Instagram, Follow us on The only newsroom focused on exploring solutions at the intersection of climate and justice. California uses 34 million acre-feet of water per year for agriculture. Siphon off a big portion, and youd be swapping oneecological catastrophe for another, said Audubons Johnson. 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. If officials approve this, the backlash willresult in everyone using as much water as wecare to. Stories of similar projects often share the same ending, from proposals in Iowa and Minnesota to those between Canada and the United States. Arizonas main active management areas are in Maricopa, Pinal, Pima, and Santa Cruz counties, leaving much of rural Arizona water use unregulated. Makes me wonder how this got this far, whose interests are being served and who's benefiting. Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information, Unrecognizable. Lake Mead, a lifeline for water in Los Angeles and the West, tips toward crisis. 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. "People are spoiled in the United States. 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. 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 . But pipelines and other big ideaswill always attract interest, hydrology experts said, because they falsely promise an innovative, easy way out. To Larsons knowledge, an in-depth feasibility study specifically on pumping Mississippi River water to the West hasnt been conducted yet. The idea of a pipeline transecting the continent is not a new idea. California uses 34 million acre-feet of water per year for agriculture. 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. 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. 1999-2023 Grist Magazine, Inc. All rights reserved. I have dystopian nightmares aboutpipelines marching across the landscape, saidglobal water scarcity expert Jay Famiglietti. But the loss of so much water from the. Trans-national pipelines would also impact ecological resources. Do they thank us for using our water? "The engineering is feasible. Yet their persistence in the public sphere illustrates the growing desperation of Western states to dig themselves out of droughts. What if our droughts get worse? 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. Infrastructure is one of the few ways well turn things around to assure that theres some supply.. "I started withtoilets, I was the toilet queen of L.A.," said Westford. 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. Your support keeps our unbiased, nonprofit news free. 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. The pipeline would help it tap another 86,000 acre-feet of . My state, your state. An acre-foot is enough water to serve about two households for a year, so it could supply water to 150 million customers. Opinion: How has American healthcare gone so wrong? "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. Butbig water infrastructure projects aren't just of interest to the general public. 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. Coffey said the project isn't really a pipeline, but more "a bypass for an aging 60-year-old"system. 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 . When that happens, it wont be just tourists and recreational boaters who will suffer. 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. Last updated on: February 10, 2023, 10:54h. 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. Gavin Newsom also touted desalination in adrought resilience plan he announcedlast week, though in brackish inland areas. 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? Available data for this site Madison County, Illinois. A pipeline taking water from the Missouri River west makes perfect sense, if you don't care about money, energy, or the environment. The total projected cost of the plan in 1975 was $100 billion or nearly $570billion in today's dollars,comparable to theInterstate Highway System. Other forms of augmentation, like desalination, are also gaining popularity on the national scene as possible options. The snowbirds commonly stay here for at least six months. The river's web, if some have their way, could become even larger. 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. Just this past summer, the idea caused a firestorm of letters to the editor at a California newspaper. The diverted flow would require massive water tunnels, since a flow of 250,000. 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. But, as water scarcity in the West gets more desperate, the hurdles could be overcome one day. Janet Wilson is senior environment reporter for The Desert Sun, and co-authors USA Today'sClimate Point newsletter. 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. 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. Still, its physically possible. YouTube star and Democratic political novice Kevin Paffrath proposed the Mississippi River pipeline last week during a debate among candidates seeking to replace Gov. 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. Any water diversion from the Mississippi to Arizona must be pumped about 6,000 feet up, over the Rockies. Filling Lake Mead with Mississippi River Water No Longer a Pipe Dream. But there are tons of things that can be done but arent ever done.. Subscribe today to see what all the buzz is about. Mississippi River drought will impact your grocery bill. If you dont have enough of it, go find more. 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. But moving water from one drought-impacted area to another is not a solution.. 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. We can move water, and weve proven our desire to do it. 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. Photos of snowfall around northern Arizona. Email: newsroom@coloradosun.com The resulting fresh water would bepiped northto the thirsty state. 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. It boggles the mind. Telling stories that matter in a dynamic, evolving state. The trooper inside suffered minor injuries. Theyre all such hypocrites. Some plans call for a connection to. The hypothetical Mississippi River pipeline, which gained new life last year amid devastating drought conditions, is a case in point. What did Disney actually lose from its Florida battle with DeSantis? It is time to think outside the box of rain. YouTube, Follow us on after the growth in California . 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. "I don't think that drought, especially in the era of climate change, is something we can engineer our way out of.". 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. You should worry, Hidden, illegal casinos are booming in L.A., with organized crime reaping big profits, Look up: The 32 most spectacular ceilings in Los Angeles, Elliott: Kings use their heads over hearts in trading Jonathan Quick, This fabled orchid breeder loves to chat just not about Trader Joes orchids. On Tuesday, the Scottsdale City Council agreed on a proposal to treat water and deliver it to the community for three years. The main pipeline would span about 1,000 miles from Jackson, Miss., along the southern borders of Colorado and Utah to Lake Powell, at an elevation of about 3,700 feet. As part of our commitment to sustainability, in 2021 Grist moved its office headquarters to the Bullitt Center in Seattles vibrant Capitol Hill neighborhood. Power from its hydroelectric dams would boost U.S. electricity supplies. Absolutely. 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.. Since about 1983, Lake Mead has dropped in volume from full capacity at. A multi-state pipeline could easily require decades before it delivers a drop of water," said Michael Cohen, senior researcher with the Pacific Institute. 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. Studies and modern-day engineering have proven that such projects are possible but require decades of construction and billions of dollars. 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. The water pipelines from the Mississippi River in Davenport, Iowa connecting to the headwaters of the Colorado River at the Rocky Mountain National Park. Rescue the oceans from the pollution that flood waters pick up and dump into the ocean, creating dead zones. Ive cowboyed enough in my life to know that you just got to stick to the trail, he said. WATER WILL SOON be flowing from Lake Superior to the parched American Southwest. 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. Donate today to keep our climate news free. of Engineers has turned back official requests for more water from the Missouri River to alleviate shortages on the Mississippi. Such major infrastructure is an absolute necessity, said Tom Buschatzke, director of the Arizona Department of Water Resources, who said he represents the governor on all things Colorado River.. Pipe water from the plentiful Great Lakes to deserted towns in the West like Phoenix and Las Vegas. The water, more than 44 million gallons a day, would come from 115 wells drilled between 1,000 and 5,000 feet deep in Beryl-Enterprise, a basin where the state has restricted use of shallow groundwater due to over-extraction. We can move water, and weve proven our desire to do it. Each year worsens our receipt of rain and snow. 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. The idea of drinking even heavily treated liquid wastemay seem unpalatable, but Westfordthinks people will adapt. 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. Local hurdles include endangered species protections, wetlands protections, drinking water supply considerations and interstate shipping protections. Yes, it would be hugely expensive. All rights reserved. John Kaufman, the man who proposed the Missouri River pipeline, wants to see the artificial boundaries expand. "Yes, a Superior-Green River pipeline seems unrealistic, even impossible at first glance," Huttner wrote for Minnesota Public Radio. People need to focus on their realistic solutions.. 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. Would itbe expensive? . Instagram, Follow us on 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. 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. 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. Moreover, we need water in our dams for. 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. 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. 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?" Local hurdles include endangered species protections, wetlands protections, drinking water supply considerations and interstate shipping protections. China, unlike the US, is unencumbered by NEPA, water rights and democratic processes in general. ", Westford of Southern California's Metropolitan Water District agreed. 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. This is the country that built the Hoover Dam, and where Los Angeles suburbs were created by taking water from Owens Lake. after the growth in California . The idea of diverting water from the Mississippi to the Colorado River basin is an excellent one, albeit also fantastically expensive. Releasing more water downstream would come at the expense of upstream users . "My son will never know what a six-gallon toilet looks like," she said. But we need to know a lot more about it than we currently do.. Letter writers have asked why a water pipeline is not constructed from the Mississippi River to the Colorado River. The idea of diverting water from the Mississippi to the Colorado River basin is an excellent one, albeit also fantastically expensive. 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 water would be drained via a 36 inch pipe already installed four miles west of Sugarloaf Mountain outside Marquette. Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. It is a minimum of 1,067 miles from the Mississippi River to the Colorado River if it could be built in a fairly straight line (St. Louis to Grand Junction, Colorado, based on the route of. Arizona state legislators asked Congress to consider a pipeline that dumps Mississippi water into the Green River, but there are alternate possibilities. Don't bother sending notices on conservation; they willbe ignored. 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? 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. Officials imposed the state's first-ever water restrictions on cities and towns, and California farmers are drilling deeper and . The actual costs to build such a pipeline today would likely be orders of magnitude higher, thanks to inflation and inevitable construction snags. Who is going to come to the desert and use it? Each edition is filled with exclusive news, analysis and other behind-the-scenes information you wont find anywhere else. These realities havent stopped the Wests would-be water barons from dreaming. "I think that societally, we want to be more flexible. Most notably, the Mississippi River basin doesn't always have enough water to spare. Follow us on He said hes open to one but doesnt think its necessary. Pipelines usually consist of sections of pipe made of . 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. This story is a product of theMississippi River Basin Ag & Water Desk, an editorially independent reporting network based at the University ofMissouri School of Journalismin partnership withReport For Americaand theSociety of Environmental Journalists, funded by the Walton Family Foundation. 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 Unaffiliated is our twice-weekly newsletter on Colorado politics and policy. The driver of the truck was not injured. These canals and pipelines are . Many sawSiefkes' idea and others like it as sheer theft by a region that needs to fix its own woes. They also concluded environmental and permitting reviews would take decades. Experts say theres a proverbial snowballs chance in August of most of theseschemes being implemented. Drought conditions plagued the region throughout 2022, for instance, prompting concerns over river navigation. By Brittney J. Miller, The Cedar Rapids Gazette. 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 . The 2012 study didn't discount either option but. 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. For as long as this idea has been proposed. An in-depth feasibility study specifically on pumping Mississippi River water to the West hasnt been conducted yet to Larsons knowledge. 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. 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. Then take it out of the southern tip of the aquifer in Southern Colorado. Parsons said theplanwould replenishthe upper Missouri and Mississippi Rivers during dry spells, increase hydropower along the Columbia Riverand stabilize the Great Lakes. Drought conditions plagued the region throughout 2022, for instance, prompting concerns over river navigation. 2023 www.desertsun.com. Runa giant hose from the Columbia River along the bottom of the Pacific Ocean to refill Diamond Valley Reservoir. 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. Posted on: February 7, 2023, 02:30h. 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. If we had a big pipeline from Lake Sakakawea, we wouldn't just dump it into Lake Powell. Grab hydrogen and oxygen from the air and make artificialrain. 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. Grist is powered by WordPress VIP. So come on out for the plastic Marilyn on our dashboard, and stay for the stupendous waste of water, electricity and clean air. 10/4/2021. He said hes open to one but doesnt think its necessary. 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. Nonetheless, Siefkes trans-basin pipeline proposal went viral, receiving nearly half a million views. Their technical report, which hasnt been peer-reviewed. Why are they so hard to catch? 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. Los Angeles-area water districts have implemented much of what Famiglietti mentioned. The project would require more than 300 new dams,canals, pipelines, tunnels, and pumping stations.