water pipeline from mississippi river to california water pipeline from mississippi river to california

Million told Grist that hes secured partial funding for the project from multiple banks and the infrastructure company MasTec, but it remains unclear how much he would have to charge to make the project profitable. 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. 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. 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 elephant in the room, according to Fort, is agriculture, which accounts for more than 80 percent of water withdrawals from the Colorado River. 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. Most notably, the Mississippi River basin doesnt always have enough water to spare. 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 idea of diverting water from the Mississippi to the Colorado River basin is an excellent one, albeit also fantastically expensive. 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. 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. The Nevada Legislature is considering a bill that, if passed, would require restaurants to only provide water upon customer request. 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. As an engineer, I can guarantee you that it is doable, Viadero said. 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. All it does is cause flooding and massive tax expenditures to repair and strengthen dikes, wrote Siefkes.New Orleans has a problem with that much water anyway, so lets divert 250,000 gallons/secondto Lake Powell, which currently has a shortage of 5.5 trillion gallons. 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. As an engineer, I can guarantee you that it is doable, Viadero said. Posted on: February 7, 2023, 02:30h. Each year . In fact, she and others noted, many such ideas have been studied since the 1940s. 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. Still, its physically possible. Instagram, Follow us on On the heels of Arizonas 2021 push for a pipeline feasibility study, former Arizona Gov. Here's How. The Mississippi used to flow through a delta full of bayous, shifting sad bars, And islets. 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. No one wants to leave the western states without water, said Melissa Scanlan, a freshwater sciences professor at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. 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. 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. Were not looking for the last dollar out of this project, he told me. Under the analyzed scenario, water would be conveyed to Colorados Front Range and areas of New Mexico to help fulfill water needs. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); A nonprofit, independent media organization dedicated to telling stories of climate solutions and a just future. 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. 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 project entails the construction of thousands of miles of pipelines and canals, 427 water treatment facilities, countless pumping facilities, and the displacement of 300,000 residents. Here in the scorching Coachella Valley, local governments have approved construction of four surf resorts for the very wealthy. 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. He said a major wastewater reuse project that MWD plans to implement by 2032 could ultimately yield up 150 million gallons of potable water a day from treated waste. Coffey said the project isn't really a pipeline, but more "a bypass for an aging 60-year-old"system. Do they thank us for using our water? For instance, a Kansas groundwater management agency received a permit last year to truck 6,000 gallons of Missouri River water into Kansas and Colorado in hopes of recharging an aquifer. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, prodded by members of Congressfrom western states, studied the massive proposal. But there are tons of things that can be done but arent ever done.. Any water diversion from the Mississippi to Arizona must be pumped about 6,000 feet up, over the Rockies. Is this a goo. In 1982,efforts were made to revive the plan by a Parsons company engineer, and the Lyndon Larouche movement supported itas recently as 2010. Makes me wonder how this got this far, whose interests are being served and who's benefiting. 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. 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. 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. To the editor: With the threat of brownouts and over-stressed power grids, dwindling water resources in California and the call to reduce consumption by 15%, I want to point out we are not all in this together. Why not begin a grand national infrastructure project of building a water pipeline from those flooded states to the Southwest? We have to conserve water, butnota ridiculous wave parkthat willprobably go bankrupt? Just this past summer, the idea caused a firestorm of letters to the editor at a California newspaper. 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. Your support keeps our unbiased, nonprofit news free. Pipe water from the plentiful Great Lakes to deserted towns in the West like Phoenix and Las Vegas. There are at least half a dozen major water pipeline projects under consideration throughout the region, ranging from ambitious to outlandish. No one wants to leave the western states without water, said Melissa Scanlan, a freshwater sciences professor at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. But pipelines and other big ideaswill always attract interest, hydrology experts said, because they falsely promise an innovative, easy way out. 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. Other forms of augmentation, like desalination, are also gaining popularity on the national scene as possible options. Yet their persistence in the public sphere illustrates the growing desperation of Western states to dig themselves out of droughts. Facebook, Follow us on 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. Janet Wilson is senior environment reporter for The Desert Sun, and co-authors USA Today'sClimate Point newsletter. But the loss of so much water from the. Many sawSiefkes' idea and others like it as sheer theft by a region that needs to fix its own woes. 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. 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. 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. The Unaffiliated is our twice-weekly newsletter on Colorado politics and policy. I have dystopian nightmares aboutpipelines marching across the landscape, saidglobal water scarcity expert Jay Famiglietti. Experts we spoke with agreed the feat would be astronomical. 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. Doug Ducey signed legislation this past July that invested $1.2 billion to fund projects that conserve water and bring more into the state. He said hes open to one but doesnt think its necessary. That project, which also faces heavy headwinds from environmentalists, wouldcost an estimated $12 billion. But there are tons of things that can be done but arent ever done.. Just this past summer, the idea caused a firestorm of letters to the editor at a California newspaper. "Mexico has said it didn't although there has been a recent change ingovernment.". 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. 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. The delta was tricky for barge traffic and shipping to navigate. Letters to the Editor: Antigovernment ideology isnt working for snowed-in mountain towns, Letters to the Editor: Ignore Marjorie Taylor Greene? The . The actual costs to build such a pipeline today would likely be orders of magnitude higher, thanks to inflation and inevitable construction snags. Some plans call for a connection to. "I don't think that drought, especially in the era of climate change, is something we can engineer our way out of.". Meanwhile, watershed states in the U.S., and even counties havetaken actionto preventsuch schemes. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson), Lawmakers targeting hospital facility fees, Whats Working: How a Denver nonprofit is expanding the benefits of work. One method for simulating streamflow and base flow, random forest (RF) models, was developed from the data at gaged sites and, in turn, was . They also concluded environmental and permitting reviews would take decades. 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 it's doable. The ongoing drought in California has hit its fourth year. Lake Mead is at its lowest level since it was filled 85 years ago. Experts we spoke with agreed the feat would be astronomical. So moving water that far away to supplement the ColoradoRiver, I don't think is viable. 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. 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. 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 . 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. She points to her earlyworkfor comparison. Has no one noticed how much hotter the desert is getting, not to mention the increase in fires in our area. "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. Still, he admits the road hasnt always been easy, and that victory is far from guaranteed. The most obvious problem with this proposal is its mind-boggling cost. Design and build by Upstatement. 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.. The pipeline would help it tap another 86,000 acre-feet of . These realities havent stopped the Wests would-be water barons from dreaming. 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. 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. 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. 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. It would cost at least $1,700 per acre-feet of water, potentially yield 600,000 acre-feet of water per year by 2060 and take 30 years to construct. 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. By Brittney J. Miller, The Cedar Rapids Gazette. Buying land to secure water rights would also cost a chunk of cash, which leads to an even larger obstacle for such proposals: the legal and political hoops. 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. Historian Ted Steinberg said itsummed up "the sheer arrogance and imperial ambitions of the modern hydraulic West.". "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. . She can be reached at jwilson@gannett.com or @janetwilson66 on Twitter. Well, kind of, Letters to the Editor: Shasta County dumps Dominion voting machines at its own peril, Editorial: Bay Area making climate change history by phasing out sales of gas furnaces and water heaters, Column: Mike Lindell is helping a California county dump voting machines. Anyone who thinks we can drain the aquifer and survive is grossly misinformed. All rights reserved. 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. Heproposed usingnuclear explosionsto excavate the system's trenches and underground water storage reservoirs. Drop us a note at tips@coloradosun.com. "I'm an optimist," said Coffey, who said local conservation is key. To be talking about pipe dreams, when thats not even feasible for decades, if at all Its a disservice, Scanlan said. Pipelines usually consist of sections of pipe made of . All rights reserved. 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. He said hes open to one but doesnt think its necessary. John Neely ofPalm Desert responded: "All of these river cities who refuse to give us their water can stop snowbirding to the desert to use our water. Email: newsroom@coloradosun.com The state should do everything possible to push conservation, but thats not going to cure the issue, he told Grist. 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. Every day, we hear about water conservation, restrictions. Even smaller projects stand to be derailed by similar hiccups. Latitude 3853'06", Longitude 9010'51" NAD27. Releasing more water downstream would come at the expense of upstream users . But moving water from one drought-impacted area to another is not a solution.. This would take 254 days to fill.. Drainage area 171,500 square miles . Gavin Newsom if he's. 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 to pump even more water out of the already-depleted Lake Powell. One proposed solution to the Colorado River Basin's water scarcity crisis has come up again and again: large-scale river diversions, including pumping Mississippi River water to the parched West . Flooding along the Mississippi River basin appears to have become more frequent in recent years, as has the [] A recent edition of The Desert Sun had twoletters objectingto piping water from the Mississippi River to the Colorado River, and on to California. These canals and pipelines are . To support our nonprofit environmental journalism, please consider disabling your ad-blocker to allow ads on Grist. 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. Local hurdles include endangered species protections, wetlands protections, drinking water supply considerations and interstate shipping protections. 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. Its largestdam would be 1,700 feet tall, more than twice the height of Hoover Dam. 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. Why are they so hard to catch? 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. 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. Every year, NAWAPA would deliver 158 million acre-feet of water to the US, Canada, and Mexico more than 10 times the annual flow of the Colorado River. Drought conditions plagued the region throughout 2022, prompting concerns over river navigation. But, as water scarcity in the West gets more desperate, the hurdles could be overcome one day. Just pump water a few miles from the Mississippi near Des Moines into the Ogallala aquifer. I find it interesting that households have to watch how much water theyare usingfor washing clothes, wateringlawns, washing cars,etc. The river's web, if some have their way, could become even larger. The mountains are green now but that could be harmful during wildfire season. Engineers said the pipelineidea is technically feasible. On the heels of Arizonas 2021 push for a pipeline feasibility study, former Arizona Gov. Vessels ran aground and had to navigate very carefully. 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? About 33% of vegetables and 66% of fruits and nuts are produced in California for consumption for the nation. 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. Arizona and Nevada residents must curb their use of water from the Colorado River, and California could be next. But the idea hasnever completely died. 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. 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. "I think that societally, we want to be more flexible. To the editor: I'd like to ask if the reader from Chatsworth calling for the construction of a water pipeline from the Mississippi River to Colorado River reservoirs has ever been to . 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. 1999-2023 Grist Magazine, Inc. All rights reserved. Letter writers have asked why a water pipeline is not constructed from the Mississippi River to the Colorado River. 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. About 33% of vegetables and 66% of fruits and nuts are produced in California for consumption for the nation. Facebook, Follow us on 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. Weve had a few blizzards along the way, and some gun battles, but it is what it is.. Each year worsens our receipt of rain and snow. "My son will never know what a six-gallon toilet looks like," she said. 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. 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. Local hurdles include endangered species protections, wetlands protections, drinking water supply considerations and interstate shipping protections. Twitter, Follow us on 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. and Renstrom says that unless Utah builds a long-promised pipeline to pump water 140 miles from Lake . 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. 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. I can't even imagine what it would all cost. The idea of a pipeline transecting the continent is not a new idea. We can move water, and weve proven our desire to do it. 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 . Water from these and other large rivers pour. 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. 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?" Not mentioned was the great grand-daddy of all schemes for re-allocating water, known as the North American Water and Power Authority Plan. "I started withtoilets, I was the toilet queen of L.A.," said Westford. There are no easy fixes to a West that has grown and has allocated all of its water theres no silver bullet, she said. Proponents of these projects argue that they could stabilize western cities for decades to come, connecting populations with unclaimed water rights. 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.