 2020, saying it would jeopardize the states own water rights. 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. Pipelines usually consist of sections of pipe made of . Your support keeps our unbiased, nonprofit news free. We've had relatively rich resources for so long,we've never really had to deal withthis before, andwe don't want to change.". The state should do everything possible to push conservation, but thats not going to cure the issue, he told Grist. Their technical report, which hasnt been peer-reviewed. 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.
Canadian water for California's drought? - High Country News 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 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. Infrastructure is one of the few ways well turn things around to assure that theres some supply.. 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. Certainly not the surrounding communities. 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. Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information, Unrecognizable. Lake Mead, a lifeline for water in Los Angeles and the West, tips toward crisis. As apractical matter, Famiglietti, a Universityof Saskatchewan hydrology professor who tracks water basins worldwide via NASA satellite data, saidMississippi River states also experiencedry spells, and the watershed, the fourth largest in the world, also ebbs and flows. Drainage area 171,500 square miles . All rights reserved. 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 .
Why hasn't the U.S. built an aqueduct or pipeline to divert - Quora 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. Available data for this site Madison County, Illinois. The California Aqueduct carries about 13,000 cubic feet per second through the Central Valley; the Colorado River atLees Ferry runs about 7,000 to 14,000 cfs; the Mississippi at Vicksburg varies from 400,000 to 1.2 million cfs. The water would be drained via a 36 inch pipe already installed four miles west of Sugarloaf Mountain outside Marquette. Why not begin a grand national infrastructure project of building a water pipeline from those flooded states to the Southwest? Water use has gone down 40% per capita in recent years, said Coffey.
What states in the Southwest have failed to do is curtail growth and agriculture that is, of course, water-driven. Million sued, and he says he expects a ruling this year. 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. 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.
Leading environmental engineering firm to study alternative water The federal Water Conservation Bureau gave approval Tuesday to piping 440 billion gallons of water per month to Arizona. But Westford and her colleague Brad Coffey, water resources manager,said desalination is needed in the Golden State. Million himself, though, is confident that his pipeline will get built, and that it will ensure Fort Collins future. Talk about a job-creating infrastructure project, which would rivalthe tremendous civilengineering feats our country used to be noted for.
Colorado River crisis: Can water be piped from Mississippi, Missouri? Letters to the Editor: Really, Californians? Another call for a water In the meantime, researchers encourage more feasible and sustainable options, including better water conservation, water recycling, and less agricultural reliance. "I'm an optimist," said Coffey, who said local conservation is key. 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.
USGS 05587500 Mississippi River at Alton, IL Gavin Newsom reaffirming his support for the ambitious proposal. and Renstrom says that unless Utah builds a long-promised pipeline to pump water 140 miles from Lake . 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.
USGS Surface Water for USA: Streamflow Measurements The idea's been dismissed for as long as it's. 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. Some plans call for a connection to. Arizona and Nevada residents must curb their use of water from the Colorado River, and California could be next. 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. Pitt, who was a technical adviser on Reclamation's2012 report,decried ceaselesspipeline proposals. 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. Heres why thats wise, Nicholas Goldberg: How I became a tool of Chinas giant anti-American propaganda machine, Opinion: Girls reporting sexual abuse shouldnt have to fear being prosecuted. You tellgolf courses how much water they can use, but one of thelargest wave basins in the world is acceptable? The sharing of water would greatly contribute to California being able to feed the nation. The only newsroom focused on exploring solutions at the intersection of climate and justice. 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 memorial also suggests that the pipeline could be used as stormwater infrastructure to prevent regular flooding along the . I can't even imagine what it would all cost. To support our nonprofit environmental journalism, please consider disabling your ad-blocker to allow ads on Grist. Trans-national pipelines would also impact ecological resources. 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.
Diverting the Missouri River to the West: 'Can' Does Not - HuffPost This story is a product of theMississippi River Basin Ag & Water Desk, an editorially independent reporting network based at the University ofMissouri School of Journalismin partnership withReport For Americaand theSociety of Environmental Journalists, funded by the Walton Family Foundation. Yet their persistence in the public sphere illustrates the growing desperation of Western states to dig themselves out of droughts. Terms of Use | Privacy Policy. 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. Arizona is among six states, that released a letter and a proposed model for how much Colorado River water they could potentially cut to stave off a collapse. Let's be really clear here. Arizona state legislators asked Congress to consider a pipeline that dumps Mississippi water into the Green River, but there are alternate possibilities. On the heels of Arizonas 2021 push for a pipeline feasibility study, former Arizona Gov. 10/4/2021. Plus, the federal report found the water would be of much lower quality than other western water sources. Grab hydrogen and oxygen from the air and make artificialrain. 2023 www.desertsun.com. Lower Mississippi River flow means less sediment carried down to Louisiana, where its used for coastal restoration.
Proposed interstate water pipelines to California - Wikipedia It was the Bureau of Reclamation. If you dont have enough of it, go find more. A retired engineer suggested a rather outlandish-in-scope but logical-in-approach solution to the seemingly growing floods in the central U.S. and the water woes of the West Coast - build a nearly 1,500-mile aqueduct to connect the two. The massive river, with tributaries from Montanato Ohio, is a national artery for shipping goodsout to sea. But, he said, the days of mega-pipelines in the U.S. are likely over due to lack of environmental and political will. 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?" Studies and modern-day engineering have proven that such projects are possible but require decades of construction and billions of dollars.
Pipeline debate at center of California carbon capture plans