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

"To my mind, the overriding fatal flaw for large import schemes is the time required to become operational. Among its provisions, the law granted the states water infrastructure finance authority to investigate the feasibility of potential out-of-state water import agreements. But there are tons of things that can be done but arent ever done.. He said hes open to one but doesnt think its necessary. 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. The Mississippi used to flow through a delta full of bayous, shifting sad bars, And islets. Water thieves abound in dry California. ", Westford of Southern California's Metropolitan Water District agreed. We want to have more sustainable infrastructure. It boggles the mind. Mississippi River drought will impact your grocery bill. 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. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson), Lawmakers targeting hospital facility fees, Whats Working: How a Denver nonprofit is expanding the benefits of work. 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. 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. Politics are an even bigger obstacle to 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. The pipeline will end in the Rocky Mountain National park. 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 . The state should do everything possible to push conservation, but thats not going to cure the issue, he told Grist. 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. 2023 www.desertsun.com. Would itbe expensive? 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. The trooper inside suffered minor injuries. The California water wars of the early twentieth century are summed up in a famous line from the 1974 film Chinatown: Either you bring the water to L.A., or you bring L.A. to the water. Nearly a hundred years have elapsed since the events the film dramatizes, but much of the West still approaches water the same way. Tribes in the Colorado River Basin are fighting for their water. Facebook, Follow us on Don't bother sending notices on conservation; they willbe ignored. To be talking about pipe dreams when thats not even feasible for decades, if at all Its a disservice, Scanlan said. CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa Waves of torrential rainfall drenched California into the new year. But, he said, the days of mega-pipelines in the U.S. are likely over due to lack of environmental and political will. The Colorado River is drying up. People fish in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta's Elk Slough near Courtland, California, on Tuesday, March 24, 2020. While the much-needed water has improved conditions in the parched West, experts warn against claiming victory. Stop letting excess water flow out to sea. Butbig water infrastructure projects aren't just of interest to the general public. In 1982,efforts were made to revive the plan by a Parsons company engineer, and the Lyndon Larouche movement supported itas recently as 2010. Still, its physically possible. 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 Renstrom says that unless Utah builds a long-promised pipeline to pump water 140 miles from Lake . The massive river, with tributaries from Montanato Ohio, is a national artery for shipping goodsout to sea. The Western U.S. is experiencing its driest period in more than a thousand years, according to scientists from UCLA and Columbia University. Each edition is filled with exclusive news, analysis and other behind-the-scenes information you wont find anywhere else. Arizonas main active management areas are in Maricopa, Pinal, Pima, and Santa Cruz counties, leaving much of rural Arizona water use unregulated. Arizona state legislators asked Congress to consider a pipeline that dumps Mississippi water into the Green River, but there are alternate possibilities. These realities havent stopped the Wests would-be water barons from dreaming. 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. Releasing more water downstream would come at the expense of upstream users . She points to her earlyworkfor comparison. 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. By Brittney J. Miller, The Cedar Rapids Gazette. "Arizona really, really wants oceanfront," she chuckled. Additionally, building large infrastructure projects in general has become more difficult, in part thanks to reforms like the National Environmental Policy Act, which requires that detailed environmental impact statements be produced and evaluated for large new infrastructure projects. The snowbirds commonly stay here for at least six months. 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. Your support keeps our unbiased, nonprofit news free. Many sawSiefkes' idea and others like it as sheer theft by a region that needs to fix its own woes. But pipelines and other big ideaswill always attract interest, hydrology experts said, because they falsely promise an innovative, easy way out. 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. The Unaffiliated is our twice-weekly newsletter on Colorado politics and policy. This summer, as seven states and Mexico push to meet a Tuesday deadline to agree on plans to shore up the Colorado River and itsshrivelingreservoirs, retired engineer Don Siefkes of San Leandro, California,wrote a letter to The Desert Sun with what he said was asolution to the West's water woes: build an aqueduct from the Old River Control Structure to Lake Powell, 1,489 miles west, to refill the Colorado River system with Mississippi River water. 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. At comment sessions on Colorado's plan, he said, long-distance pipelines wereconstantly suggested by the public. Other forms of augmentation, like desalination, are also gaining popularity on the national scene as possible options. In the meantime, researchers encourage more feasible and sustainable options, including better water conservation, water recycling, and less agricultural reliance. Most notably, the Mississippi River basin doesnt always have enough water to spare. Studies and modern-day engineering have proven that such projects are possible but would require decades of construction and billions of dollars. Among its provisions, the law granted the states water infrastructure finance authority to investigate the feasibility of potential out-of-state water import agreements. Others said the costs of an Arizona-Mexico desalination plant would also likely prove infeasible. Last time I heard, we are still the United States of America.". 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. "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 . The pipeline would provide the Colorado River basin with 600,000 acre-feet of water annually, which could serve roughly a million single-family homes. Here are some facts to put perspective to severalof the opinions already expressed here: An aqueduct running from thelower Mississippi to the Colorado River (via the San Juan River tributary, at Farmington, New Mexico), with the same capacity as the California Aqueduct, would roughly double the flow of thelatter while taking merely 1-3% of the formers flow. 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. 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. USGS 05587500 Mississippi River at Alton, IL. 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. 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. My water, your water. 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. Not mentioned was the great grand-daddy of all schemes for re-allocating water, known as the North American Water and Power Authority Plan. Studies and modern-day engineering have proven that such projects are possible but require decades of construction and billions of dollars. He said wastewater reuse by area agencies has already swelled from 0.20% in the 1980sto 12% of regional water supply. They includegawky pink roseate spoonbills, tiny bright yellow warblers, known as swamp candles because of their bright glow in the humid, green woods, and more. 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. Either way, most of these projects stand little chance of becoming reality theyre ideas from a bygone era, one that has more in common with the world of Chinatown than the parched west of the present. 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. 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 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. Yet some smaller-scale projects have become reality. Page Contact Information: Missouri Water Data Support Team Page Last Modified: 2023-03-04 08:46:14 EST The ongoing drought in California has hit its fourth year. As an engineer, I can guarantee you that it is doable, Viadero said. 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. That project, which also faces heavy headwinds from environmentalists, wouldcost an estimated $12 billion. Haul icebergs from the Arctic to a new southern California port. 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. She said extensive public education, aided by federal mandates and financial incentives, eventually led toa wholesale transition that saves millions of gallons of water. Yet some smaller-scale projects have become reality. 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. The 2012 study didn't discount either option but. (Unrecognizable. Lake Mead, a lifeline for water in Los Angeles and the West, tips toward crisis, July 11). Is this a goo. 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. 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. 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. So what are the solutions to the arid West's dilemma, as climate change heats up and California's State Water Project, along with Lake Mead and Lake Powell, shrivels due to reduced snowmelt and rainfall? But moving water from one drought-impacted area to another is not a solution.. Engineers said the pipelineidea is technically feasible. Yet their persistence in the public sphere illustrates the growing desperation of Western states to dig themselves out of droughts. Donate today tohelp keep Grists site and newsletters free. 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. 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. Absolutely not," said Meena Westford, executive director of Colorado River resource policy for the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California. The idea's been dismissed for as long as it's. The water will drain into the headwaters of the Colorado river. In their technical report, which hasnt been peer-reviewed, they 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. All rights reserved. Anyone who thinks we can drain the aquifer and survive is grossly misinformed. Certainly not the surrounding communities. As zany as the ideas may sound, could anywork, and if so, what would be the costs?