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pipeline, line of pipe equipped with pumps and valves and other control devices for moving liquids, gases, and slurries (fine particles suspended in liquid). It's 2011 and the technology exists to build a series of water pipelines across the US, to channel flood water to holding tanks in other areas, and to supply water to drought stricken areas. Most notably, the Mississippi River basin doesnt always have enough water to spare. Meanwhile, watershed states in the U.S., and even counties havetaken actionto preventsuch schemes. The state should do everything possible to push conservation, but thats not going to cure the issue, he told Grist. 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. 2023 www.desertsun.com. Coffey said the project isn't really a pipeline, but more "a bypass for an aging 60-year-old"system. What goes into the cat-and-mouse game of forecasting Colorados avalanche risks? To support our nonprofit environmental journalism, please consider disabling your ad-blocker to allow ads on Grist. 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. This aerial photo of Davenport, Iowa, shows Mississippi River floodwaters in May 2019. 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 Colorado River is drying up. The Mississippi used to flow through a delta full of bayous, shifting sad bars, And islets. 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? Citizens of Louisiana and Mississippi south of the Old River Control Structure dont need all that water. Absolutely not," said Meena Westford, executive director of Colorado River resource policy for the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California. Seeking answers,The Desert Sun consultedwater experts, conservation groups and government officials for their assessments. In fact, she and others noted, many such ideas have been studied since the 1940s. "I started withtoilets, I was the toilet queen of L.A.," said Westford. He said wastewater reuse by area agencies has already swelled from 0.20% in the 1980sto 12% of regional water supply. Siphon off a big portion, and youd be swapping oneecological catastrophe for another, said Audubons Johnson. Lower Mississippi River flow means less sediment carried down to Louisiana, where it's used for coastal restoration. CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (AP) Waves of torrential rainfall drenched California into the new year. Pitt, who was a technical adviser on Reclamation's2012 report,decried ceaselesspipeline proposals. "Mexico has said it didn't although there has been a recent change ingovernment.". 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. Answer (1 of 21): Interbasin transfer is something we try to avoid. The lawsuit, originally filed in southern Texas' federal courts Jan. 18, was amended to include Idaho on Monday. "To my mind, the overriding fatal flaw for large import schemes is the time required to become operational. 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. This would take 254 days to fill.. 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. It's the lowest level since the lake was filled in the. The massive river, with tributaries from Montanato Ohio, is a national artery for shipping goodsout to sea. Butbig water infrastructure projects aren't just of interest to the general public. The idea of drinking even heavily treated liquid wastemay seem unpalatable, but Westfordthinks people will adapt. 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. Letter writers have asked why a water pipeline is not constructed from the Mississippi River to the Colorado River. 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. 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. Arizona state legislators asked Congress to consider a pipeline that dumps Mississippi water into the Green River, but there are alternate possibilities. No. 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. But interest spans deeper than that. It might be in the trillions, but it probably does exist.. So moving water that far away to supplement the ColoradoRiver, I don't think is viable. 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. 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. 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. Were not looking for the last dollar out of this project, he told me. 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. Doug Ducey signed legislation this past July that invested $1.2 billion to fund projects that conserve water and bring more into the state. Thats not to mention the housing development again, for the very wealthy with its own lagoon. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 2023 www.desertsun.com. The idea of diverting water from the Mississippi to the Colorado River basin is an excellent one, albeit also fantastically expensive. 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. The trooper inside suffered minor injuries. Among its provisions, the law granted the states water infrastructure finance authority to investigate the feasibility of potential out-of-state water import agreements. "My son will never know what a six-gallon toilet looks like," she said. Gavin Newsom if he's. We want to have more sustainable infrastructure. She points to her earlyworkfor comparison. The most obvious problem with this proposal is its mind-boggling cost. Yet their persistence in the public sphere illustrates the growing desperation of Western states to dig themselves out of droughts. Fort, the University of New Mexico professor, worries that the bigwigs who throw their energy behind large capital projects may be neglecting other, more practical options. Arizona and Nevada residents must curb their use of water from the Colorado River, and California could be next. The pipeline would help it tap another 86,000 acre-feet of . The hypothetical Mississippi River pipeline, which gained new life last year amid devastating drought conditions, is a case in point. Subscribe today to see what all the buzz is about. The river's web, if some have their way, could become even larger. Anyone who thinks we can drain the aquifer and survive is grossly misinformed. 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. Just this past summer, the idea caused a firestorm of letters to the editor at a California newspaper. 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. 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. Still, its physically possible. Safety concerns increased in 2020 after a pipeline in Mississippi ruptured in a landslide, releasing a heavier-than-air plume of carbon dioxide that displaced oxygen near the ground. Diverting that water also means spreading problems, like pollutants, excessive nutrients, and invasive species. "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 . Just this past summer, the idea caused a firestorm of letters to the editor at a California newspaper. And biologists andenvironmental attorneys saidNew Orleans and the Louisiana coast, along with the interior swamplands, need every drop of muddy Mississippi water. 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. 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. 00:00 00:00 An unknown error. But, as water scarcity in the West gets more desperate, the hurdles could be overcome one day. To be talking about pipe dreams when thats not even feasible for decades, if at all Its a disservice, Scanlan said. 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. 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. 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. 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. after the growth in California . Under the analyzed scenario, water would be conveyed to Colorados Front Range and areas of New Mexico to help fulfill water needs. 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. Hydrologic Unit Code 07110009. Under the analyzed scenario, water would be conveyed to Colorados Front Range and areas of New Mexico to help fulfill water needs. Email: newsroom@coloradosun.com Amid a major drought in the Western U.S., a proposed solution comes up repeatedly: large-scale river diversions, including pumping Mississippi River water to parched states. 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. As part of our commitment to sustainability, in 2021 Grist moved its office headquarters to the Bullitt Center in Seattles vibrant Capitol Hill neighborhood. 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. 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 . . Many sawSiefkes' idea and others like it as sheer theft by a region that needs to fix its own woes. 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. A retired engineer suggested a rather outlandish-in-scope but logical-in-approach solution to the seemingly growing floods in the central U.S. and the water woes of the West Coast - build a nearly 1,500-mile aqueduct to connect the two. 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. 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. These canals and pipelines are . document.getElementById( "ak_js_2" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); This story is part of the Grist seriesParched, an in-depth look at how climate change-fueled drought is reshaping communities, economies, and ecosystems. Has no one noticed how much hotter the desert is getting, not to mention the increase in fires in our area. It might be in the trillions, but it probably does exist.. Widespread interest in the plan eventually fizzled. 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. By Brittney J. Miller, The Cedar Rapids Gazette. 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. "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. he said. Its largestdam would be 1,700 feet tall, more than twice the height of Hoover Dam. 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?" But the loss of so much water from the. People fish in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta's Elk Slough near Courtland, California, on Tuesday, March 24, 2020. Heres how that affects Indigenous water rights, Salton Sea public health disaster gets a $250 million shot in the arm. "Should we move the water to where the food is grown, or is it maybe time to think about moving the food production to the water?" Experts say those will require sacrifices but not as many as building a giant pipeline would require. 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. Since about 1983, Lake Mead has dropped in volume from full capacity at. If this gets any traction at all, people in the flyover states of the Missouri River basin probably will scream, one water official told the New York Times when the project first received attention. YouTube star and Democratic political novice Kevin Paffrath proposed the Mississippi River pipeline last week during a debate among candidates seeking to replace Gov. Pipe water from the plentiful Great Lakes to deserted towns in the West like Phoenix and Las Vegas. The California Aqueduct carries about 13,000 cubic feet per second through the Central Valley; the Colorado River atLees Ferry runs about 7,000 to 14,000 cfs; the Mississippi at Vicksburg varies from 400,000 to 1.2 million cfs. 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. Much of the sediment it was carrying was dropped in the slow moving water of the Delta. The only newsroom focused on exploring solutions at the intersection of climate and justice. Power from its hydroelectric dams would boost U.S. electricity supplies.