water pipeline from mississippi river to california

The idea of a pipeline transecting the continent is not a new idea. You tellgolf courses how much water they can use, but one of thelargest wave basins in the world is acceptable? Pitt, who was a technical adviser on Reclamation's2012 report,decried ceaselesspipeline proposals. Thats not to mention the housing development again, for the very wealthy with its own lagoon. Any water diversion from the Mississippi to Arizona must be pumped about 6,000 feet up, over the Rockies. But the idea hasnever completely died. USGS 05587500 Mississippi River at Alton, IL. 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. Janet Wilson is senior environment reporter for The Desert Sun, and co-authors USA Today'sClimate Point newsletter. Title: USGS Surface-Water Daily Data for the Nation URL: https://nwis.waterdata.usgs.gov/nwis/dv? 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. The Unaffiliated is our twice-weekly newsletter on Colorado politics and policy. Historian Ted Steinberg said itsummed up "the sheer arrogance and imperial ambitions of the modern hydraulic West.". Is Getting Great Lakes Water To The Southwest Just A Pipedream Under the analyzed scenario, water would be conveyed to Colorados Front Range and areas of New Mexico to help fulfill water needs. 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. Politics are an even bigger obstacle for making multi-state pipelines a reality. 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 total projected cost of the plan in 1975 was $100 billion or nearly $570billion in today's dollars,comparable to theInterstate Highway System. In China, the massiveSouth-to-North Water Diversion Projectis the largest such project ever undertaken. 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 . No. Is sending Mississippi water to West feasible? Experts weigh in Water Piped to Denver Could Ease Stress on River - The New York Times Runa giant hose from the Columbia River along the bottom of the Pacific Ocean to refill Diamond Valley Reservoir. Lower Mississippi River flow means less sediment carried down to Louisiana, where its used for coastal restoration. We have to conserve water, butnota ridiculous wave parkthat willprobably go bankrupt? Design and build by Upstatement. The Colorado River is drying up. 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. "Arizona really, really wants oceanfront," she chuckled. Other forms of augmentation, like desalination, are also gaining popularity on the national scene as possible options. Even at its cheapest, the project would cost about twice as much per acre-foot of water delivered than other solutions like water conservation and reuse. But there are tons of things that can be done but arent ever done.. How can we bring water from Mississippi river to west, Arizona - Quora . The Mississippi used to flow through a delta full of bayous, shifting sad bars, And islets. Is pumping Mississippi River water west a solution or pipe dream? Similar ideas have been suggested about Great Lakes water. All that snow in Arizona is nice now but officials worry that it could create disastrous flooding and wildfire conditions. "Yes, a Superior-Green River pipeline seems unrealistic, even impossible at first glance," Huttner wrote for Minnesota Public Radio. 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. Heres why thats wise, Nicholas Goldberg: How I became a tool of Chinas giant anti-American propaganda machine, Opinion: Girls reporting sexual abuse shouldnt have to fear being prosecuted. On the heels of Arizonas 2021 push for a pipeline feasibility study, former Arizona Gov. But interest spans deeper than that. 10/4/2021. 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 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. 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. 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 . pipeline, line of pipe equipped with pumps and valves and other control devices for moving liquids, gases, and slurries (fine particles suspended in liquid). But interest spans deeper than that. 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. Yet their persistence in the public sphere illustrates the growing desperation of Western states to dig themselves out of droughts. More by The Associated Press, Got a story tip? Others said the costs of an Arizona-Mexico desalination plant would also likely prove infeasible. 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. California Gov. 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. What if our droughts get worse? Your support keeps our unbiased, nonprofit news free. To be talking about pipe dreams, when thats not even feasible for decades, if at all Its a disservice, Scanlan said. ", But desert defenders pushed back. Among its provisions, the law granted the states water infrastructure finance authority to investigate the feasibility of potential out-of-state water import agreements. "I'm an optimist," said Coffey, who said local conservation is key. Idaho joins Texas lawsuit against Biden administration over federal 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. We can move water, and weve proven our desire to do it. Filling Lake Mead with Mississippi River Water No Longer a Pipe Dream. Experts say those will require sacrifices but not as many as building a giant pipeline would require. Even smaller projects stand to be derailed by similar hiccups. 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. Arizona and Nevada residents must curb their use of water from the Colorado River, and California could be next. Terms of Use | Privacy Policy. 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. Each edition is filled with exclusive news, analysis and other behind-the-scenes information you wont find anywhere else. China, unlike the US, is unencumbered by NEPA, water rights and democratic processes in general. Last updated on: February 10, 2023, 10:54h. 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, an Arizona State University professor of water law. 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. Even if the government could clear these hurdles, the odds that Midwestern states would just let their water go are slim. Flooding along the Mississippi River basin appears to have become more frequent in recent years, as has the [] Nonetheless, Siefkes trans-basin pipeline proposal went viral, receiving nearly half a million views. after the growth in California . The idea of drinking even heavily treated liquid wastemay seem unpalatable, but Westfordthinks people will adapt. Is this a goo. Pumping Mississippi River water west: solution or dream? Instagram, Follow us on If we had a big pipeline from Lake Sakakawea, we wouldn't just dump it into Lake Powell. Moreover, we need water in our dams for. Arizona needs water. But a Mississippi pipeline is a pipe dream Donate today to keep our climate news free. To Larsons knowledge, an in-depth feasibility study specifically on pumping Mississippi River water to the West hasnt been conducted yet. The state should do everything possible to push conservation, but thats not going to cure the issue, he told Grist. "This sounds outlandish, but we have a massive problem," Paffrath said. 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. 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. Heproposed usingnuclear explosionsto excavate the system's trenches and underground water storage reservoirs. 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. Let's be really clear here. A drive up Interstate 5 shows how muchland has been fallowed due tolack of water. Last time I heard, we are still the United States of America.". But pipelines and other big ideaswill always attract interest, hydrology experts said, because they falsely promise an innovative, easy way out. Leading environmental engineering firm to study alternative water What goes into the cat-and-mouse game of forecasting Colorados avalanche risks? 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. Shipping Snow: Could Eastern Water Ease Western Drought? The Arizona state legislature allocated seed money toward a study of a thousand-mile pipeline that would do exactly this last year, and the states top water official says hes spoken to officials in Kansas about participating in the project. 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. Facebook, Follow us on 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. "Mexico has said it didn't although there has been a recent change ingovernment.". 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. Gavin Newsom reaffirming his support for the ambitious proposal. Experts say theres a proverbial snowballs chance in August of most of theseschemes being implemented. It is time to think outside the box of rain. Too wacky? Moving water from flood to drought - Phys.org Much of the sediment it was carrying was dropped in the slow moving water of the Delta. The Great Lakes Compact, signed by President George W. Bush in 2008,bans large waterexportsoutside of the areawithout the approval of all eight states bordering them andinput fromOntario and Quebec. It was the Bureau of Reclamation. Their technical report, which hasnt been peer-reviewed. 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. 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. And there are several approved diversions that draw water from the Great Lakes. 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. CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa Waves of torrential rainfall drenched California into the new year. Here's How. Snowpacks in the Sierra Nevada Mountains have swelled to more than 200 percent of their normal size, and snowfall across the rest of the Colorado River Basin is trending above average, too. 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. Its largestdam would be 1,700 feet tall, more than twice the height of Hoover Dam. But moving water from one drought-impacted area to another is not a solution.. 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. Page Contact Information: Missouri Water Data Support Team Page Last Modified: 2023-03-04 08:46:14 EST Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information, Unrecognizable. Lake Mead, a lifeline for water in Los Angeles and the West, tips toward crisis. 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. Tribes in the Colorado River Basin are fighting for their water. Drop us a note at tips@coloradosun.com. Drought-Stricken West Looks to Mississippi River to Solve Water Woes "My son will never know what a six-gallon toilet looks like," she said. Not mentioned was the great grand-daddy of all schemes for re-allocating water, known as the North American Water and Power Authority Plan. YouTube, Follow us on Why not begin a grand national infrastructure project of building a water pipeline from those flooded states to the Southwest? The Western U.S. is experiencing its driest period in more than a thousand years, according to scientists from UCLA and Columbia University. 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. 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. 2023 www.desertsun.com. An acre-foot is enough water to serve about two households for a year, so it could supply water to 150 million customers. 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. Officials imposed the state's first-ever water restrictions on cities and towns, and California farmers are drilling deeper and . California uses 34 million acre-feet of water per year for agriculture. 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. 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. It's the lowest level since the lake was filled in the. All rights reserved. Can the Mississippi River save Arizona? - wmicentral.com Most recently, the Arizona state legislature passed a measure in 2021 urging Congress to investigate pumping flood water from the Mississippi River to the Colorado River to bolster its flow. Diverting that water also means spreading problems, like pollutants, excessive nutrients and invasive species. Petition End Floods in America by Creating a Pipeline Network to 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. Twitter, Follow us on 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. The trooper inside suffered minor injuries. The hypothetical Mississippi River pipeline, which gained new life last year amid devastating drought conditions, is a case in point. Who is going to come to the desert and use it? . . 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. Pumping Mississippi River water west: solution or pipe dream? 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. States wish they wouldnt. 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. 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 elephant in the room, according to Fort, is agriculture, which accounts for more than 80 percent of water withdrawals from the Colorado River. Widespread interest in the plan eventually fizzled. 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. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, prodded by members of Congressfrom western states, studied the massive proposal. The idea's been dismissed for as long as it's. As the West bakes, Utah forges ahead with water pipeline This is the country that built the Hoover Dam, and where Los Angeles suburbs were created by taking water from Owens Lake. 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 actual costs to build such a pipeline today would likely be orders of magnitude higher, thanks to inflation and inevitable construction snags. Donate today tohelp keep Grists site and newsletters free. PROVISIONAL DATA SUBJECT TO REVISION. They also concluded environmental and permitting reviews would take decades. "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 . ", Westford of Southern California's Metropolitan Water District agreed. This latest version would curve up through the Wyoming flatlands and back down to Fort Collins, a distance of around 340 miles. The lawsuit, originally filed in southern Texas' federal courts Jan. 18, was amended to include Idaho on Monday. Most notably, the Mississippi River basin doesnt always have enough water to spare. Reader support helps sustain our work. As apractical matter, Famiglietti, a Universityof Saskatchewan hydrology professor who tracks water basins worldwide via NASA satellite data, saidMississippi River states also experiencedry spells, and the watershed, the fourth largest in the world, also ebbs and flows. The other alternatives have political costs, and they have costs that are maybe more likely to be borne locally, including by farmers and other large water users, she said. YouTube. There are no easy fixes to a West that has grown and has allocated all of its water theres no silver bullet, she said. The only newsroom focused on exploring solutions at the intersection of climate and justice. He said hes open to one but doesnt think its necessary. Drainage area 171,500 square miles . Its much easier to [propose] a shining pipeline from the Mississippi River that will never be built than it is to grapple with this really unpleasant truth.. One method for simulating streamflow and base flow, random forest (RF) models, was developed from the data at gaged sites and, in turn, was . The idea of a pipeline transecting the continent is not a new idea. It boggles the mind. Why can't California build a pipeline for water from other states Senior citizens dont go to wave parks. 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. A 45-mile, $16 billion tunnel that would mark California's largest water project in nearly 50 years took a step closer to reality this week, with Gov. "I don't think that drought, especially in the era of climate change, is something we can engineer our way out of.". Instead, California is focused on better managing the water we have, improving forecasting, and making our groundwater basins more sustainable..