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. Siphon off a big portion, and youd be swapping oneecological catastrophe for another, said Audubons Johnson. 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. 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. Yet their persistence in the public sphere illustrates the growing desperation of Western states to dig themselves out of droughts. The Nevada Legislature is considering a bill that, if passed, would require restaurants to only provide water upon customer request. In China, the massiveSouth-to-North Water Diversion Projectis the largest such project ever undertaken. Drought conditions plagued the region throughout 2022, prompting concerns over river navigation. Known as one of the greenest commercial buildings in the world, since it opened its doors on Earth Day in 2013 the Bullitt Center has been setting a new standard for sustainable design. 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. You could do it.". 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. 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. Doug Ducey signed legislation this past July that invested $1.2 billion to fund projects that conserve water and bring more into the state. Paffrath proposed building a pipeline from the Mississippi River to bring water to drought-stricken California. 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. Letters to the Editor: Antigovernment ideology isnt working for snowed-in mountain towns, Letters to the Editor: Ignore Marjorie Taylor Greene? On the heels of Arizonas 2021 push for a pipeline feasibility study, former Arizona Gov. If you dont have enough of it, go find more. Most notably, the Mississippi River basin doesnt always have enough water to spare. While the much-needed water has improved conditions in the parched West, experts warn against claiming victory. Trans-national pipelines would also impact ecological resources. The memorial also suggests that the pipeline could be used as stormwater infrastructure to prevent regular flooding along the . CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (AP) Waves of torrential rainfall drenched California into the new year. 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. The distance between Albuquerque, for example, and the Mississippi River perhaps the closest hypothetical starting point for such a pipeline is about 1,000 miles, crossing at least three. What goes into the cat-and-mouse game of forecasting Colorados avalanche risks? Grist is powered by WordPress VIP. 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. "I don't think that drought, especially in the era of climate change, is something we can engineer our way out of.". 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. 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. Has no one noticed how much hotter the desert is getting, not to mention the increase in fires in our area. No one wants to leave the western states without water, said Melissa Scanlan, a freshwater sciences professor at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. To be talking about pipe dreams, when thats not even feasible for decades, if at all Its a disservice, Scanlan said. Savor that while your lawns are dying. 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. 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. Their technical report, which hasnt been peer-reviewed. 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. Anyone who thinks we can drain the aquifer and survive is grossly misinformed. No. A multi-state compact already prohibits any sale of water from the Great Lakes unless all bordering states agree to it, and its almost certain that Mississippi River states would pass laws restricting water diversions, or file lawsuits against western states, if the project went forward. But moving water from one drought-impacted area to another is not a solution.. Haul icebergs from the Arctic to a new southern California port. 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. Makes me wonder how this got this far, whose interests are being served and who's benefiting. 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. The ongoing drought in California has hit its fourth year. 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. About 60% of the region remains in some form of drought, continuing a decades-long spiral into water scarcity. As part of our commitment to sustainability, in 2021 Grist moved its office headquarters to the Bullitt Center in Seattles vibrant Capitol Hill neighborhood. Design and build by Upstatement. Donate today tohelp keep Grists site and newsletters free. Just this past summer, the idea caused a firestorm of letters to the editor at a California newspaper. It boggles the mind. But Denver officials have expressed skepticism,because Missouri or Mississippi water isof inferior quality to pure mountain water. So come on out for the plastic Marilyn on our dashboard, and stay for the stupendous waste of water, electricity and clean air. Diverting that water also means spreading problems, like pollutants, excessive nutrients, and invasive species. In 1982,efforts were made to revive the plan by a Parsons company engineer, and the Lyndon Larouche movement supported itas recently as 2010. . 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. 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. Diverting that water also means spreading problems, like pollutants, excessive nutrients and invasive species. 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? Theyre all such hypocrites. Instagram, Follow us on But there are tons of things that can be done but arent ever done.. 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 . ", But desert defenders pushed back. "Yes, a Superior-Green River pipeline seems unrealistic, even impossible at first glance," Huttner wrote for Minnesota Public Radio. 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. Any water diversion from the Mississippi to Arizona must be pumped about 6,000 feet up, over the Rockies. 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. As an engineer, I can guarantee you that it is doable, Viadero said. Your California Privacy Rights / Privacy Policy. California Departmentof Water Resourcesspokeswoman Maggie Maciasin an email: In considering the feasibility of a multi-state water conveyance infrastructure, the extraordinary costs that would be involved in planning, designing, permitting, constructing, and then maintaining and operating such a vast system of infrastructure would be significant obstacles when compared to the water supply benefits and flood water reduction benefits that it would provide. Citizens of Louisiana and Mississippi south of the Old River Control Structure dont need all that water. Just pump water a few miles from the Mississippi near Des Moines into the Ogallala aquifer. In the meantime, researchers encourage more feasible and sustainable options, including better water conservation, water recycling, and less agricultural reliance. 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. She said extensive public education, aided by federal mandates and financial incentives, eventually led toa wholesale transition that saves millions of gallons of water. We've had relatively rich resources for so long,we've never really had to deal withthis before, andwe don't want to change.". The Colorado Sun is a journalist-owned, award-winning news outlet based in Denver that strives to cover all of Colorado so that our state our community can better understand itself. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, prodded by members of Congressfrom western states, studied the massive proposal. Still, its physically possible. The bigger obstacles are fiscal, legal, environmentaland most of all, political. No. "We're going to start to see these reservoirs, which nine of them are already filled from the rain water, so then you add on snow melt and we may have some problems with that as far as flooding . 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. 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. What if our droughts get worse? It might be in the trillions, but it probably does exist.. But we need to know a lot more about it than we currently do.. Even if the government could clear these hurdles, the odds that Midwestern states would just let their water go are slim. [1] 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. Opinion: How has American healthcare gone so wrong? The state also set aside funds in 2018 to study possible imports from the Missouri or Mississippi Rivers, but to date, the study hasnt been done, he said. 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. But interest spans deeper than that. The river's web, if some have their way, could become even larger. 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. CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa Waves of torrential rainfall drenched California into the new year. 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. and Renstrom says that unless Utah builds a long-promised pipeline to pump water 140 miles from Lake . Conservation alternatives are less palatable than big infrastructure projects, but theyre also more achievable. These canals and pipelines are . 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. Other forms of augmentation, like desalination, are also gaining popularity on the national scene as possible options. 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. "This sounds outlandish, but we have a massive problem," Paffrath said. 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. A recent edition of The Desert Sun had twoletters objectingto piping water from the Mississippi River to the Colorado River, and on to California. It is time to think outside the box of rain. Most notably, the Mississippi River basin doesnt always have enough water to spare. An in-depth feasibility study specifically on pumping Mississippi River water to the West hasnt been conducted yet to Larsons knowledge. She can be reached at jwilson@gannett.com or @janetwilson66 on Twitter. Under the analyzed scenario, water would be conveyed to Colorados Front Range and areas of New Mexico to help fulfill water needs. But, as water scarcity in the West gets more desperate, the hurdles could be overcome one day. He frames the pipeline as a complement to water-saving policies. 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. Arizonas main active management areas are in Maricopa, Pinal, Pima, and Santa Cruz counties, leaving much of rural Arizona water use unregulated. All rights reserved. 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 resulting fresh water would bepiped northto the thirsty state. 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. Take that, Lake Mead. . Flooding along the Mississippi River basin appears to have become more frequent in recent years, as has the [] The pipeline would help it tap another 86,000 acre-feet of . In the meantime, researchers encourage more feasible and sustainable options, including better water conservation, water recycling, and less agricultural reliance. I can't even imagine what it would all cost. Water thieves abound in dry California. All rights reserved. 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. Yes. 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. Last time I heard, we are still the United States of America.". The idea of a pipeline transecting the continent is not a new idea. California Gov. "To my mind, the overriding fatal flaw for large import schemes is the time required to become operational. 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. But pipelines and other big ideaswill always attract interest, hydrology experts said, because they falsely promise an innovative, easy way out. Experts we spoke with agreed the feat would be astronomical. But it's doable. 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? 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. 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. Then take it out of the southern tip of the aquifer in Southern Colorado. You couldbuild a pipeline from the Mississippi or Missouri Rivers. Much of the sediment it was carrying was dropped in the slow moving water of the Delta. Yet some smaller-scale projects have become reality. 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. The sharing of water would greatly contribute to California being able to feed the nation. All that snow in Arizona is nice now but officials worry that it could create disastrous flooding and wildfire conditions. The . On Tuesday, the Scottsdale City Council agreed on a proposal to treat water and deliver it to the community for three years. 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. 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. Email: newsroom@coloradosun.com Subscribe today to see what all the buzz is about. "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 . Arizona and Nevada residents must curb their use of water from the Colorado River, and California could be next. Water use has gone down 40% per capita in recent years, said Coffey. Pitt, who was a technical adviser on Reclamation's2012 report,decried ceaselesspipeline proposals. In fact, she and others noted, many such ideas have been studied since the 1940s. 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. 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. About 60 percent of the region remains in some form of drought, continuing a decades-long spiral into water scarcity. Each edition is filled with exclusive news, analysis and other behind-the-scenes information you wont find anywhere else. 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.
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