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Diverting that water also means spreading problems, like pollutants, excessive nutrients, and invasive species. Doug Ducey signed legislation this past July that invested $1.2 billion to fund projects that conserve water and bring more into the state. 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. "We do not expect to see (carbon capture and storage) happen at a large scale unless we are able to address that pipeline issue," said Rajinder Sahota, deputy executive officer for climate change . 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. As an engineer, I can guarantee you that it is doable, Viadero said. Savor that while your lawns are dying. 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 . To be talking about pipe dreams, when thats not even feasible for decades, if at all Its a disservice, Scanlan said. More by The Associated Press, Got a story tip? Last time I heard, we are still the United States of America.". Developed in 1964 by engineer Ralph Parsons and his Pasadena-basedParsons Corporation,the plan would provide 75million acre-feet of water to arid areas inCanada, the United States and Mexico. 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 diverted flow would require massive water tunnels, since a flow of 250,000. Latitude 3853'06", Longitude 9010'51" NAD27. The total projected cost of the plan in 1975 was $100 billion or nearly $570billion in today's dollars,comparable to theInterstate Highway System. The idea is as old and dusty as the desert Southwest: Pipe abundant Great Lakes water to parched cities out West, such as Phoenix and Las Vegas. Makes me wonder how this got this far, whose interests are being served and who's benefiting. People need to focus on their realistic solutions.. 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. The water pipelines from the Mississippi River in Davenport, Iowa connecting to the headwaters of the Colorado River at the Rocky Mountain National Park. Meanwhile, a rookie Democrat running for governor in Californias recall election last year proposed declaring a state of emergency in order to build a similar project. "The engineering is feasible. "The desalinationplant Arizona has scoped out would be by far the largest ever in North America,"said Jennifer Pitt, National Audubon Society's Colorado River program director. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson), Lawmakers targeting hospital facility fees, Whats Working: How a Denver nonprofit is expanding the benefits of work. The ongoing drought in California has hit its fourth year. You couldbuild a pipeline from the Mississippi or Missouri Rivers. "I think that societally, we want to be more flexible. Drainage area 171,500 square miles . 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. But grand ideas for guaranteeing water for the arid Westhave beenfloated for decades. 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. 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. 2023 www.desertsun.com. The Associated Press Climate team contributed images and page design. Pitt, who was a technical adviser on Reclamation's2012 report,decried ceaselesspipeline proposals. Plus, the federal report found the water would be of much lower quality than other western water sources. Lower Mississippi River flow means less sediment carried down to Louisiana, where its used for coastal restoration. Telling stories that matter in a dynamic, evolving state. But the idea hasnever completely died. This latest version would curve up through the Wyoming flatlands and back down to Fort Collins, a distance of around 340 miles. Engineers said the pipelineidea is technically feasible. Improved simulations of streamflow and base flow for selected sites within and adjacent to the Mississippi River Alluvial Plain area are important for modeling groundwater flow because surface-water flows have a substantial effect on groundwater levels. Diverting that water also means spreading problems, like pollutants,. 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. The bigger obstacles are fiscal, legal, environmentaland most of all, political. 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. 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. Million himself, though, is confident that his pipeline will get built, and that it will ensure Fort Collins future. But we need to know a lot more about it than we currently do.. 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 resulting fresh water would bepiped northto the thirsty state. At comment sessions on Colorado's plan, he said, long-distance pipelines wereconstantly suggested by the public. 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. 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. In China, the massiveSouth-to-North Water Diversion Projectis the largest such project ever undertaken. If we had a big pipeline from Lake Sakakawea, we wouldn't just dump it into Lake Powell. Experts we spoke with agreed the feat would be astronomical. The Nevada Legislature is considering a bill that, if passed, would require restaurants to only provide water upon customer request. pipeline, line of pipe equipped with pumps and valves and other control devices for moving liquids, gases, and slurries (fine particles suspended in liquid). "This sounds outlandish, but we have a massive problem," Paffrath said. "I started withtoilets, I was the toilet queen of L.A.," said Westford. Dothey pay extra for using our water? To support our nonprofit environmental journalism, please consider disabling your ad-blocker to allow ads on Grist. Any water diversion from the Mississippi to Arizona must be pumped about 6,000 feet up, over the Rockies. The idea's been dismissed for as long as it's. Every day, we hear about water conservation, restrictions. 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. He said wastewater reuse by area agencies has already swelled from 0.20% in the 1980sto 12% of regional water supply. Another businessman in New Mexico has pushed plans to pump river water 150 miles to the city of Santa Fe, but that water would have to be pumped uphill. 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. Letter writers have asked why a water pipeline is not constructed from the Mississippi River to the Colorado River. 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? Its largestdam would be 1,700 feet tall, more than twice the height of Hoover Dam. Among its provisions, the law granted the states water infrastructure finance authority to investigate the feasibility of potential out-of-state water import agreements. All that snow in Arizona is nice now but officials worry that it could create disastrous flooding and wildfire conditions. [1] About 33% of vegetables and 66% of fruits and nuts are produced in California for consumption for the nation. 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. 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. 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. 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. But interest spans deeper than that. They also concluded environmental and permitting reviews would take decades. But we need to know a lot more about it than we currently do.. Why are they so hard to catch? 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. Meanwhile, watershed states in the U.S., and even counties havetaken actionto preventsuch schemes. 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. he said. 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 . 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. Citizens of Louisiana and Mississippi south of the Old River Control Structure dont need all that water. So moving water that far away to supplement the ColoradoRiver, I don't think is viable. 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. "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. Just this past summer, the idea caused a firestorm of letters to the editor at a California newspaper. Local hurdles include endangered species protections, wetlands protections, drinking water supply considerations and interstate shipping protections. 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. 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. A Kansas groundwater management agency, for instance, received a permit last year to truck 6,000 gallons of Missouri River water into Kansas and Colorado in hopes of recharging an aquifer. 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. 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. "Yes, a Superior-Green River pipeline seems unrealistic, even impossible at first glance," Huttner wrote for Minnesota Public Radio. The federal Water Conservation Bureau gave approval Tuesday to piping 440 billion gallons of water per month to Arizona. Precedents set by other diversion attempts, like those that created the Great Lakes Compact, also cast doubt over the political viability of any large-scale Mississippi River diversion attempt, said Chloe Wardropper, a University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign professor researching environmental governance. You could do it.". By the way, none of this includes the incredible carbon footprints about to be stomped on the environment. Each year worsens our receipt of rain and snow. Facebook, Follow us on "I don't think that drought, especially in the era of climate change, is something we can engineer our way out of.". But, as water scarcity in the West gets more desperate, the hurdles could be overcome one day. The massive river, with tributaries from Montanato Ohio, is a national artery for shipping goodsout to sea. And contrary to Siefkes' claims, experts said, the silty river flows provide sediment critical to shore up the rapidly disappearing Louisiana coast andbarrier islands chewed to bits by hurricanes and sea rise. Water thieves abound in dry California. But, as water scarcity in the West gets more desperate, the hurdles could be overcome one day. 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. The idea of diverting water from the Mississippi to the Colorado River basin is an excellent one, albeit also fantastically expensive. Drought conditions plagued the region throughout 2022, prompting concerns over river navigation. Donate today tohelp keep Grists site and newsletters free. She and others worked to persuade reluctant consumers, builders and policymakers to ditchwidely usedsix-gallon flush toilets in favor of perfectly effective two-gallon versions. "To my mind, the overriding fatal flaw for large import schemes is the time required to become operational. As politicians across the West confront the consequences of the climate-fueled Millennium Drought, many of them are heeding the words of Chinatown and trying to bring in outside water through massive capital projects. USGS 05587500 Mississippi River at Alton, IL. Famiglietti said as long as urban areas in the West don't persist in untrammeled growth, they have enough supply for the immediate future, with the ability to rip out lawns, capture stormwater runoff in local reservoirs, do municipal audits to fix leaks and other tools. But the loss of so much water from the. Twitter, Follow us on Drop us a note at tips@coloradosun.com. Don't bother sending notices on conservation; they willbe ignored. Haul icebergs from the Arctic to a new southern California port. Ive cowboyed enough in my life to know that you just got to stick to the trail, he said. An in-depth feasibility study specifically on pumping Mississippi River water to the West hasnt been conducted yet to Larsons knowledge. An acre-foot is enough water to serve about two households for a year, so it could supply water to 150 million customers. The lawsuit, originally filed in southern Texas' federal courts Jan. 18, was amended to include Idaho on Monday. This would take 254 days to fill.. 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. 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. Experts say theres a proverbial snowballs chance in August of most of theseschemes being implemented. 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. Donate today to keep our climate news free. Here are some facts to put perspective to several of the. According to DPS, the driver of the semi-truck lost control of the truck on the icy I-40 freeway near Williams, striking a DPS patrol car parked by the side of the highway. Much of the sediment it was carrying was dropped in the slow moving water of the Delta. On Tuesday, the Scottsdale City Council agreed on a proposal to treat water and deliver it to the community for three years. The Mississippi used to flow through a delta full of bayous, shifting sad bars, And islets. Infrastructure is one of the few ways well turn things around to assure that theres some supply.. Imagine a Five foot diameter, half burried pipeline covered with photovoltaic cells on the upper half. "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 . As part of our commitment to sustainability, in 2021 Grist moved its office headquarters to the Bullitt Center in Seattles vibrant Capitol Hill neighborhood. Instagram, Follow us on All rights reserved. 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. No. CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa Waves of torrential rainfall drenched California into the new year. No one wants to leave the western states without water, said Melissa Scanlan, a freshwater sciences professor at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. 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. As an engineer, I can guarantee you that it is doable, Viadero said. 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. Subscribe today to see what all the buzz is about. Yet their persistence in the public sphere illustrates the growing desperation of Western states to dig themselves out of droughts. As the largest single contractor of the SWP and a major supporter of Southern California water conservation and recycling programs, Metropolitan seeks feasible alternatives to convey Colorado River Aqueduct supplies or Diamond Valley Lake storage from the eastern portion of its service area or purified water from Pure Water Southern California . From winter lettuce in grocery stores to the golf courses of the Sun Belt, the Wests explosive growth over the past century rests on aqueducts, canals and drainage systems. I can't even imagine what it would all cost. Do they thank us for using our water? Still, its physically possible. Moreover, we need water in our dams for. Posted on: February 7, 2023, 02:30h. Title: USGS Surface-Water Daily Data for the Nation URL: https://nwis.waterdata.usgs.gov/nwis/dv? 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. Flooding along the Mississippi River basin appears to have become more frequent in recent years, as has the [] What goes into the cat-and-mouse game of forecasting Colorados avalanche risks? Gavin Newsom reaffirming his support for the ambitious proposal. But it's doable. 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. You tellgolf courses how much water they can use, but one of thelargest wave basins in the world is acceptable? Most notably, the Mississippi River basin doesnt always have enough water to spare. 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. Would itbe expensive? Theyre all such hypocrites. But interest spans deeper than that. Absolutely. WATER WILL SOON be flowing from Lake Superior to the parched American Southwest. When that happens, it wont be just tourists and recreational boaters who will suffer. Janet Wilson is senior environment reporter for The Desert Sun, and co-authors USA Today'sClimate Point newsletter. Take that, Lake Mead. Most notably, the Mississippi River basin doesn't always have enough water to spare. Gavin Newsom if he's. The memorial also suggests that the pipeline could be used as stormwater infrastructure to prevent regular flooding along the . 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. Just this past summer, the idea caused a firestorm of letters to the editor at a California newspaper. So come on out for the plastic Marilyn on our dashboard, and stay for the stupendous waste of water, electricity and clean air.