Donate today to keep our climate news free. The project would require more than 300 new dams,canals, pipelines, tunnels, and pumping stations. 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. And there are several approved diversions that draw water from the Great Lakes. 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. Do we have the political will? Some plans call for a connection to. 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. 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. after the growth in 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. This would take 254 days to fill.. As politicians across the West confront the consequences of the climate-fueled Millennium Drought, many of them are heeding the words of Chinatown and trying to bring in outside water through massive capital projects. "To my mind, the overriding fatal flaw for large import schemes is the time required to become operational. Similar ideas have been suggested about Great Lakes water. While the much-needed water has improved conditions in the parched West, experts warn against claiming victory. Among its provisions, the law granted the states water infrastructure finance authority to investigate the feasibility of potential out-of-state water import agreements. To be talking about pipe dreams, when thats not even feasible for decades, if at all Its a disservice, Scanlan said. Drop us a note at tips@coloradosun.com. Wildfire, flooding concerns after massive snowfall in Arizona, Customers will have to ask for water at Nevada restaurants if bill passes, Snow causes semi truck to crash into Arizona DPS Trooper SUV near Williams, A showdown over Colorado River water is setting the stage for a high-stakes legal battle, In Arizona and other western states, pressure to count water lost to evaporation, While the much-needed water has improved conditions in the parched West, Arizona state legislature passed a measure in 2021, RELATED: Phoenix city officials celebrate final pipe installation in the Drought Pipeline Project, the most comprehensive analysis ever undertaken within the Colorado River Basin. "My son will never know what a six-gallon toilet looks like," she said. He said hes open to one but doesnt think its necessary. In the meantime, researchers encourage more feasible and sustainable options, including better water conservation, water recycling, and less agricultural reliance. What states in the Southwest have failed to do is curtail growth and agriculture that is, of course, water-driven. 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. [1] By the way, none of this includes the incredible carbon footprints about to be stomped on the environment. Drought conditions plagued the region throughout 2022, prompting concerns over river navigation. It dawned on Million that Colorado had unclaimed rights to water from the Green, since the river was part of the Colorado River system, and he devised a plan to build a pipeline that would pump water around the Rockies to the city of Fort Collins, where he lives. Still, he admits the road hasnt always been easy, and that victory is far from guaranteed. The 2012 study didn't discount either option but. 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. The idea's been dismissed for as long as it's. The only newsroom focused on exploring solutions at the intersection of climate and justice. The only newsroom focused on exploring solutions at the intersection of climate and justice. Those will require sacrifices, no doubt but not as many as building a giant pipeline would require, experts said. We have to conserve water, butnota ridiculous wave parkthat willprobably go bankrupt? Anyone who thinks we can drain the aquifer and survive is grossly misinformed. They also concluded environmental and permitting reviews would take decades. 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. I can't even imagine what it would all cost. Terms of Use | Privacy Policy. He frames the pipeline as a complement to water-saving policies. 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. 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. "I started withtoilets, I was the toilet queen of L.A.," said Westford. . Opinion: How has American healthcare gone so wrong? 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 snowbirds commonly stay here for at least six months. 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. 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. Arizona and Nevada residents must curb their use of water from the Colorado River, and California could be next. 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. Twitter, Follow us on But interest spans deeper than that. Why are they so hard to catch? The most obvious problem with this proposal is its mind-boggling cost. 1999-2023 Grist Magazine, Inc. All rights reserved. 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. 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. . Another businessman in New Mexico has pushed plans to pump river water 150 miles to the city of Santa Fe, but that water would have to be pumped uphill. 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? But interest spans deeper than that. As part of our commitment to sustainability, in 2021 Grist moved its office headquarters to the Bullitt Center in Seattles vibrant Capitol Hill neighborhood. 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. 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. The hypothetical Mississippi River pipeline, which gained new life last year amid devastating drought conditions, is a case in point. 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. And biologists andenvironmental attorneys saidNew Orleans and the Louisiana coast, along with the interior swamplands, need every drop of muddy Mississippi water. He raised the possibility that policymakers will seek to build a 900-mile pipeline from Lake Superior to the Green River watershed in southwest Wyoming. Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information, Unrecognizable. Lake Mead, a lifeline for water in Los Angeles and the West, tips toward crisis. 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. Even smaller projects stand to be derailed by similar hiccups. 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 . 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. 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 . An earlier version of this story misidentified for which agency Jennifer Pitt was a technical adviser. 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 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. Heproposed usingnuclear explosionsto excavate the system's trenches and underground water storage reservoirs. The state is expected to lose 10% of its water over the next two decades, reports the . You couldbuild a pipeline from the Mississippi or Missouri Rivers. The project would have to secure dozens of state and federal permits and clear an enormous federal environmental review; moving the water would also require the construction of several hundred megawatts of power generation. Title: USGS Surface-Water Daily Data for the Nation URL: https://nwis.waterdata.usgs.gov/nwis/dv? Under the analyzed scenario, water would be conveyed to Colorados Front Range and areas of New Mexico to help fulfill water needs. 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. The massive river, with tributaries from Montanato Ohio, is a national artery for shipping goodsout to sea. China, unlike the US, is unencumbered by NEPA, water rights and democratic processes in general. USGS 05587500 Mississippi River at Alton, IL. 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. The delta was tricky for barge traffic and shipping to navigate. 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. We can move water, and weve proven our desire to do it. A recent edition of The Desert Sun had twoletters objectingto piping water from the Mississippi River to the Colorado River, and on to California. We can move water, and weve proven our desire to do it. Paffrath proposed building a pipeline from the Mississippi River to bring water to drought-stricken California. Its largestdam would be 1,700 feet tall, more than twice the height of Hoover Dam. 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. 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. If you dont have enough of it, go find more. "Mexico has said it didn't although there has been a recent change ingovernment.". Most recently, in 2012, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation produced a report laying out a potentially grim future for the Colorado River, and had experts evaluate 14 big ideas commonly touted as potential solutions. 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. The idea of diverting water from the Mississippi to the Colorado River basin is an excellent one, albeit also fantastically expensive. 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. 2023 www.desertsun.com. Experts we spoke with agreed the feat would be astronomical. 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. 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. No. Whereas I understand water rights, but globalwarming has introduced new priorities. 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. Just this past summer, the idea caused a firestorm of letters to the editor at a California newspaper. Meanwhile, watershed states in the U.S., and even counties havetaken actionto preventsuch schemes. Mississippi River drought will impact your grocery bill. The water pipelines from the Mississippi River in Davenport, Iowa connecting to the headwaters of the Colorado River at the Rocky Mountain National Park. Stories of similar projects often share the same ending, from proposals in Iowa and Minnesota to those between Canada and the United States. Posted on: February 7, 2023, 02:30h. Las Vegas' grand proposal is to take water from the mighty Mississippi in a series of smaller pipeline-like exchanges among states just west of the Mississippi to refill the overused. According to DPS, the driver of the semi-truck lost control of the truck on the icy I-40 freeway near Williams, striking a DPS patrol car parked by the side of the highway. Weve had a few blizzards along the way, and some gun battles, but it is what it is.. 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. In fact, she and others noted, many such ideas have been studied since the 1940s. But we need to know a lot more about it than we currently do.. She points to her earlyworkfor comparison. 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. 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. Senior citizens dont go to wave parks. Gavin Newsom also touted desalination in adrought resilience plan he announcedlast week, though in brackish inland areas. Under the analyzed scenario, water would be conveyed to Colorados Front Range and areas of New Mexico to help fulfill water needs. of Engineers has turned back official requests for more water from the Missouri River to alleviate shortages on the Mississippi. 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. Widespread interest in the plan eventually fizzled. Even if the government could clear these hurdles, the odds that Midwestern states would just let their water go are slim. We have already introduced invasive species all over the continentzebra mussels, quagga mussels, grass carp, spiny water flea, lampreys, ru. Last updated on: February 10, 2023, 10:54h. The ongoing drought in California has hit its fourth year. Last time I heard, we are still the United States of America.". What if our droughts get worse? The diverted flow would require massive water tunnels, since a flow of 250,000. Plus, the federal report found the water would be of much lower quality than other western water sources. 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. What goes into the cat-and-mouse game of forecasting Colorados avalanche risks? The Unaffiliated is our twice-weekly newsletter on Colorado politics and policy. The idea of drinking even heavily treated liquid wastemay seem unpalatable, but Westfordthinks people will adapt. The driver of the truck was not injured. 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. 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. Stop letting excess water flow out to sea. Nevertheless, Million hasnt given up, and hes currently working to secure permitting for the fourth iteration of the project. Certainly not the surrounding communities. 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.
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