Additionally, building large infrastructure projects in general has become more difficult, in part thanks to reforms like the National Environmental Policy Act, which requires that detailed environmental impact statements be produced and evaluated for large new infrastructure projects. 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. Mississippi River to Colorado River Solar Powered Pipeline - Halfbakery "Yes, a Superior-Green River pipeline seems unrealistic, even impossible at first glance," Huttner wrote for Minnesota Public Radio. 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. Donate today to keep our climate news free. 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. Citizens of Louisiana and Mississippi south of the Old River Control Structure dont need all that water. But moving water from one drought-impacted area to another is not a solution.. ", Westford of Southern California's Metropolitan Water District agreed. 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. Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information, Unrecognizable. Lake Mead, a lifeline for water in Los Angeles and the West, tips toward crisis. 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. An in-depth feasibility study specifically on pumping Mississippi River water to the West hasnt been conducted yet to Larsons knowledge. As the West bakes, Utah forges ahead with water pipeline A recent edition of The Desert Sun had twoletters objectingto piping water from the Mississippi River to the Colorado River, and on to California. Absolutely. 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 resulting fresh water would bepiped northto the thirsty state. There are no easy fixes to a West that has grown and has allocated all of its water theres no silver bullet, she said. 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. The other alternatives have political costs, and they have costs that are maybe more likely to be borne locally, including by farmers and other large water users, she 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. 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. All rights reserved. On Tuesday, the Scottsdale City Council agreed on a proposal to treat water and deliver it to the community for three years. Pitt, who was a technical adviser on Reclamation's2012 report,decried ceaselesspipeline proposals. Water pipeline not feasible - Las Vegas Sun Newspaper The agency is moving forward with smallerprojects across the state to reduce seismic and hydrologic risks, like eliminating leaks or seepage, including at four existing dams and related spillways in Riverside and Los Angeles counties. It would turn the Southwest into an oasis, and the Great Basin into productive farmland. 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. 2023 www.desertsun.com. The mountains are green now but that could be harmful during wildfire season. The river's web, if some have their way, could become even larger. 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. Could a water pipeline from the Mississippi River to Arizona be a real 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. 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. Once again, Arizona hopes to import out-of-state water in face of crisis States wish they wouldnt. Much of the sediment it was carrying was dropped in the slow moving water of the Delta. California Gov. 1999-2023 Grist Magazine, Inc. All rights reserved. (Unrecognizable. Lake Mead, a lifeline for water in Los Angeles and the West, tips toward crisis, July 11). Democrat recall candidate Kevin Paffrath wants filter systems | The In the 20 years since he first had the idea, Million has suffered a string of regulatory and legal defeats at the hands of state and federal agencies, becoming a kind of bogeyman for conservationists in the process. The idea of diverting water from the Mississippi to the Colorado River basin is an excellent one, albeit also fantastically expensive. What if our droughts get worse? This is the country that built the Hoover Dam, and where Los Angeles suburbs were created by taking water from Owens Lake. 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. Million himself, though, is confident that his pipeline will get built, and that it will ensure Fort Collins future. By the way, none of this includes the incredible carbon footprints about to be stomped on the environment. The massive river, with tributaries from Montanato Ohio, is a national artery for shipping goodsout to sea. He said hes open to one but doesnt think its necessary. Drought conditions plagued the region throughout 2022, for instance, prompting concerns over river navigation. Mississippi River drought will impact your grocery bill. 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. So what are the solutions to the arid West's dilemma, as climate change heats up and California's State Water Project, along with Lake Mead and Lake Powell, shrivels due to reduced snowmelt and rainfall? Take for instance the so-called Water Horse pipeline, a pet project of a Colorado investor and entrepreneur named Aaron Million. "I'm an optimist," said Coffey, who said local conservation is key. 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. Officials imposed the state's first-ever water restrictions on cities and towns, and California farmers are drilling deeper and . USGS 05587500 Mississippi River at Alton, IL Steps are being taken to address water issues in Buckeye. 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. Most notably, the Mississippi River basin doesnt always have enough water to spare. China, unlike the US, is unencumbered by NEPA, water rights and democratic processes in general. People need to focus on their realistic solutions.. Page Contact Information: Missouri Water Data Support Team Page Last Modified: 2023-03-04 08:46:14 EST "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 . 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. I can't even imagine what it would all cost. and Renstrom says that unless Utah builds a long-promised pipeline to pump water 140 miles from Lake . 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. But, he said, the days of mega-pipelines in the U.S. are likely over due to lack of environmental and political will. On the heels of Arizonas 2021 push for a pipeline feasibility study, former Arizona Gov. Pipelines usually consist of sections of pipe made of . Lake Mead is at its lowest level since it was filled 85 years ago. 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 . 2023 www.desertsun.com. 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. 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. These canals and pipelines are . Each year worsens our receipt of rain and snow. And there are several approved diversions that draw water from the Great Lakes. But the loss of so much water from the. Could massive water pipelines solve the West's drought crisis? | Grist Others said the costs of an Arizona-Mexico desalination plant would also likely prove infeasible. For him, thatincludessetting aside at leastportions of the so-called "Law of the River," a complicated, century-old set of legal agreements that guarantees farmers in Southern California the largest share of water. To Larsons knowledge, an in-depth feasibility study specifically on pumping Mississippi River water to the West hasnt been conducted yet. In fact, she and others noted, many such ideas have been studied since the 1940s. Just pump water a few miles from the Mississippi near Des Moines into the Ogallala aquifer. 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. Filling Lake Mead with Mississippi River Water No Longer a Pipe Dream No one wants to leave the western states without water, said Melissa Scanlan, a freshwater sciences professor at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Instagram, Follow us on Just this past summer, the idea caused a firestorm of letters to the editor at a California newspaper. Talk about a job-creating infrastructure project, which would rivalthe tremendous civilengineering feats our country used to be noted for. This would take 254 days to fill.. So moving water that far away to supplement the ColoradoRiver, I don't think is viable. Experts say theres a proverbial snowballs chance in August of most of theseschemes being implemented. But we need to know a lot more about it than we currently do.. 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 . 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. Sharing Mississippi water with California would help feed America - Yahoo! The Associated Press Climate team contributed images and page design. Hydrologic Unit Code 07110009. 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. 1999-2023 Grist Magazine, Inc. All rights reserved. Why not begin a grand national infrastructure project of building a water pipeline from those flooded states to the Southwest? Other forms of augmentation, like desalination, are also gaining popularity on the national scene as possible options. 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. But interest spans deeper than that. Whereas I understand water rights, but globalwarming has introduced new priorities. 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.. To be talking about pipe dreams, when thats not even feasible for decades, if at all Its a disservice, Scanlan said. "Arizona really, really wants oceanfront," she chuckled. Take that, Lake Mead. 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. Diverting that water also means spreading problems, like pollutants,. Drought-Stricken West Looks to Mississippi River to Solve Water Woes Why are they so hard to catch? Any water diversion from the Mississippi to Arizona must be pumped about 6,000 feet up, over the Rockies. By Brittney J. Miller, The Cedar Rapids Gazette. "This sounds outlandish, but we have a massive problem," Paffrath said. Arizona needs water. But a Mississippi pipeline is a pipe dream Stop letting excess water flow out to sea. 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. The delta was tricky for barge traffic and shipping to navigate. 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. The idea of drinking even heavily treated liquid wastemay seem unpalatable, but Westfordthinks people will adapt. If we had a big pipeline from Lake Sakakawea, we wouldn't just dump it into Lake Powell. The hypothetical Mississippi River pipeline, which gained new life last year amid devastating drought conditions, is a case in point. Too wacky? Moving water from flood to drought - Phys.org Don't bother sending notices on conservation; they willbe ignored. 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. 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. 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. Its largestdam would be 1,700 feet tall, more than twice the height of Hoover Dam. Dothey pay extra for using our water? Under the analyzed scenario, water would be conveyed to Colorados Front Range and areas of New Mexico to help fulfill water needs. The federal Bureau of Reclamation has already looked at piping 600,000 acre-feet of water a year from either the Missouri or the Mississippi. "I think that societally, we want to be more flexible. 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. Their technical report, which hasnt been peer-reviewed. Imagine a Five foot diameter, half burried pipeline covered with photovoltaic cells on the upper half. The plan would divert water from the Missouri River which normally flows into the Mississippi River and out to the Gulf of Mexico through an enormous pipeline slicing some 600 miles (970 . Water thieves abound in dry California. 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. That project, which also faces heavy headwinds from environmentalists, wouldcost an estimated $12 billion. 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. But there are tons of things that can be done but arent ever done.. Here in the scorching Coachella Valley, local governments have approved construction of four surf resorts for the very wealthy. Other forms of augmentation, like desalination, are also gaining popularity on the national scene as possible options. 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. People need to focus on their realistic solutions.. 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. The federal Water Conservation Bureau gave approval Tuesday to piping 440 billion gallons of water per month to Arizona.