But in the face of continuing, ever-worsening drought and ongoing growth of the cities of the desert Southwest, is there a better idea out there? Palm Springs newspaper readers' drought fix: Siphon Mississippi 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. 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. 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. Is this a goo. after the growth in California . Imagine a Five foot diameter, half burried pipeline covered with photovoltaic cells on the upper half. 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. Los Angeles-area water districts have implemented much of what Famiglietti mentioned. Trans-national pipelines would also impact ecological resources. 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. Column: Building a pipeline to the Mississippi? An idea as harebrained 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. . Stories of similar projects often share the same ending, from proposals in Iowa and Minnesota to those between Canada and the United States. Then take it out of the southern tip of the aquifer in Southern Colorado. California Gov. And several approved diversions draw water from the Great Lakes. Would itbe expensive? Some plans call for a connection to. In fact, she and others noted, many such ideas have been studied since the 1940s. 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?" USGS 05587500 Mississippi River at Alton, IL. 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. Moving water from the Mississippi River to west would require massive The Associated Press Climate team contributed images and page design. Can A Pipeline Really Bring Drinking Water From Mississippi To The West? "Mexico has said it didn't although there has been a recent change ingovernment.". Western Water Woes - Is Big Infrastructure the Way to Go? Paffrath proposed building a pipeline from the Mississippi River to bring water to drought-stricken California. 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. The driver of the truck was not injured. 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. Politics are an even bigger obstacle to making multi-state pipelines a reality. 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. Rescue the oceans from the pollution that flood waters pick up and dump into the ocean, creating dead zones. 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.. People fish in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta's Elk Slough near Courtland, California, on Tuesday, March 24, 2020. This would take 254 days to fill.. 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. She can be reached at jwilson@gannett.com or @janetwilson66 on Twitter. Drought conditions plagued the region throughout 2022, prompting concerns over river navigation. We want to have more sustainable infrastructure. 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? Drainage area 171,500 square miles . The water would be drained via a 36 inch pipe already installed four miles west of Sugarloaf Mountain outside Marquette. It might be in the trillions, but it probably does exist.. 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. Stop letting excess water flow out to sea. 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. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, prodded by members of Congressfrom western states, studied the massive proposal. To support our nonprofit environmental journalism, please consider disabling your ad-blocker to allow ads on Grist. Donate today to keep our climate news free. Proponents of these projects argue that they could stabilize western cities for decades to come, connecting populations with unclaimed water rights. A multi-state pipeline could easily require decades before it delivers a drop of water," said Michael Cohen, senior researcher with the Pacific Institute. Above, the droughts effects can be seen at a marina on June 29. For decades, key stewards of the river have ignored the massive water loss, instead allocating Arizona, California, Nevada and Mexico their share of the river without subtracting whats evaporated. The idea's been dismissed for as long as it's. The mountains are green now but that could be harmful during wildfire season. 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. 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. The idea of a pipeline transecting the continent is not a new idea. 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. 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. The only newsroom focused on exploring solutions at the intersection of climate and justice. Releasing more water downstream would come at the expense of upstream users . Letter writers have asked why a water pipeline is not constructed from the Mississippi River to the Colorado River. Their technical report, which hasnt been peer-reviewed, 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. Pipeline debate at center of California carbon capture plans 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. Fort, the University of New Mexico professor, worries that the bigwigs who throw their energy behind large capital projects may be neglecting other, more practical options. 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 . He said wastewater reuse by area agencies has already swelled from 0.20% in the 1980sto 12% of regional water supply. On Tuesday, the Scottsdale City Council agreed on a proposal to treat water and deliver it to the community for three years. 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. Filling Lake Mead with Mississippi River Water No Longer a Pipe Dream. The Arizona state legislature allocated seed money toward a study of a thousand-mile pipeline that would do exactly this last year, and the states top water official says hes spoken to officials in Kansas about participating in the project. The 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. One method for simulating streamflow and base flow, random forest (RF) models, was developed from the data at gaged sites and, in turn, was . An in-depth feasibility study specifically on pumping Mississippi River water to the West hasnt been conducted yet to Larsons knowledge. 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. Lake Mead is at its lowest level since it was filled 85 years ago. It is a minimum of 1,067 miles from the Mississippi River to the Colorado River if it could be built in a fairly straight line (St. Louis to Grand Junction, Colorado, based on the route of. 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. Each year worsens our receipt of rain and snow. And biologists andenvironmental attorneys saidNew Orleans and the Louisiana coast, along with the interior swamplands, need every drop of muddy Mississippi water. Even if the government could clear these hurdles, the odds that Midwestern states would just let their water go are slim. Here's How. 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. All rights reserved. About 60 percent of the region remains in some form of drought, continuing a decades-long spiral into water scarcity. Local hurdles include endangered species protections, wetlands protections, drinking water supply considerations and interstate shipping protections. Diverting that water also means spreading problems, like pollutants,. Amid a major drought in the Western U.S., a proposed solution comes up repeatedly: large-scale river diversions, including pumping Mississippi River water to parched states. 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. 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. 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. A plan to divert Mississippi flood waters to west is proposed 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. A pipeline taking water from the Missouri River west makes perfect sense, if you don't care about money, energy, or the environment. Fueled by Google and other search engines, more than 3.2 millionpeople have read the letters, an unprecedented number for the regional publication's opinion content. Janet Wilson is senior environment reporter for The Desert Sun, and co-authors USA Today'sClimate Point newsletter. What did Disney actually lose from its Florida battle with DeSantis? Donate today tohelp keep Grists site and newsletters free. Scientists estimate a football field's worth of Louisiana coast is lost every 60 to 90 minutes. 1999-2023 Grist Magazine, Inc. All rights reserved. Twitter, Follow us on What if our droughts get worse? In 1982,efforts were made to revive the plan by a Parsons company engineer, and the Lyndon Larouche movement supported itas recently as 2010. Yet their persistence in the public sphere illustrates the growing desperation of Western states to dig themselves out of droughts. Lake Superior Water Headed to the Southwest - Word on the Street Many sawSiefkes' idea and others like it as sheer theft by a region that needs to fix its own woes. 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. For one, theres no longer enough unclaimed water to make most pipeline projects cost-effective. Ive cowboyed enough in my life to know that you just got to stick to the trail, he said. The ongoing drought in California has hit its fourth year. 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. Diverting the Missouri River to the West: 'Can' Does Not - HuffPost Posted on: February 7, 2023, 02:30h. Why are they so hard to catch? An earlier version of this story misidentified for which agency Jennifer Pitt was a technical adviser. 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. But, as water scarcity in the West gets more desperate, the hurdles could be overcome one day. Famiglietti also said while oil companies are willing to spend millions because their product yields high profits per gallon, that's not the case with water, typically considered a public resource. 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. Do they thank us for using our water? It boggles the mind. The most obvious problem with this proposal is its mind-boggling cost. USGS Surface Water for USA: Streamflow Measurements A recent edition of The Desert Sun had twoletters objectingto piping water from the Mississippi River to the Colorado River, and on to California. pipeline, line of pipe equipped with pumps and valves and other control devices for moving liquids, gases, and slurries (fine particles suspended in liquid). If officials approve this, the backlash willresult in everyone using as much water as wecare to. Take for instance the so-called Water Horse pipeline, a pet project of a Colorado investor and entrepreneur named Aaron Million. Yes. Hydrologic Unit Code 07110009. But moving water from one drought-impacted area to another is not a solution.. Mississippi River drought will impact your grocery bill. But interest spans deeper than that. Savor that while your lawns are dying. "Arizona really, really wants oceanfront," she chuckled. The memorial also suggests that the pipeline could be used as stormwater infrastructure to prevent regular flooding along the . About 33% of vegetables and 66% of fruits and nuts are produced in California for consumption for the nation. 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. 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. 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 Western U.S. is experiencing its driest period in more than a thousand years, according to scientists from UCLA and Columbia University. 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. An acre-foot is enough water to serve about two households for a year, so it could supply water to 150 million customers. Even if the sticker price werent so prohibitive, there are other obstacles. And there are several approved diversions that draw water from the Great Lakes. But it's doable. 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. 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. Almost two decades ago, when Million was working on a masters thesis, he happened upon a map that showed the Green River making a brief detour into Colorado on its way through Utah. 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. 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. Despite the recent defeat of a major plant in Huntington Beach, after the California Coastal Commission said it was too environmentally damaging, "ocean desalination can't be off the table," said Coffey. Pipelines usually consist of sections of pipe made of . 2023 www.desertsun.com. 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. But if areas like the Coachella Valley continue to approve surf waveparks and "beachfront" developments in the desert, "we're screwed," he said bluntly. 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. "To my mind, the overriding fatal flaw for large import schemes is the time required to become operational. 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. But pipelines and other big ideaswill always attract interest, hydrology experts said, because they falsely promise an innovative, easy way out. Design and build by Upstatement. 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. Experts say theres a proverbial snowballs chance in August of most of theseschemes being implemented. Steps are being taken to address water issues in Buckeye. "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. 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. The bigger obstacles are fiscal, legal, environmentaland most of all, political. Arizonas main active management areas are in Maricopa, Pinal, Pima, and Santa Cruz counties, leaving much of rural Arizona water use unregulated. 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. You tellgolf courses how much water they can use, but one of thelargest wave basins in the world is acceptable? [1] California uses 34 million acre-feet of water per year for agriculture. Letters to the Editor: Really, Californians? Another call for a water 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. When that happens, it wont be just tourists and recreational boaters who will suffer. 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. Doug Ducey signed legislation this past July that invested $1.2 billion to fund projects that conserve water and bring more into the state. 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. 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.. 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. 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. Is California still in a drought? Recent storms fill many CA reservoirs Arizona Legislators Want to Ship Mississippi River - Planetizen 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. The lawsuit, originally filed in southern Texas' federal courts Jan. 18, was amended to include Idaho on Monday. PROVISIONAL DATA SUBJECT TO REVISION. 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. A Mississippi pipeline to Lake Powell would need to cut across four states, he and Johnson said, including hundreds of miles of wetlands in Louisiana and west Texas. My water, your water. 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. But grand ideas for guaranteeing water for the arid Westhave beenfloated for decades. Too wacky? Moving water from flood to drought - Phys.org Makes me wonder how this got this far, whose interests are being served and who's benefiting. Million sued, and he says he expects a ruling this year. 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. Each state along the Colorado River basin had the rights to a certain quantity of river water, divided among major users like farms and cities, and the projects were designed to help the states realize those abstract rights. Facebook, Follow us on Experts we spoke with agreed the feat would be astronomical. Last updated on: February 10, 2023, 10:54h. "I'm an optimist," said Coffey, who said local conservation is key. In any case, Utah rejected a permit for the project in 2020, saying it would jeopardize the states own water rights. All rights reserved. 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. But, he said, the days of mega-pipelines in the U.S. are likely over due to lack of environmental and political will. Arizona and Nevada residents must curb their use of water from the Colorado River, and California could be next. We can move water, and weve proven our desire to do it. But interest spans deeper than that. ", But desert defenders pushed back. Still, he admits the road hasnt always been easy, and that victory is far from guaranteed. A water pipeline from the Mississippi River to the west? - Los Angeles 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. Pipeline debate at center of California carbon capture plans Major projects to restore the coast and save brown pelicans and other endangered species are now underway, and Mississippi sediment delivery is at the heart of them. 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. Engineers said the pipelineidea is technically feasible. Can Water Megaprojects Save The US Desert West? (Part 2) The memorial is seeking Mississippi River water as a solution to ongoing shortages on the Colorado River as water levels reach historic lows in the two largest reservoirs on the river, Lake Powell and Lake Mead. The trooper inside suffered minor injuries. While the much-needed water has improved conditions in the parched West, experts warn against claiming victory. No. Under the analyzed scenario, water would be conveyed to Colorados Front Range and areas of New Mexico to help fulfill water needs. But, as water scarcity in the West gets more desperate, the hurdles could be overcome one day. 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.

Taft Most Wanted 2020, Articles W