water pipeline from mississippi river to california

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. "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. But there are tons of things that can be done but arent ever done.. Most notably, the Mississippi River basin doesnt always have enough water to spare. Just pump water a few miles from the Mississippi near Des Moines into the Ogallala aquifer. 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. 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. 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. Steps are being taken to address water issues in Buckeye. 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. 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. Even if the government could clear these hurdles, the odds that Midwestern states would just let their water go are slim. 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? Your support keeps our unbiased, nonprofit news free. But interest spans deeper than that. WATER WILL SOON be flowing from Lake Superior to the parched American Southwest. Were doing everything we can to minimize impacts, maximize benefits, and this project has a lot of benevolence associated with it. In his vision of the Wests future, urban growth will necessitate more big infrastructure projects like his. Lower Mississippi River flow means less sediment carried down to Louisiana, where it's used for coastal restoration. Yet their persistence in the public sphere illustrates the growing desperation of Western states to dig themselves out of droughts. Each year worsens our receipt of rain and snow. "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 . 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. 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. 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. What goes into the cat-and-mouse game of forecasting Colorados avalanche risks? Meanwhile, watershed states in the U.S., and even counties havetaken actionto preventsuch schemes. It was the Bureau of Reclamation. "The engineering is feasible. Million himself, though, is confident that his pipeline will get built, and that it will ensure Fort Collins future. The ongoing drought in California has hit its fourth year. Donate today tohelp keep Grists site and newsletters free. Arizona and Nevada residents must curb their use of water from the Colorado River, and California could be next. Theyre all such hypocrites. Opinion: How has American healthcare gone so wrong? 10/4/2021. There are at least half a dozen major water pipeline projects under consideration throughout the region, ranging from ambitious to outlandish. Twitter, Follow us on This latest version would curve up through the Wyoming flatlands and back down to Fort Collins, a distance of around 340 miles. 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? 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. Just this past summer, the idea caused a firestorm of letters to the editor at a California newspaper. My water, your water. The state is expected to lose 10% of its water over the next two decades, reports the . On the heels of Arizonas 2021 push for a pipeline feasibility study, former Arizona Gov. Experts say those will require sacrifices but not as many as building a giant pipeline would require. And there are several approved diversions that draw water from the Great Lakes. Their technical report, which hasnt been peer-reviewed. 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. "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 . In 1982,efforts were made to revive the plan by a Parsons company engineer, and the Lyndon Larouche movement supported itas recently as 2010. States wish they wouldnt. As zany as the ideas may sound, could anywork, and if so, what would be the costs? 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. 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. 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. 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. For one, theres no longer enough unclaimed water to make most pipeline projects cost-effective. Power from its hydroelectric dams would boost U.S. electricity supplies. 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. 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 two reasons: 1) the process of moving water that far, and that high, wouldn't make economic sense; 2) Great Lakes water is locked down politically. In the meantime, researchers encourage more feasible and sustainable options, including better water conservation, water recycling, and less agricultural reliance. 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. Yet some smaller-scale projects have become reality. 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. These realities havent stopped the Wests would-be water barons from dreaming. The state should do everything possible to push conservation, but thats not going to cure the issue, he told Grist. 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. 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. For him, thatincludessetting aside at leastportions of the so-called "Law of the River," a complicated, century-old set of legal agreements that guarantees farmers in Southern California the largest share of water. 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 . In China, the massiveSouth-to-North Water Diversion Projectis the largest such project ever undertaken. But there are tons of things that can be done but arent ever done.. 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 letter and others with an array of ideasgenerated hugeinterest from readers around the country and debate about whether the conceptsare technically feasible, politically possible orenvironmentally wise. Gavin Newsom if he's. 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. 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. Vessels ran aground and had to navigate very carefully. California Gov. "Mexico has said it didn't although there has been a recent change ingovernment.". It's the lowest level since the lake was filled in the. 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. These canals and pipelines are . The elephant in the room, according to Fort, is agriculture, which accounts for more than 80 percent of water withdrawals from the Colorado River. The only newsroom focused on exploring solutions at the intersection of climate and justice. It willtake liquid sewage, treat it, and either percolate it back into area groundwater, or, if California law is changed,pipe itto water tanks across the basin. It might be in the trillions, but it probably does exist.. He said hes open to one but doesnt think its necessary. My state, your state. USGS 05587500 Mississippi River at Alton, IL. Savor that while your lawns are dying. 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. 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. But pipelines and other big ideaswill always attract interest, hydrology experts said, because they falsely promise an innovative, easy way out. 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. Lower Mississippi River flow means less sediment carried down to Louisiana, where its used for coastal restoration. 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. The idea of a pipeline transecting the continent is not a new idea. Others said the costs of an Arizona-Mexico desalination plant would also likely prove infeasible. For as long as this idea has been proposed. 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. 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. 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. Moreover, we need water in our dams for hydroelectric power as well as for drinking and irrigation, so we would power the Hoover, Glen Canyon and Parker dams. 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. She can be reached at jwilson@gannett.com or @janetwilson66 on Twitter. Butbig water infrastructure projects aren't just of interest to the general public. In the meantime, researchers encourage more feasible and sustainable options, including better water conservation, water recycling, and less agricultural reliance. 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. Letters to the Editor: Antigovernment ideology isnt working for snowed-in mountain towns, Letters to the Editor: Ignore Marjorie Taylor Greene? Here's How. Heproposed usingnuclear explosionsto excavate the system's trenches and underground water storage reservoirs. Page Contact Information: Missouri Water Data Support Team Page Last Modified: 2023-03-04 08:46:14 EST Just this past summer, the idea caused a firestorm of letters to the editor at a California newspaper. 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 idea of diverting water from the Mississippi to the Colorado River basin is an excellent one, albeit also fantastically expensive. Drop us a note at tips@coloradosun.com. The water would be drained via a 36 inch pipe already installed four miles west of Sugarloaf Mountain outside Marquette. Here are some facts to put perspective to several of the. The water will drain into the headwaters of the Colorado river. 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. Each year . Above, the droughts effects can be seen at a marina on June 29. Take for instance the so-called Water Horse pipeline, a pet project of a Colorado investor and entrepreneur named Aaron Million. 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. Diverting that water also means spreading problems, like pollutants,. Drainage area 171,500 square miles . A multi-state pipeline could easily require decades before it delivers a drop of water," said Michael Cohen, senior researcher with the Pacific Institute. Widespread interest in the plan eventually fizzled. 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. Seeking answers,The Desert Sun consultedwater experts, conservation groups and government officials for their assessments. Studies and modern-day engineering have proven that such projects are possible but would require decades of construction and billions of dollars. The pipeline will end in the Rocky Mountain National park. Has no one noticed how much hotter the desert is getting, not to mention the increase in fires in our area. 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. Would itbe expensive? Why not begin a grand national infrastructure project of building a water pipeline from those flooded states to the Southwest? No. Talk about a job-creating infrastructure project, which would rivalthe tremendous civilengineering feats our country used to be noted for. 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. He frames the pipeline as a complement to water-saving policies. 2023 www.desertsun.com. We are already in a severe drought. 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. The idea of diverting water from the Mississippi to the Colorado River basin is an excellent one, albeit also fantastically expensive. 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. Instagram, Follow us on Telling stories that matter in a dynamic, evolving state. This would take 254 days to fill.. But moving water from one drought-impacted area to another is not a solution.. "To my mind, the overriding fatal flaw for large import schemes is the time required to become operational.

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