Nonetheless, Siefkes trans-basin pipeline proposal went viral, receiving nearly half a million views. But interest spans deeper than that. The diverted flow would require massive water tunnels, since a flow of 250,000. But Denver officials have expressed skepticism,because Missouri or Mississippi water isof inferior quality to pure mountain water. I find it interesting that households have to watch how much water theyare usingfor washing clothes, wateringlawns, washing cars,etc. USGS 05587500 Mississippi River at Alton, IL. Vessels ran aground and had to navigate very carefully. Widespread interest in the plan eventually fizzled. Fueled by Google and other search engines, more than 3.2 millionpeople have read the letters, an unprecedented number for the regional publication's opinion content. Similar ideas have been suggested about Great Lakes water. In fact, she and others noted, many such ideas have been studied since the 1940s. Drought conditions plagued the region throughout 2022, for instance, prompting concerns over river navigation. 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. This One thousand mile long pipeline could move water from the Eastern USA (Great Lakes, Ohio River, Missouri River, and Mississippi River) to the Colorado River via the Mississippi River. Most notably, the Mississippi River basin doesnt always have enough water to spare. The project would require more than 300 new dams,canals, pipelines, tunnels, and pumping stations, bans large waterexportsoutside of the area. Were not looking for the last dollar out of this project, he told me. 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. Page Contact Information: Missouri Water Data Support Team Page Last Modified: 2023-03-04 08:46:14 EST . Just this past summer, the idea caused a firestorm of letters to the editor at a California newspaper. He said hes open to one but doesnt think its necessary. But moving water from one drought-impacted area to another is not a solution.. Among its provisions, the law granted the states water infrastructure finance authority to investigate the feasibility of potential out-of-state water import agreements. The Colorado River is drying up. 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. You couldbuild a pipeline from the Mississippi or Missouri Rivers. The most obvious problem with this proposal is its mind-boggling cost. 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. Plus, the federal report found the water would be of much lower quality than other western water sources. The idea of diverting water from the Mississippi to the Colorado River basin is an excellent one, albeit also fantastically expensive. Drought looms over midterm elections in the arid West, From lab to market, bio-based products are gaining momentum, The hazards of gas stoves were flagged by the industry and hidden 50 years ago, How Alaskas coastal communities are racing against erosion, Construction begins on controversial lithium mine in Nevada. All rights reserved. A 45-mile, $16 billion tunnel that would mark California's largest water project in nearly 50 years took a step closer to reality this week, with Gov. of Engineers has turned back official requests for more water from the Missouri River to alleviate shortages on the Mississippi. While the much-needed water has improved conditions in the parched West, experts warn against claiming victory. 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. On the heels of Arizonas 2021 push for a pipeline feasibility study, former Arizona Gov. But water expertssaid it would likely take at least 30 years to clear legal hurdles to such a plan. Arizona and Nevada residents must curb their use of water from the Colorado River, and California could be next. 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. Even if the government could clear these hurdles, the odds that Midwestern states would just let their water go are slim. 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. Its much easier to [propose] a shining pipeline from the Mississippi River that will never be built than it is to grapple with this really unpleasant truth.. The Arizona state legislature allocated seed money toward a study of a thousand-mile pipeline that would do exactly this last year, and the states top water official says hes spoken to officials in Kansas about participating in the project. The delta was tricky for barge traffic and shipping to navigate. The sharing of water would greatly contribute to California being able to feed the nation. Engineers said the pipelineidea is technically feasible. Just this past summer, the idea caused a firestorm of letters to the editor at a California newspaper. 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, an Arizona State University professor of water law. Yet some smaller-scale projects have become reality. and Renstrom says that unless Utah builds a long-promised pipeline to pump water 140 miles from Lake . But, he said, the days of mega-pipelines in the U.S. are likely over due to lack of environmental and political will. Yet some smaller-scale projects have become reality. Could a water pipeline from the Mississippi River to Arizona be a real solution? "I think that societally, we want to be more flexible. Physically, some could be achieved. I can't even imagine what it would all cost. 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. 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. We are already in a severe drought. The two reasons: 1) the process of moving water that far, and that high, wouldn't make economic sense; 2) Great Lakes water is locked down politically. What did Disney actually lose from its Florida battle with DeSantis? 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. 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. In the meantime, researchers encourage more feasible and sustainable options, including better water conservation, water recycling, and less agricultural reliance. The total projected cost of the plan in 1975 was $100 billion or nearly $570billion in today's dollars,comparable to theInterstate Highway System. A multi-state pipeline could easily require decades before it delivers a drop of water," said Michael Cohen, senior researcher with the Pacific Institute. Opinion: California gave up on mandating COVID vaccines for schoolchildren. In 1982,efforts were made to revive the plan by a Parsons company engineer, and the Lyndon Larouche movement supported itas recently as 2010. 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. An in-depth feasibility study specifically on pumping Mississippi River water to the West hasnt been conducted yet to Larsons knowledge. The elephant in the room, according to Fort, is agriculture, which accounts for more than 80 percent of water withdrawals from the Colorado River. Opinion: How has American healthcare gone so wrong? Savor that while your lawns are dying. 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. What states in the Southwest have failed to do is curtail growth and agriculture that is, of course, water-driven. We can move water, and weve proven our desire to do it. The federal Water Conservation Bureau gave approval Tuesday to piping 440 billion gallons of water per month to Arizona. Design and build by Upstatement. Take for instance the so-called Water Horse pipeline, a pet project of a Colorado investor and entrepreneur named Aaron Million. Parsons said theplanwould replenishthe upper Missouri and Mississippi Rivers during dry spells, increase hydropower along the Columbia Riverand stabilize the Great Lakes. Lower Mississippi River flow means less sediment carried down to Louisiana, where its used for coastal restoration. Runa giant hose from the Columbia River along the bottom of the Pacific Ocean to refill Diamond Valley Reservoir. 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. But, as water scarcity in the West gets more desperate, the hurdles could be overcome one day. "To my mind, the overriding fatal flaw for large import schemes is the time required to become operational. Still, its physically possible. Rescue the oceans from the pollution that flood waters pick up and dump into the ocean, creating dead zones. 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. But interest spans deeper than that. USGS 05587500 Mississippi River at Alton, IL. Each year . It might be in the trillions, but it probably does exist.. The actual costs to build such a pipeline today would likely be orders of magnitude higher, thanks to inflation and inevitable construction snags. The Western U.S. is experiencing its driest period in more than a thousand years, according to scientists from UCLA and Columbia University. The project would require more than 300 new dams,canals, pipelines, tunnels, and pumping stations. The 2012 study didn't discount either option but. Lower Mississippi River flow means less sediment carried down to Louisiana, where it's used for coastal restoration. Trans-national pipelines would also impact ecological resources. Politics are an even bigger obstacle to making multi-state pipelines a reality. Other legal constraints include the Endangered Species Act, the National Environmental Protection Act and variousstate environmental laws, said Brent Newman, senior policy director for the National Audubon Society's Delta state programs. YouTube, Follow us on Dothey pay extra for using our water? Facebook, Follow us on 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. A pipeline taking water from the Missouri River west makes perfect sense, if you don't care about money, energy, or the environment. Would itbe expensive? Letter writers have asked why a water pipeline is not constructed from the Mississippi River to the Colorado River. Releasing more water downstream would come at the expense of upstream users . "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 . document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); A nonprofit, independent media organization dedicated to telling stories of climate solutions and a just future. 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. He said wastewater reuse by area agencies has already swelled from 0.20% in the 1980sto 12% of regional water supply. 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. 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. Arizonas main active management areas are in Maricopa, Pinal, Pima, and Santa Cruz counties, leaving much of rural Arizona water use unregulated. 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. 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. "Arizona really, really wants oceanfront," she chuckled. In 1964, a California engineering company proposed diverting flows from the Yukon and Mackenzie River watersheds, shared by Canada and the U.S., all the way to southern California and into Mexico. 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. Absolutely not," said Meena Westford, executive director of Colorado River resource policy for the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California. Who is going to come to the desert and use it? You tellgolf courses how much water they can use, but one of thelargest wave basins in the world is acceptable? You could do it.". He said hes open to one but doesnt think its necessary. It might be in the trillions, but it probably does exist.. Tina Peters convicted of government obstruction charge, acquitted of obstructing a police officer, (720) 263-2338 Call, text, Signal or WhatsApp, Proudly powered by Newspack by Automattic. 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. "Mexico has said it didn't although there has been a recent change ingovernment.". 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. Any water diversion from the Mississippi to Arizona must be pumped about 6,000 feet up, over the Rockies. 1999-2023 Grist Magazine, Inc. All rights reserved. Follow us on The water would be drained via a 36 inch pipe already installed four miles west of Sugarloaf Mountain outside Marquette. Newsom said the state must capture 100 million metric tons of carbon each year by 2045 about a quarter of what the state now emits annually. Other forms of augmentation, like desalination, are also gaining popularity on the national scene as possible options. 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 . In southeastern California,officials at the Imperial Irrigation District, which is entitled toby far the largest share of Colorado River water, say any move to strip theirrights would result in legal challenges that could last years. 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. "This sounds outlandish, but we have a massive problem," Paffrath said. This story is a product of theMississippi River Basin Ag & Water Desk, an editorially independent reporting network based at the University ofMissouri School of Journalismin partnership withReport For Americaand theSociety of Environmental Journalists, funded by the Walton Family Foundation. 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. Large amounts of fossil fuelenergy neededto pump water over the Rockies would increase the very climate change thats exacerbating the 1,200-year drought afflicting the Colorado River in the first place, said Newman, who in his previous job helped the state of Colorado design a long-term water conservation plan. 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. But grand ideas for guaranteeing water for the arid Westhave beenfloated for decades. Their detractors counter that, in an era of permanent aridification driven by climate change, the only sustainable solution is not to bring in more water, but to consume less of it. An earlier version of this story misidentified for which agency Jennifer Pitt was a technical adviser. To the editor: The states near the Gulf of Mexico are often flooded with too much water, while the Southwest is suffering a long-term drought. That project, which also faces heavy headwinds from environmentalists, wouldcost an estimated $12 billion. 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. Gavin Newsom if he's. The mountains are green now but that could be harmful during wildfire season. The snowbirds commonly stay here for at least six months. 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. Instagram, Follow us on So moving water that far away to supplement the ColoradoRiver, I don't think is viable. Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information, Unrecognizable. Lake Mead, a lifeline for water in Los Angeles and the West, tips toward crisis. 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 . Even if the sticker price werent so prohibitive, there are other obstacles. And there are several approved diversions that draw water from the Great Lakes. 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. Most notably, the Mississippi River basin doesnt always have enough water to spare. 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. Donate today tohelp keep Grists site and newsletters free. Grab hydrogen and oxygen from the air and make artificialrain. Drought conditions plagued the region throughout 2022, prompting concerns over river navigation. Janet Wilson is senior environment reporter for The Desert Sun, and co-authors USA Today'sClimate Point newsletter. They also concluded environmental and permitting reviews would take decades. Whereas I understand water rights, but globalwarming has introduced new priorities. Mississippi River drought will impact your grocery bill. 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. About 60% of the region remains in some form of drought, continuing a decades-long spiral into water scarcity. Conservation alternatives are less palatable than big infrastructure projects, but theyre also more achievable. If you dont have enough of it, go find more. This is the country that built the Hoover Dam, and where Los Angeles suburbs were created by taking water from Owens Lake. Other forms of augmentation, like desalination, are also gaining popularity on the national scene as possible options. Reader support helps sustain our work. [1] A recent edition of The Desert Sun had twoletters objectingto piping water from the Mississippi River to the Colorado River, and on to California. 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. "I started withtoilets, I was the toilet queen of L.A.," said Westford. 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. The 800-mile system of pipelines, ditches and reservoirs would cost an estimated $23 billion and could provide 1 million acre-feet of water a year to Colorado. Instead, California is focused on better managing the water we have, improving forecasting, and making our groundwater basins more sustainable.. People need to focus on their realistic solutions.. 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. 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 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 . 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.

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