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. Yet their persistence in the public sphere illustrates the growing desperation of Western states to dig themselves out of droughts. Arizona, for instance, has invested millions of dollars in wastewater recycling while other communities have paid to fix leaky pipes, making their water delivery systems more efficient. Reader support helps sustain our work. Posted on: February 7, 2023, 02:30h. 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. She points to her earlyworkfor comparison. Don't bother sending notices on conservation; they willbe ignored. "Yes, a Superior-Green River pipeline seems unrealistic, even impossible at first glance," Huttner wrote for Minnesota Public Radio. Yet their persistence in the public sphere illustrates the growing desperation of Western states to dig themselves out of droughts. Yet some smaller-scale projects have become reality. Those will require sacrifices, no doubt but not as many as building a giant pipeline would require, experts said. 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. Lower Mississippi River flow means less sediment carried down to Louisiana, where it's used for coastal restoration. Were not looking for the last dollar out of this project, he told me. 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. Politics are an even bigger obstacle for making multi-state pipelines a reality. 00:00 00:00 An unknown error. 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. 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.. And there are several approved diversions that draw water from the Great Lakes. Here's How. But if areas like the Coachella Valley continue to approve surf waveparks and "beachfront" developments in the desert, "we're screwed," he said bluntly. Photos of snowfall around northern Arizona. . But moving water from one drought-impacted area to another is not a solution.. When that happens, it wont be just tourists and recreational boaters who will suffer. Is this a goo. 2023 www.desertsun.com. Nevertheless, Million hasnt given up, and hes currently working to secure permitting for the fourth iteration of the project. What if our droughts get worse? Widespread interest in the plan eventually fizzled. Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information, Unrecognizable. Lake Mead, a lifeline for water in Los Angeles and the West, tips toward crisis. Here in the scorching Coachella Valley, local governments have approved construction of four surf resorts for the very wealthy. 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. 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. We can move water, and weve proven our desire to do it. 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. But, as water scarcity in the West gets more desperate, the hurdles could be overcome one day. The other alternatives have political costs, and they have costs that are maybe more likely to be borne locally, including by farmers and other large water users, she said. 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. 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. While the much-needed water has improved conditions in the parched West, experts warn against claiming victory. 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. But Westford and her colleague Brad Coffey, water resources manager,said desalination is needed in the Golden State. The Associated Press Climate team contributed images and page design. Facebook, Follow us on Weve had a few blizzards along the way, and some gun battles, but it is what it is.. Facebook, Follow us on Still, its physically possible. But interest spans deeper than that. Similar ideas have been suggested about Great Lakes water. She can be reached at jwilson@gannett.com or @janetwilson66 on Twitter. 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. While they didnt outright reject the concepts, the experts laid out multi-billion-dollar price tags, including ever-higher fuel and power costs to pump water up mountains or over other geographic obstacles. The Western U.S. is experiencing its driest period in more than a thousand years, according to scientists from UCLA and Columbia University. USGS 05587500 Mississippi River at Alton, IL. 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. 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. 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. If you dont have enough of it, go find more. To be talking about pipe dreams, when thats not even feasible for decades, if at all Its a disservice, Scanlan said. 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.. Available data for this site Madison County, Illinois. Arizona state legislators asked Congress to consider a pipeline that dumps Mississippi water into the Green River, but there are alternate possibilities. A pipeline taking water from the Missouri River west makes perfect sense, if you don't care about money, energy, or the environment. "To my mind, the overriding fatal flaw for large import schemes is the time required to become operational. If officials approve this, the backlash willresult in everyone using as much water as wecare to. Pipe water from the plentiful Great Lakes to deserted towns in the West like Phoenix and Las Vegas. Asked about a Mississippi River pipeline or other new infrastructure to rescue the Colorado River, federal and state officials declined to respondor said there was no realistic chance such a major infrastructure project is in the offing. Plus, the federal report found the water would be of much lower quality than other western water sources. General Manager Henry Martinez also warned that cutting water to Imperial Valley farmers and nearby Yuma County, Arizona, could lead to a food crisis as well as a water crisis. Paffrath proposed building a pipeline from the Mississippi River to bring water to drought-stricken California. The idea of a pipeline transecting the continent is not a new idea. That project, which also faces heavy headwinds from environmentalists, wouldcost an estimated $12 billion. Latitude 3853'06", Longitude 9010'51" NAD27. 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. 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. 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. 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. Local hurdles include endangered species protections, wetlands protections, drinking water supply considerations and interstate shipping protections. The state is expected to lose 10% of its water over the next two decades, reports the . China, unlike the US, is unencumbered by NEPA, water rights and democratic processes in general. 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. 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 2012 study didn't discount either option but. He said wastewater reuse by area agencies has already swelled from 0.20% in the 1980sto 12% of regional water supply. Heproposed usingnuclear explosionsto excavate the system's trenches and underground water storage reservoirs. You tellgolf courses how much water they can use, but one of thelargest wave basins in the world is acceptable? A multi-state pipeline could easily require decades before it delivers a drop of water," said Michael Cohen, senior researcher with the Pacific Institute. Pitt, who was a technical adviser on Reclamation's2012 report,decried ceaselesspipeline proposals. Los Angeles-area water districts have implemented much of what Famiglietti mentioned. 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. But water expertssaid it would likely take at least 30 years to clear legal hurdles to such a plan. Conservation alternatives are less palatable than big infrastructure projects, but theyre also more achievable. "People are spoiled in the United States. 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. 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. The only newsroom focused on exploring solutions at the intersection of climate and justice. Filling Lake Mead with Mississippi River Water No Longer a Pipe Dream. Drought conditions plagued the region throughout 2022, for instance, prompting concerns over river navigation. But the loss of so much water from the. But moving water from one drought-impacted area to another is not a solution.. 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. Doug Ducey signed legislation this past July that invested $1.2 billion to fund projects that conserve water and bring more into the state. [1] Just this past summer, the idea caused a firestorm of letters to the editor at a California newspaper. 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. Other forms of augmentation, like desalination, are also gaining popularity on the national scene as possible options. Most notably, the Mississippi River basin doesnt always have enough water to spare. Last time I heard, we are still the United States of America.". 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. Stories of similar projects often share the same ending, from proposals in Iowa and Minnesota to those between Canada and the United States. 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. We want to have more sustainable infrastructure. 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. By Brittney J. Miller, The Cedar Rapids Gazette. The ongoing drought in California has hit its fourth year. When finished, the $62 billion project will link Chinas four main rivers and requiresconstruction of three lengthy diversion routes, one using as its basethe1,100-mile longHangzhou-to-Beijing canal, which dates from the 7th century AD. Just this past summer, the idea caused a firestorm of letters to the editor at a California newspaper. 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. Follow us on CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (AP) Waves of torrential rainfall drenched California into the new year. Most notably, the Mississippi River basin doesn't always have enough water to spare. Opinion: How has American healthcare gone so wrong? 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. 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. The lawsuit, originally filed in southern Texas' federal courts Jan. 18, was amended to include Idaho on Monday. Telling stories that matter in a dynamic, evolving state. "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. Water use has gone down 40% per capita in recent years, said Coffey. Diverting that water also means spreading problems, like pollutants, excessive nutrients and invasive species. Pipelines usually consist of sections of pipe made of . 10/4/2021. About 60 percent of the region remains in some form of drought, continuing a decades-long spiral into water scarcity. The Colorado River is drying up. Arizona, which holds "junior"rights to Colorado River water, meaning it has already been forced to make cuts and might be legally required to make far larger reductions, wants to build a bi-national desalination plant at the Sea of Cortez, which separates Baja California from the Mexican mainland. Arizonas main active management areas are in Maricopa, Pinal, Pima, and Santa Cruz counties, leaving much of rural Arizona water use unregulated. 1999-2023 Grist Magazine, Inc. All rights reserved. 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. More by The Associated Press, Got a story tip? The project would require more than 300 new dams,canals, pipelines, tunnels, and pumping stations. Experts say those will require sacrifices but not as many as building a giant pipeline would require. 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. Water thieves abound in dry California. But grand ideas for guaranteeing water for the arid Westhave beenfloated for decades. I find it interesting that households have to watch how much water theyare usingfor washing clothes, wateringlawns, washing cars,etc. Mississippi River drought will impact your grocery bill. My water, your water. He said hes open to one but doesnt think its necessary. Here are some facts to put perspective to severalof the opinions already expressed here: An aqueduct running from thelower Mississippi to the Colorado River (via the San Juan River tributary, at Farmington, New Mexico), with the same capacity as the California Aqueduct, would roughly double the flow of thelatter while taking merely 1-3% of the formers flow. In China, the massiveSouth-to-North Water Diversion Projectis the largest such project ever undertaken. Most notably, the Mississippi River basin doesnt always have enough water to spare. 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. 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 . Drop us a note at tips@coloradosun.com. But there are tons of things that can be done but arent ever done.. 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. To be talking about pipe dreams when thats not even feasible for decades, if at all Its a disservice, Scanlan said. An in-depth feasibility study specifically on pumping Mississippi River water to the West hasnt been conducted yet to Larsons knowledge. 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. So come on out for the plastic Marilyn on our dashboard, and stay for the stupendous waste of water, electricity and clean air. 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. It might be in the trillions, but it probably does exist.. 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. 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. Stories of similar projects often share the same ending, from proposals in Iowa and Minnesota to those between Canada and the United States. In southeastern California,officials at the Imperial Irrigation District, which is entitled toby far the largest share of Colorado River water, say any move to strip theirrights would result in legal challenges that could last years. Each year . 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. It is time to think outside the box of rain. 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. Just this past summer, the idea caused a firestorm of letters to the editor at a California newspaper. The Old River Control Structure, as it was dubbed, is also the linchpin of massive but delicate locks and pulsed flows that feed the largest bottomland hardwood forests and wetlands in the United States, outstripping thebetter-known Okefenokee Swamp that straddles Georgia and Florida. All rights reserved. Lower Mississippi River flow means less sediment carried down to Louisiana, where its used for coastal restoration. 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. Your support keeps our unbiased, nonprofit news free. The project would require more than 300 new dams,canals, pipelines, tunnels, and pumping stations, bans large waterexportsoutside of the area. Even if the government could clear these hurdles, the odds that Midwestern states would just let their water go are slim. States wish they wouldnt. The idea's been dismissed for as long as it's. 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 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. 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. If we had a big pipeline from Lake Sakakawea, we wouldn't just dump it into Lake Powell. Runa giant hose from the Columbia River along the bottom of the Pacific Ocean to refill Diamond Valley Reservoir. 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. 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 Southern Delivery System in the nearby Arkansas River Basin pipes water from Pueblo County more than 60 miles north to Colorado Springs, Fountain and Security. Heres how that affects Indigenous water rights, Salton Sea public health disaster gets a $250 million shot in the arm. WATER WILL SOON be flowing from Lake Superior to the parched American Southwest. But, he said, the days of mega-pipelines in the U.S. are likely over due to lack of environmental and political will. My state, your state. pipeline, line of pipe equipped with pumps and valves and other control devices for moving liquids, gases, and slurries (fine particles suspended in liquid). 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. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, prodded by members of Congressfrom western states, studied the massive proposal. California Gov. 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? 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. Tribes in the Colorado River Basin are fighting for their water. Mulroy was the keynote speaker at the convention, held at Mandalay Bay, in Las Vegas, which is one of several that comprises the Chamber of Commerce's . Makes me wonder how this got this far, whose interests are being served and who's benefiting. "The engineering is feasible. 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 bigger obstacles are fiscal, legal, environmentaland most of all, political. 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. 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. 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. 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. Nonetheless, Siefkes trans-basin pipeline proposal went viral, receiving nearly half a million views. YouTube. Historian Ted Steinberg said itsummed up "the sheer arrogance and imperial ambitions of the modern hydraulic West.". The list of projects that run on similarly magical thinking goes on: Utah wants to build a pipeline of its own from Lake Powell to the fast-growing city of St. George, but Lake Powell has almost no water left. Experts we spoke with agreed the feat would be astronomical. Each edition is filled with exclusive news, analysis and other behind-the-scenes information you wont find anywhere else. 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. Water from these and other large rivers pour. Yet some smaller-scale projects have become reality. The Mississippi used to flow through a delta full of bayous, shifting sad bars, And islets. 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. We have already introduced invasive species all over the continentzebra mussels, quagga mussels, grass carp, spiny water flea, lampreys, ru. The mountains are green now but that could be harmful during wildfire season. 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. The project would have to secure dozens of state and federal permits and clear an enormous federal environmental review; moving the water would also require the construction of several hundred megawatts of power generation. and Renstrom says that unless Utah builds a long-promised pipeline to pump water 140 miles from Lake . Any water diversion from the Mississippi to Arizona must be pumped about 6,000 feet up, over the Rockies. An acre-foot is enough water to serve about two households for a year, so it could supply water to 150 million customers. The water will drain into the headwaters of the Colorado river. And biologists andenvironmental attorneys saidNew Orleans and the Louisiana coast, along with the interior swamplands, need every drop of muddy Mississippi water. There are no easy fixes to a West that has grown and has allocated all of its water theres no silver bullet, she said.