Twitter, Follow us on Letter writers have asked why a water pipeline is not constructed from the Mississippi River to the Colorado River. Since about 1983, Lake Mead has dropped in volume from full capacity at. 2023 www.desertsun.com. By Brittney J. Miller, The Cedar Rapids Gazette. Great Lakes water piped to Southwest 'our future,' says NASA scientist But water expertssaid it would likely take at least 30 years to clear legal hurdles to such a plan. No one wants to leave the western states without water, said Melissa Scanlan, a freshwater sciences professor at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. In China, the massiveSouth-to-North Water Diversion Projectis the largest such project ever undertaken. Diverting the Missouri River to the West: 'Can' Does Not - HuffPost Once again, Arizona hopes to import out-of-state water in face of crisis 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. No one wants to leave the western states without water, said Melissa Scanlan, a freshwater sciences professor at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. "People are spoiled in the United States. 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. It is time to think outside the box of rain. As the West bakes, Utah forges ahead with water pipeline We can move water, and weve proven our desire to do it. 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. But interest spans deeper than that. Page Contact Information: Missouri Water Data Support Team Page Last Modified: 2023-03-04 08:46:14 EST . She said extensive public education, aided by federal mandates and financial incentives, eventually led toa wholesale transition that saves millions of gallons of water. Drought Revives Mississippi River Pipe Dreams - The Waterways Journal Answer (1 of 21): Interbasin transfer is something we try to avoid. In the meantime, researchers encourage more feasible and sustainable options, including better water conservation, water recycling, and less agricultural reliance. Still, its physically possible. 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. I find it interesting that households have to watch how much water theyare usingfor washing clothes, wateringlawns, washing cars,etc. But, as water scarcity in the West gets more desperate, the hurdles could be overcome one day. In fact, she and others noted, many such ideas have been studied since the 1940s. 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. continue to approve surf waveparks and "beachfront" developments in the desert, Your California Privacy Rights / Privacy Policy. The 2012 study didn't discount either option but. But the idea hasnever completely died. To be talking about pipe dreams when thats not even feasible for decades, if at all Its a disservice, Scanlan said. Million told Grist that hes secured partial funding for the project from multiple banks and the infrastructure company MasTec, but it remains unclear how much he would have to charge to make the project profitable. The water would be drained via a 36 inch pipe already installed four miles west of Sugarloaf Mountain outside Marquette. Thats not to mention the housing development again, for the very wealthy with its own lagoon. after the growth in California . Let's be really clear here. Heres how that affects Indigenous water rights, Salton Sea public health disaster gets a $250 million shot in the arm. he said. 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 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. Historian Ted Steinberg said itsummed up "the sheer arrogance and imperial ambitions of the modern hydraulic West.". But interest spans deeper than that. Others said the costs of an Arizona-Mexico desalination plant would also likely prove infeasible. Donate today to keep our climate news free. To support our nonprofit environmental journalism, please consider disabling your ad-blocker to allow ads on Grist. The hypothetical Mississippi River pipeline, which gained new life last year amid devastating drought conditions, is a case in point. (Unrecognizable. Lake Mead, a lifeline for water in Los Angeles and the West, tips toward crisis, July 11). 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. 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. USGS 05587500 Mississippi River at Alton, IL. Millions in the Southwest will literally be left in the dark and blistering heat when theres no longer enough water behind the dam to power the giant electricity-producing turbines. It might be in the trillions, but it probably does exist.. 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. Experts say theres a proverbial snowballs chance in August of most of theseschemes being implemented. Pumping Mississippi River water west: solution or dream? Physically, some could be achieved. But the loss of so much water from the. Moving water from the Mississippi River to west would require massive CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (AP) Waves of torrential rainfall drenched California into the new year. An acre-foot is enough water to serve about two households for a year, so it could supply water to 150 million customers. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, prodded by members of Congressfrom western states, studied the massive proposal. Why not begin a grand national infrastructure project of building a water pipeline from those flooded states to the Southwest? Widespread interest in the plan eventually fizzled. It was the Bureau of Reclamation. Water Pipeline: From Mississippi River To The West? - YouTube 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. Grist is powered by WordPress VIP. 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. Experts say those will require sacrifices but not as many as building a giant pipeline would require. 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. "Arizona really, really wants oceanfront," she chuckled. He said a major wastewater reuse project that MWD plans to implement by 2032 could ultimately yield up 150 million gallons of potable water a day from treated waste. Gavin Newsom if he's. Their technical report, which hasnt been peer-reviewed. 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 driver of the truck was not injured. The only newsroom focused on exploring solutions at the intersection of climate and justice. Yet their persistence in the public sphere illustrates the growing desperation of Western states to dig themselves out of droughts. The project would require more than 300 new dams,canals, pipelines, tunnels, and pumping stations. I have dystopian nightmares aboutpipelines marching across the landscape, saidglobal water scarcity expert Jay Famiglietti. LAS VEGAS -- Lake Mead has nearly set a new record when its water level measured at 1081.10 feet, according to the Bureau of Reclamation. 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. Instagram, Follow us on Pipeline | Definition, History, Types, Uses, & Facts | Britannica Take that, Lake Mead. Despite the recent defeat of a major plant in Huntington Beach, after the California Coastal Commission said it was too environmentally damaging, "ocean desalination can't be off the table," said Coffey. But there are tons of things that can be done but arent ever done.. 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. 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. Every day, we hear about water conservation, restrictions. 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. These canals and pipelines are . Other forms of augmentation, like desalination, are also gaining popularity on the national scene as possible options. Politics are an even bigger obstacle for making multi-state pipelines a reality. Diverting that water also means spreading problems, like pollutants,. after the growth in California . 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. For one, theres no longer enough unclaimed water to make most pipeline projects cost-effective. Pipe water from the plentiful Great Lakes to deserted towns in the West like Phoenix and Las Vegas. 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 ongoing drought in California has hit its fourth year. 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.