water pipeline from mississippi river to california

Diverting that water also means spreading problems, like pollutants, excessive nutrients and invasive species. 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. Design and build by Upstatement. 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. All that snow in Arizona is nice now but officials worry that it could create disastrous flooding and wildfire conditions. Local hurdles include endangered species protections, wetlands protections, drinking water supply considerations and interstate shipping protections. In it, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and Idaho Attorney General Ral Labrador contend that a new interpretation of a Clean Water Act rule is too vague, oversteps the bounds of federal authority and puts the liberties of states and private property owners at risk. Instagram, Follow us on All rights reserved. The federal Water Conservation Bureau gave approval Tuesday to piping 440 billion gallons of water per month to Arizona. He said wastewater reuse by area agencies has already swelled from 0.20% in the 1980sto 12% of regional water supply. 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. This aerial photo of Davenport, Iowa, shows Mississippi River floodwaters in May 2019. 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. 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. 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. Yet their persistence in the public sphere illustrates the growing desperation of Western states to dig themselves out of droughts. 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 Old River Control Structure, as it was dubbed, is also the linchpin of massive but delicate locks and pulsed flows that feed the largest bottomland hardwood forests and wetlands in the United States, outstripping thebetter-known Okefenokee Swamp that straddles Georgia and Florida. USGS 05587500 Mississippi River at Alton, IL. In the meantime, researchers encourage more feasible and sustainable options, including better water conservation, water recycling, and less agricultural reliance. And contrary to Siefkes' claims, experts said, the silty river flows provide sediment critical to shore up the rapidly disappearing Louisiana coast andbarrier islands chewed to bits by hurricanes and sea rise. Arizona, for instance, has invested millions of dollars in wastewater recycling while other communities have paid to fix leaky pipes, making their water delivery systems more efficient. Is this a goo. Filling Lake Mead with Mississippi River Water No Longer a Pipe Dream. John Kaufman, the man who proposed the Missouri River pipeline, wants to see the artificial boundaries expand. 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.. Under the analyzed scenario, water would be conveyed to Colorados Front Range and areas of New Mexico to help fulfill water needs. But grand ideas for guaranteeing water for the arid Westhave beenfloated for decades. The Arizona Legislature wants the federal government to study the feasibility of constructing a pipeline . Opinion: How has American healthcare gone so wrong? When that happens, it wont be just tourists and recreational boaters who will suffer. Million sued, and he says he expects a ruling this year. Facebook, Follow us on 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. Whereas I understand water rights, but globalwarming has introduced new priorities. Flooding along the Mississippi River basin appears to have become more frequent in recent years, as has the [] The resulting fresh water would bepiped northto the thirsty state. Doug Ducey signed legislation this past July that invested $1.2 billion to fund projects that conserve water and bring more into the state. But there are tons of things that can be done but arent ever done.. Arizona and Nevada residents must curb their use of water from the Colorado River, and California could be next. Here are some facts to put perspective to several of the. We want to have more sustainable infrastructure. 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 . Water use has gone down 40% per capita in recent years, said Coffey. The sharing of water would greatly contribute to California being able to feed the nation. I find it interesting that households have to watch how much water theyare usingfor washing clothes, wateringlawns, washing cars,etc. 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. Heres why thats wise, Nicholas Goldberg: How I became a tool of Chinas giant anti-American propaganda machine, Opinion: Girls reporting sexual abuse shouldnt have to fear being prosecuted. The project would require more than 300 new dams,canals, pipelines, tunnels, and pumping stations. As an engineer, I can guarantee you that it is doable, Viadero said. Your support keeps our unbiased, nonprofit news free. By the way, none of this includes the incredible carbon footprints about to be stomped on the environment. Then take it out of the southern tip of the aquifer in Southern Colorado. Heres how that affects Indigenous water rights, Salton Sea public health disaster gets a $250 million shot in the arm. The state is expected to lose 10% of its water over the next two decades, reports the . 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. It's the lowest level since the lake was filled in the. Don't bother sending notices on conservation; they willbe ignored. Their technical report, which hasnt been peer-reviewed. California uses 34 million acre-feet of water per year for agriculture. 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. 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. pipeline, line of pipe equipped with pumps and valves and other control devices for moving liquids, gases, and slurries (fine particles suspended in liquid). One benefit would be flood control for the Eastern USA . 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. Infrastructure is one of the few ways well turn things around to assure that theres some supply.. 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. It boggles the mind. Runa giant hose from the Columbia River along the bottom of the Pacific Ocean to refill Diamond Valley Reservoir. These canals and pipelines are . Developed in 1964 by engineer Ralph Parsons and his Pasadena-basedParsons Corporation,the plan would provide 75million acre-feet of water to arid areas inCanada, the United States and Mexico. after the growth in California . 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. 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. 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. The bigger obstacles are fiscal, legal, environmentaland most of all, political. This summer, as seven states and Mexico push to meet a Tuesday deadline to agree on plans to shore up the Colorado River and itsshrivelingreservoirs, retired engineer Don Siefkes of San Leandro, California,wrote a letter to The Desert Sun with what he said was asolution to the West's water woes: build an aqueduct from the Old River Control Structure to Lake Powell, 1,489 miles west, to refill the Colorado River system with Mississippi River water. 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. While the much-needed water has improved conditions in the parched West, experts warn against claiming victory. Would itbe expensive? But it's doable. 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. Doug Ducey signed legislation this past July that invested $1.2 billion to fund projects that conserve water and bring more into the state. As part of our commitment to sustainability, in 2021 Grist moved its office headquarters to the Bullitt Center in Seattles vibrant Capitol Hill neighborhood. Pipe water from the plentiful Great Lakes to deserted towns in the West like Phoenix and Las Vegas. To the editor: While theres no question that the receding waters of Lake Mead are having a detrimental effect on recreation and tourism, the real looming catastrophe is that if the water level of the nations largest reservoir continues to fall and hits a certain level, the hydroeclectic power plant at Hoover Dam will have to shut down. 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. Even if the sticker price werent so prohibitive, there are other obstacles. But Westford and her colleague Brad Coffey, water resources manager,said desalination is needed in the Golden State. They also concluded environmental and permitting reviews would take decades. The conceptsfell into a few large categories: pipe Mississippi or Missouri River water to the eastern sideof the Rockies or to Lake Powell on the Arizona-Utah border, bring icebergs in bags, on container ships or via trucks to Southern California, pump water from the Columbia River in the Pacific Northwest to California via a subterranean pipeline on the floor of the Pacific Ocean, or replenish the headwaters of the Green River, the main stem of the Colorado River, with water from tributaries. Such major infrastructure is an absolute necessity, said Tom Buschatzke, director of the Arizona Department of Water Resources, who said he represents the governor on all things 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. 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. Other forms of augmentation, like desalination, are also gaining popularity on the national scene as possible options. 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. Available data for this site Madison County, Illinois. 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. Engineers said the pipelineidea is technically feasible. 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. Pipelines usually consist of sections of pipe made of . Diverting that water also means spreading problems, like pollutants, excessive nutrients, and invasive species. The snowbirds commonly stay here for at least six months. While they didnt outright reject the concepts, the experts laid out multi-billion-dollar price tags, including ever-higher fuel and power costs to pump water up mountains or over other geographic obstacles. 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. 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. Stories of similar projects often share the same ending, from proposals in Iowa and Minnesota to those between Canada and the United States. On the heels of Arizonas 2021 push for a pipeline feasibility study, former Arizona Gov. Most notably, the Mississippi River basin doesnt always have enough water to spare. If we had a big pipeline from Lake Sakakawea, we wouldn't just dump it into Lake Powell. Officials imposed the state's first-ever water restrictions on cities and towns, and California farmers are drilling deeper and . These realities havent stopped the Wests would-be water barons from dreaming. 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. Your California Privacy Rights / Privacy Policy. The Mississippi used to flow through a delta full of bayous, shifting sad bars, And islets. Just this past summer, the idea caused a firestorm of letters to the editor at a California newspaper. 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. he said. From winter lettuce in grocery stores to the golf courses of the Sun Belt, the Wests explosive growth over the past century rests on aqueducts, canals and drainage systems. Still, its physically possible. 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. 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. Water thieves abound in dry California. 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. By Brittney J. Miller, The Cedar Rapids Gazette. Seeking answers,The Desert Sun consultedwater experts, conservation groups and government officials for their assessments. And biologists andenvironmental attorneys saidNew Orleans and the Louisiana coast, along with the interior swamplands, need every drop of muddy Mississippi water. "This sounds outlandish, but we have a massive problem," Paffrath said. An acre-foot is enough water to serve about two households for a year, so it could supply water to 150 million customers. Scientists estimate a football field's worth of Louisiana coast is lost every 60 to 90 minutes. In the meantime, researchers encourage more feasible and sustainable options, including better water conservation, water recycling, and less agricultural reliance. In any case, Utah rejected a permit for the project in 2020, saying it would jeopardize the states own water rights. Last time I heard, we are still the United States of America.". "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 . Each year . 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. 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. Do they thank us for using our water? "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. Here's How. Each year worsens our receipt of rain and snow. 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. 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. Why it's a longshot: First, to get across the Continental Divide and into the Colorado River, you'd need an uphill pipeline about 1,000 miles long, which is longer than any other drinking water . The only newsroom focused on exploring solutions at the intersection of climate and justice. 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? 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. We have to conserve water, butnota ridiculous wave parkthat willprobably go bankrupt? 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. Gavin Newsom reaffirming his support for the ambitious proposal. 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. On Tuesday, the Scottsdale City Council agreed on a proposal to treat water and deliver it to the community for three years. "People are spoiled in the United States. 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. The water pipelines from the Mississippi River in Davenport, Iowa connecting to the headwaters of the Colorado River at the Rocky Mountain National Park. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson), Lawmakers targeting hospital facility fees, Whats Working: How a Denver nonprofit is expanding the benefits of work. 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. 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. Steps are being taken to address water issues in Buckeye. 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. But interest spans deeper than that. About 60 percent of the region remains in some form of drought, continuing a decades-long spiral into water scarcity. 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 largest eastern river, the Mississippi, has about 30 times the average annual flow of the Colorado, and the Columbia has close to 10 times. Formal large-scale water importation proposals have existed in the United States since at least the 1960s, when an American company devised the North American Water and Power Alliance to redistribute Alaskan water across the continent using reservoirs and canals. 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 . Arizonas main active management areas are in Maricopa, Pinal, Pima, and Santa Cruz counties, leaving much of rural Arizona water use unregulated. 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. The ongoing drought in California has hit its fourth year. Donate today tohelp keep Grists site and newsletters free. 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. Much of the sediment it was carrying was dropped in the slow moving water of the Delta. The Nevada Legislature is considering a bill that, if passed, would require restaurants to only provide water upon customer request. 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