The federal Water Conservation Bureau gave approval Tuesday to piping 440 billion gallons of water per month to Arizona. We can move water, and weve proven our desire to do it. One proposed solution to the Colorado River Basin's water scarcity crisis has come up again and again: large-scale river diversions, including pumping Mississippi River water to the parched West . 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. Shipping Snow: Could Eastern Water Ease Western Drought? More by The Associated Press, Got a story tip? 2023 www.desertsun.com. This is the country that built the Hoover Dam, and where Los Angeles suburbs were created by taking water from Owens Lake. Water thieves abound in dry California. 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. 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. An earlier version of this story misidentified for which agency Jennifer Pitt was a technical adviser. If officials approve this, the backlash willresult in everyone using as much water as wecare to. Just this past summer, the idea caused a firestorm of letters to the editor at a California newspaper. after the growth in California . "Yes, a Superior-Green River pipeline seems unrealistic, even impossible at first glance," Huttner wrote for Minnesota Public Radio. You could do it.". 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. The only newsroom focused on exploring solutions at the intersection of climate and justice. Why not begin a grand national infrastructure project of building a water pipeline from those flooded states to the Southwest? 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. 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. Scientists estimate a football field's worth of Louisiana coast is lost every 60 to 90 minutes. The elephant in the room, according to Fort, is agriculture, which accounts for more than 80 percent of water withdrawals from 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. 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. As the West bakes, Utah forges ahead with water pipeline 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. Take for instance the so-called Water Horse pipeline, a pet project of a Colorado investor and entrepreneur named Aaron Million. An acre-foot is enough water to serve about two households for a year, so it could supply water to 150 million customers. Improved simulations of streamflow and base flow for selected sites within and adjacent to the Mississippi River Alluvial Plain area are important for modeling groundwater flow because surface-water flows have a substantial effect on groundwater levels. All rights reserved. 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. Other forms of augmentation, like desalination, are also gaining popularity on the national scene as possible options. A pipeline to the Mississippi River Perhaps the biggest achievement Paffrath said he would accomplish if elected governor would be to solve California's water crisis by building a. Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window), Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window), Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window), Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window), FILE - Dredge Jadwin, a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers dredging vessel, powers south down the Mississippi River Wednesday, Oct. 19, 2022, past Commerce, Mo. A pipeline taking water from the Missouri River west makes perfect sense, if you don't care about money, energy, or the environment. The state should do everything possible to push conservation, but thats not going to cure the issue, he told Grist. Proponents of these projects argue that they could stabilize western cities for decades to come, connecting populations with unclaimed water rights. No. Democrat recall candidate Kevin Paffrath wants filter systems | The While the much-needed water has improved conditions in the parched West, experts warn against claiming victory. Stories of similar projects often share the same ending, from proposals in Iowa and Minnesota to those between Canada and the United States. "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 . My water, your water. On Tuesday, the Scottsdale City Council agreed on a proposal to treat water and deliver it to the community for three years. Letters to the Editor: Really, Californians? Another call for a water Experts say those will require sacrifices but not as many as building a giant pipeline would require. Those will require sacrifices, no doubt but not as many as building a giant pipeline would require, experts said. Palm Springs newspaper readers' drought fix: Siphon Mississippi 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. Email: newsroom@coloradosun.com 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. 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. 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. All that snow in Arizona is nice now but officials worry that it could create disastrous flooding and wildfire conditions. Idaho joins Texas lawsuit against Biden administration over federal The sharing of water would greatly contribute to California being able to feed the nation. 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. To support our nonprofit environmental journalism, please consider disabling your ad-blocker to allow ads on Grist. 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. 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. The water will drain into the headwaters of the Colorado river. 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. 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. 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. Water from these and other large rivers pour. The mountains are green now but that could be harmful during wildfire season. Telling stories that matter in a dynamic, evolving state. But if areas like the Coachella Valley continue to approve surf waveparks and "beachfront" developments in the desert, "we're screwed," he said bluntly. Asked about a Mississippi River pipeline or other new infrastructure to rescue the Colorado River, federal and state officials declined to respondor said there was no realistic chance such a major infrastructure project is in the offing. About 60 percent of the region remains in some form of drought, continuing a decades-long spiral into water scarcity. USGS 05587500 Mississippi River at Alton, IL Available data for this site Madison County, Illinois. Absolutely. Coffey said the project isn't really a pipeline, but more "a bypass for an aging 60-year-old"system. 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. Facebook, Follow us on Opinion: How has American healthcare gone so wrong? 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.
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