CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (AP) Waves of torrential rainfall drenched California into the new year. The Southern Delivery System in the nearby Arkansas River Basin pipes water from Pueblo County more than 60 miles north to Colorado Springs, Fountain and Security. The snowbirds commonly stay here for at least six months.
Is sending Mississippi water to West feasible? Experts weigh in California Gov. 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. 1999-2023 Grist Magazine, Inc. All rights reserved. In the meantime, researchers encourage more feasible and sustainable options, including better water conservation, water recycling, and less agricultural reliance. Releasing more water downstream would come at the expense of upstream users .
Can you solve drought by piping water across the country? - New York Times The pipeline will end in the Rocky Mountain National park. No.
Sharing Mississippi water with California would help feed America - Yahoo! 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. 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. Their technical report, which hasnt been peer-reviewed, 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. Imagine a Five foot diameter, half burried pipeline covered with photovoltaic cells on the upper half. Moreover, we need water in our dams for hydroelectric power as well as for drinking and irrigation, so we would power the Hoover, Glen Canyon and Parker dams. Arizona state legislators asked Congress to consider a pipeline that dumps Mississippi water into the Green River, but there are alternate possibilities. Subscribe today to see what all the buzz is about. ", But desert defenders pushed back. 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.
Drought Revives Mississippi River Pipe Dreams - The Waterways Journal 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. People need to focus on their realistic solutions..
Colorado River crisis: Can water be piped from Mississippi, Missouri? and Renstrom says that unless Utah builds a long-promised pipeline to pump water 140 miles from Lake . "We do not expect to see (carbon capture and storage) happen at a large scale unless we are able to address that pipeline issue," said Rajinder Sahota, deputy executive officer for climate change . 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. The ongoing drought in California has hit its fourth year. We have already introduced invasive species all over the continentzebra mussels, quagga mussels, grass carp, spiny water flea, lampreys, ru. The mountains are green now but that could be harmful during wildfire season. Other forms of augmentation, like desalination, are also gaining popularity on the national scene as possible options. 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. "Mexico has said it didn't although there has been a recent change ingovernment.". 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. Would itbe expensive? Don't bother sending notices on conservation; they willbe ignored. 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 "interstate water system" could fix the West's water woes Just this past summer, the idea caused a firestorm of letters to the editor at a California newspaper.
. 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. John Kaufman, the man who proposed the Missouri River pipeline, wants to see the artificial boundaries expand. 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. She can be reached at jwilson@gannett.com or @janetwilson66 on Twitter.
Guess Who Proposed the Missouri River Pipeline in the Federal 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. All rights reserved. So come on out for the plastic Marilyn on our dashboard, and stay for the stupendous waste of water, electricity and clean air. The most obvious problem with this proposal is its mind-boggling cost. About 33% of vegetables and 66% of fruits and nuts are produced in California for consumption for the nation. A pipeline taking water from the Missouri River west makes perfect sense, if you don't care about money, energy, or the environment. 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. Those will require sacrifices, no doubt but not as many as building a giant pipeline would require, experts said. 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. 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. Any water diversion from the Mississippi to Arizona must be pumped about 6,000 feet up, over the Rockies. 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.
Arizona Legislators Want to Ship Mississippi River - Planetizen "Yes, a Superior-Green River pipeline seems unrealistic, even impossible at first glance," Huttner wrote for Minnesota Public Radio.
Could massive water pipelines solve the West's drought crisis? | Grist Letters to the Editor: Really, Californians? Another call for a water Widespread interest in the plan eventually fizzled. He frames the pipeline as a complement to water-saving policies. The list of projects that run on similarly magical thinking goes on: Utah wants to build a pipeline of its own from Lake Powell to the fast-growing city of St. George, but Lake Powell has almost no water left. We need to protect our water supply, at allcosts, and forgo our financialgains. 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. Last time I heard, we are still the United States of America.". 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. Its largestdam would be 1,700 feet tall, more than twice the height of Hoover Dam.
Can Water Megaprojects Save The US Desert West? (Part 2) 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. If officials approve this, the backlash willresult in everyone using as much water as wecare to.
How can we bring water from Mississippi river to west, Arizona - Quora She and others worked to persuade reluctant consumers, builders and policymakers to ditchwidely usedsix-gallon flush toilets in favor of perfectly effective two-gallon versions.
Can the Mississippi River save Arizona? - wmicentral.com People need to focus on their realistic solutions.. 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. She said extensive public education, aided by federal mandates and financial incentives, eventually led toa wholesale transition that saves millions of gallons of water. The only newsroom focused on exploring solutions at the intersection of climate and justice. Conservation alternatives are less palatable than big infrastructure projects, but theyre also more achievable. 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. The Unaffiliated is our twice-weekly newsletter on Colorado politics and policy. 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. Even if the government could clear these hurdles, the odds that Midwestern states would just let their water go are slim. Lower Mississippi River flow means less sediment carried down to Louisiana, where its used for coastal restoration. 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. But we need to know a lot more about it than we currently do..
Moving water from the Mississippi River to west would require massive It was the Bureau of Reclamation.
Leading environmental engineering firm to study alternative water 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. YouTube, Follow us on And several approved diversions draw water from the Great Lakes. Page Contact Information: Missouri Water Data Support Team Page Last Modified: 2023-03-04 08:46:14 EST . 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. 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. The California water wars of the early twentieth century are summed up in a famous line from the 1974 film Chinatown: Either you bring the water to L.A., or you bring L.A. to the water. Nearly a hundred years have elapsed since the events the film dramatizes, but much of the West still approaches water the same way. But interest spans deeper than that. Do they thank us for using our water? Diverting that water also means spreading problems, like pollutants, excessive nutrients, and invasive species. But, as water scarcity in the West gets more desperate, the hurdles could be overcome one day. 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. 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. WATER WILL SOON be flowing from Lake Superior to the parched American Southwest. But Denver officials have expressed skepticism,because Missouri or Mississippi water isof inferior quality to pure mountain water.
Democrat recall candidate Kevin Paffrath wants filter systems | The . Fort, the University of New Mexico professor, worries that the bigwigs who throw their energy behind large capital projects may be neglecting other, more practical options. Asked what might be the requirements and constraints of a pipeline from the Mississippi River to the Colorado River, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers spokesman Gene Pawliksaid, Since (the Army Corps) has not done a formal study related to the use of pipelines to move water between watersheds, we cannot speculate on the details or cost of such projects.. Follow us on Take for instance the so-called Water Horse pipeline, a pet project of a Colorado investor and entrepreneur named Aaron Million. 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 Colorado River is drying up. 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.
Column: Building a pipeline to the Mississippi? An idea as harebrained USGS 05587500 Mississippi River at Alton, IL. "Nebraska wants to build a canal to pull water from the SouthPlatte River in Colorado, and downstream, Colorado wants to take water from the Missouri River and pull it back across Nebraska. Lake Mead is at its lowest level since it was filled 85 years ago. Since about 1983, Lake Mead has dropped in volume from full capacity at. Physically, some could be achieved. 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. All that snow in Arizona is nice now but officials worry that it could create disastrous flooding and wildfire conditions. 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. Million sued, and he says he expects a ruling this year. Trans-national pipelines would also impact ecological resources. Runa giant hose from the Columbia River along the bottom of the Pacific Ocean to refill Diamond Valley Reservoir. Politics are an even bigger obstacle for making multi-state pipelines a reality. About 33% of vegetables and 66% of fruits and nuts are produced in California for consumption for the nation. 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. Facebook, Follow us on Drop us a note at tips@coloradosun.com. Experts say those will require sacrifices but not as many as building a giant pipeline would require. Proponents of these projects argue that they could stabilize western cities for decades to come, connecting populations with unclaimed water rights. 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. A drive up Interstate 5 shows how muchland has been fallowed due tolack of water. The massive river, with tributaries from Montanato Ohio, is a national artery for shipping goodsout to sea. Water thieves abound in dry California. Letter writers have asked why a water pipeline is not constructed from the Mississippi River to the Colorado River. USGS 05587500 Mississippi River at Alton, IL. On Tuesday, the Scottsdale City Council agreed on a proposal to treat water and deliver it to the community for three years. Just this past summer, the idea caused a firestorm of letters to the editor at a California newspaper. The idea of a pipeline transecting the continent is not a new idea. Widespread interest in the plan eventually fizzled. They also concluded environmental and permitting reviews would take decades. Snowpacks in the Sierra Nevada Mountains have swelled to more than 200 percent of their normal size, and snowfall across the rest of the Colorado River Basin is trending above average, too. after the growth in California . What did Disney actually lose from its Florida battle with DeSantis? It would carry about 50,000 acre-feet of water per year, much less than the original pipeline plan but still twice Fort Collins current annual usage. 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. It boggles the mind. Drought conditions plagued the region throughout 2022, prompting concerns over river navigation. 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. Each year worsens our receipt of rain and snow. Arizona and Nevada residents must curb their use of water from the Colorado River, and California could be next. Twitter, Follow us on "My son will never know what a six-gallon toilet looks like," she said. I have dystopian nightmares aboutpipelines marching across the landscape, saidglobal water scarcity expert Jay Famiglietti. 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. For one, theres no longer enough unclaimed water to make most pipeline projects cost-effective. 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. The Associated Press Climate team contributed images and page design. The bigger obstacles are fiscal, legal, environmentaland most of all, political.
Once again, Arizona hopes to import out-of-state water in face of crisis Mississippi River drought will impact your grocery bill.
Pipeline | Definition, History, Types, Uses, & Facts | Britannica 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? 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. 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 .
Can drought-stricken CA get water from Midwest via pipeline? Arizonas main active management areas are in Maricopa, Pinal, Pima, and Santa Cruz counties, leaving much of rural Arizona water use unregulated.
Water Piped to Denver Could Ease Stress on River - The New York Times Rescue the oceans from the pollution that flood waters pick up and dump into the ocean, creating dead zones. Water use has gone down 40% per capita in recent years, said Coffey.
Great Lakes water piped to Southwest 'our future,' says NASA scientist 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. We want to have more sustainable infrastructure. Stop letting excess water flow out to sea. 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. A Mississippi pipeline to Lake Powell would need to cut across four states, he and Johnson said, including hundreds of miles of wetlands in Louisiana and west Texas.
Idaho joins Texas lawsuit against Biden administration over federal . 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. "Should we move the water to where the food is grown, or is it maybe time to think about moving the food production to the water?" 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 actual costs to build such a pipeline today would likely be orders of magnitude higher, thanks to inflation and inevitable construction snags. 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 . Grist is powered by WordPress VIP. Siphon off a big portion, and youd be swapping oneecological catastrophe for another, said Audubons Johnson. 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. 2023 www.desertsun.com.
Pumping Mississippi River water west: solution or pipe dream? Posted on: February 7, 2023, 02:30h. 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. 1999-2023 Grist Magazine, Inc. All rights reserved.
Pipeline debate at center of California carbon capture plans Arizona needs water. But a Mississippi pipeline is a pipe dream Similar ideas have been suggested about Great Lakes water. In the meantime, researchers encourage more feasible and sustainable options, including better water conservation, water recycling, and less agricultural reliance. Heres how that affects Indigenous water rights, Salton Sea public health disaster gets a $250 million shot in the arm. "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 . The river's web, if some have their way, could become even larger. It might be in the trillions, but it probably does exist..
Why does California want to build a $16 billion water pipeline? Hydrologic Unit Code 07110009. 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 . 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. Their technical report, which hasnt been peer-reviewed. In any case, Utah rejected a permit for the project in 2020, saying it would jeopardize the states own water rights. The project entails the construction of thousands of miles of pipelines and canals, 427 water treatment facilities, countless pumping facilities, and the displacement of 300,000 residents.