. Experts say those will require sacrifices but not as many as building a giant pipeline would require. Photos of snowfall around northern Arizona. 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. We have already introduced invasive species all over the continentzebra mussels, quagga mussels, grass carp, spiny water flea, lampreys, ru. Trans-national pipelines would also impact ecological resources. She can be reached at jwilson@gannett.com or @janetwilson66 on Twitter. 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. 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. 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. About 33% of vegetables and 66% of fruits and nuts are produced in California for consumption for the nation. States wish they wouldnt. WATER WILL SOON be flowing from Lake Superior to the parched American Southwest. "Should we move the water to where the food is grown, or is it maybe time to think about moving the food production to the water?" Thats not to mention the housing development again, for the very wealthy with its own lagoon. Janet Wilson is senior environment reporter for The Desert Sun, and co-authors USA Today'sClimate Point newsletter. 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. Yet some smaller-scale projects have become reality. Politics are an even bigger obstacle for making multi-state pipelines a reality. 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. Imagine a Five foot diameter, half burried pipeline covered with photovoltaic cells on the upper half. Your California Privacy Rights / Privacy Policy. The memorial also suggests that the pipeline could be used as stormwater infrastructure to prevent regular flooding along the . Noting about 4.5 million gallons per second of Mississippi River flow past the Old River Control Structure in Louisiana, the letter writer explains diverting 250,000 gallons per second would. Mississippi River drought will impact your grocery bill. Were not looking for the last dollar out of this project, he told me. But interest spans deeper than that. As an engineer, I can guarantee you that it is doable, Viadero said. The sharing of water would greatly contribute to California being able to feed the nation. The idea of diverting water from the Mississippi to the Colorado River basin is an excellent one, albeit also fantastically expensive. Others said the costs of an Arizona-Mexico desalination plant would also likely prove infeasible. But interest spans deeper than that. On Tuesday, the Scottsdale City Council agreed on a proposal to treat water and deliver it to the community for three years. Lower Mississippi River flow means less sediment carried down to Louisiana, where its used for coastal restoration. Two hundred miles north of New Orleans, in the heart of swampy Cajun country, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in 1963 cut a rogue arm of the Mississippi River in half with giant levees to keep the main river intact and flowing to the Gulf of Mexico. 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. In the meantime, researchers encourage more feasible and sustainable options, including better water conservation, water recycling, and less agricultural reliance. 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. He said wastewater reuse by area agencies has already swelled from 0.20% in the 1980sto 12% of regional water supply. If officials approve this, the backlash willresult in everyone using as much water as wecare to. You tellgolf courses how much water they can use, but one of thelargest wave basins in the world is acceptable? 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. 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? But the loss of so much water from the. I have dystopian nightmares aboutpipelines marching across the landscape, saidglobal water scarcity expert Jay Famiglietti. Yes, it would be hugely expensive. The idea of drinking even heavily treated liquid wastemay seem unpalatable, but Westfordthinks people will adapt. Diverting that water also means spreading problems, like pollutants, excessive nutrients, and invasive species. "Mexico has said it didn't although there has been a recent change ingovernment.". 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. Trans-national pipelines would also impact ecological resources. Scientists estimate a football field's worth of Louisiana coast is lost every 60 to 90 minutes. 2023 www.desertsun.com. It's the lowest level since the lake was filled in the. 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. 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. The project would require more than 300 new dams,canals, pipelines, tunnels, and pumping stations, bans large waterexportsoutside of the area. Any water diversion from the Mississippi to Arizona must be pumped about 6,000 feet up, over the Rockies. 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. 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. "Recently I have noticed several letters to the editor in your publication that promoted taking water from the Mississippi River or the Great Lakes and diverting it to California via pipeline or . Twitter, Follow us on Under the analyzed scenario, water would be conveyed to Colorados Front Range and areas of New Mexico to help fulfill water needs. 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 concepts fell into a few large categories: pipe Mississippi or Missouri River water to the eastern side of the Rockies or to Lake Powell on the Arizona-Utah border, bring icebergs in. The elephant in the room, according to Fort, is agriculture, which accounts for more than 80 percent of water withdrawals from the Colorado River. But interest spans deeper than that. 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. Coffey said the project isn't really a pipeline, but more "a bypass for an aging 60-year-old"system. 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. 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. Page Contact Information: Missouri Water Data Support Team Page Last Modified: 2023-03-04 08:46:14 EST . 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. Experts we spoke with agreed the feat would be astronomical. But water expertssaid it would likely take at least 30 years to clear legal hurdles to such a plan. Could a water pipeline from the Mississippi River to Arizona be a real solution? 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. So moving water that far away to supplement the ColoradoRiver, I don't think is viable. While the much-needed water has improved conditions in the parched West, experts warn against claiming victory. [1] Among its provisions, the law granted the states water infrastructure finance authority to investigate the feasibility of potential out-of-state water import agreements. Yet some smaller-scale projects have become reality. He said hes open to one but doesnt think its necessary. No. 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. 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. And there are several approved diversions that draw water from the Great Lakes. For as long as this idea has been proposed. and planned for completion in 2050, it willdivert 44.8 billion cubic metersof water annually to major cities and agricultural and industrial centers in the parchednorth. Stop letting excess water flow out to sea. Each edition is filled with exclusive news, analysis and other behind-the-scenes information you wont find anywhere else. Just this past summer, the idea caused a firestorm of letters to the editor at a California newspaper. About 60 percent of the region remains in some form of drought, continuing a decades-long spiral into water scarcity. The only newsroom focused on exploring solutions at the intersection of climate and justice. 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 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. 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. Similar ideas have been suggested about Great Lakes water. If this gets any traction at all, people in the flyover states of the Missouri River basin probably will scream, one water official told the New York Times when the project first received attention. In 1982,efforts were made to revive the plan by a Parsons company engineer, and the Lyndon Larouche movement supported itas recently as 2010. Title: USGS Surface-Water Daily Data for the Nation URL: https://nwis.waterdata.usgs.gov/nwis/dv? 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. But we need to know a lot more about it than we currently do.. "I don't think that drought, especially in the era of climate change, is something we can engineer our way out of.". And biologists andenvironmental attorneys saidNew Orleans and the Louisiana coast, along with the interior swamplands, need every drop of muddy Mississippi water. Just this past summer, the idea caused a firestorm of letters to the editor at a California newspaper. Water from these and other large rivers pour. An earlier version of this story misidentified for which agency Jennifer Pitt was a technical adviser. California Gov. But moving water from one drought-impacted area to another is not a solution.. Pipe water from the plentiful Great Lakes to deserted towns in the West like Phoenix and Las Vegas. 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. I find it interesting that households have to watch how much water theyare usingfor washing clothes, wateringlawns, washing cars,etc. Here's How. "This sounds outlandish, but we have a massive problem," Paffrath said. A multi-state pipeline could easily require decades before it delivers a drop of water," said Michael Cohen, senior researcher with the Pacific Institute. 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. "My son will never know what a six-gallon toilet looks like," she said. Whereas I understand water rights, but globalwarming has introduced new priorities. Yet their persistence in the public sphere illustrates the growing desperation of Western states to dig themselves out of droughts. People need to focus on their realistic solutions.. They also concluded environmental and permitting reviews would take decades. Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. Diverting that water also means spreading problems, like pollutants, excessive nutrients and invasive species. A recent edition of The Desert Sun had twoletters objectingto piping water from the Mississippi River to the Colorado River, and on to California. 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. 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. A pipeline to the Mississippi River Perhaps the biggest achievement Paffrath said he would accomplish if elected governor would be to solve California's water crisis by building a. There are at least half a dozen major water pipeline projects under consideration throughout the region, ranging from ambitious to outlandish. It might be in the trillions, but it probably does exist.. 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. The project would require more than 300 new dams,canals, pipelines, tunnels, and pumping stations. All rights reserved. 00:00 00:00 An unknown error. Pat Mulroy, head of the Southern Nevada Water Authority, pitched a bold idea at a US Chamber of Commerce event last week: divert excess Mississippi River water to the west to irrigate crops to reduce pressure on the stressed Colorado River. 1999-2023 Grist Magazine, Inc. All rights reserved. Grab hydrogen and oxygen from the air and make artificialrain. 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. 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 . The conceptsfell into a few large categories: pipe Mississippi or Missouri River water to the eastern sideof the Rockies or to Lake Powell on the Arizona-Utah border, bring icebergs in bags, on container ships or via trucks to Southern California, pump water from the Columbia River in the Pacific Northwest to California via a subterranean pipeline on the floor of the Pacific Ocean, or replenish the headwaters of the Green River, the main stem of the Colorado River, with water from tributaries. 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. "The engineering is feasible. 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. 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. Drop us a note at tips@coloradosun.com. 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.. Other legal constraints include the Endangered Species Act, the National Environmental Protection Act and variousstate environmental laws, said Brent Newman, senior policy director for the National Audubon Society's Delta state programs. California uses 34 million acre-feet of water per year for agriculture. We can move water, and weve proven our desire to do it. 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. he said. Weve had a few blizzards along the way, and some gun battles, but it is what it is.. Yet their persistence in the public sphere illustrates the growing desperation of Western states to dig themselves out of droughts. 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. document.getElementById( "ak_js_2" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); This story is part of the Grist seriesParched, an in-depth look at how climate change-fueled drought is reshaping communities, economies, and ecosystems. Page Contact Information: Missouri Water Data Support Team Page Last Modified: 2023-03-04 08:46:14 EST Instead, California is focused on better managing the water we have, improving forecasting, and making our groundwater basins more sustainable.. But we need to know a lot more about it than we currently do.. 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. 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. after the growth in California . Its one of dozens of letters the paperhas received proposing or vehemently opposing schemes to fix the crashing Colorado River system, which provides water to nearly 40 million people and farms in seven western states. It would carry about 50,000 acre-feet of water per year, much less than the original pipeline plan but still twice Fort Collins current annual usage. 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. 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. 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. 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. Here are some facts to put perspective to several of the. 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. 1999-2023 Grist Magazine, Inc. All rights reserved. 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. Proponents of these projects argue that they could stabilize western cities for decades to come, connecting populations with unclaimed water rights. 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. Other forms of augmentation, like desalination, are also gaining popularity on the national scene as possible options. Pipelines usually consist of sections of pipe made of . But interest spans deeper than that. We have to conserve water, butnota ridiculous wave parkthat willprobably go bankrupt? 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 . Among its provisions, the law granted the states water infrastructure finance authority to investigate the feasibility of potential out-of-state water import agreements. Drought looms over midterm elections in the arid West, From lab to market, bio-based products are gaining momentum, The hazards of gas stoves were flagged by the industry and hidden 50 years ago, How Alaskas coastal communities are racing against erosion, Construction begins on controversial lithium mine in Nevada. 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. Gavin Newsom also touted desalination in adrought resilience plan he announcedlast week, though in brackish inland areas. Savor that while your lawns are dying. Last updated on: February 10, 2023, 10:54h. Arizona's legislature allocated$1 billion in its last session for water augmentation projectslikea possible desalination plant, and state officials are in discussions with Mexican officials about the idea, saidBuschatzke. But grand ideas for guaranteeing water for the arid Westhave beenfloated for decades. In 1964, a California engineering company proposed diverting flows from the Yukon and Mackenzie River watersheds, shared by Canada and the U.S., all the way to southern California and into Mexico. 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. "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. 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. Design and build by Upstatement. Opinion: California gave up on mandating COVID vaccines for schoolchildren. Parsons said theplanwould replenishthe upper Missouri and Mississippi Rivers during dry spells, increase hydropower along the Columbia Riverand stabilize the Great Lakes. 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. We are already in a severe drought. The diverted flow would require massive water tunnels, since a flow of 250,000. 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 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. He frames the pipeline as a complement to water-saving policies. Much of the sediment it was carrying was dropped in the slow moving water of the Delta. What if our droughts get worse? 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. 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 U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, prodded by members of Congressfrom western states, studied the massive proposal.

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