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. What did Disney actually lose from its Florida battle with DeSantis? But we need to know a lot more about it than we currently do.. 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. Other forms of augmentation, like desalination, are also gaining popularity on the national scene as possible options. But water expertssaid it would likely take at least 30 years to clear legal hurdles to such a plan. 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. Who is going to come to the desert and use it? 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. Were doing everything we can to minimize impacts, maximize benefits, and this project has a lot of benevolence associated with it. In his vision of the Wests future, urban growth will necessitate more big infrastructure projects like his. All rights reserved. Each year . Drought conditions plagued the region throughout 2022, for instance, prompting concerns over river navigation. The hypothetical Mississippi River pipeline, which gained new life last year amid devastating drought conditions, is a case in point. All rights reserved. Last time I heard, we are still the United States of America.". Grab hydrogen and oxygen from the air and make artificialrain. The actual costs to build such a pipeline today would likely be orders of magnitude higher, thanks to inflation and inevitable construction snags. In any case, Utah rejected a permit for the project in 2020, saying it would jeopardize the states own water rights. 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. Gavin Newsom also touted desalination in adrought resilience plan he announcedlast week, though in brackish inland areas. Clouds of birds hundreds of species live in or travel through Louisianas rich Atchafalaya forests each year, said National Audubon Society Delta Conservation Director Erik Johnson. To be talking about pipe dreams, when thats not even feasible for decades, if at all Its a disservice, Scanlan said. As zany as the ideas may sound, could anywork, and if so, what would be the costs? Just this past summer, the idea caused a firestorm of letters to the editor at a California newspaper. 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. 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. It's the lowest level since the lake was filled in the. 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. Here are some facts to put perspective to several of the. We have to conserve water, butnota ridiculous wave parkthat willprobably go bankrupt? 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. 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. The idea of drinking even heavily treated liquid wastemay seem unpalatable, but Westfordthinks people will adapt. Those will require sacrifices, no doubt but not as many as building a giant pipeline would require, experts said. And several approved diversions draw water from the Great Lakes. Politics are an even bigger obstacle to making multi-state pipelines a reality. The letter and others with an array of ideasgenerated hugeinterest from readers around the country and debate about whether the conceptsare technically feasible, politically possible orenvironmentally wise. 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. Diverting that water also means spreading problems, like pollutants, excessive nutrients, and invasive species. One method for simulating streamflow and base flow, random forest (RF) models, was developed from the data at gaged sites and, in turn, was . The memorial also suggests that the pipeline could be used as stormwater infrastructure to prevent regular flooding along the . Your support keeps our unbiased, nonprofit news free. and planned for completion in 2050, it willdivert 44.8 billion cubic metersof water annually to major cities and agricultural and industrial centers in the parchednorth. For as long as this idea has been proposed. 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. The idea of diverting water from the Mississippi to the Colorado River basin is an excellent one, albeit also fantastically expensive. 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. That project, which also faces heavy headwinds from environmentalists, wouldcost an estimated $12 billion. All that snow in Arizona is nice now but officials worry that it could create disastrous flooding and wildfire conditions. But interest spans deeper than that. Anyone who thinks we can drain the aquifer and survive is grossly misinformed. 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. I find it interesting that households have to watch how much water theyare usingfor washing clothes, wateringlawns, washing cars,etc. The project would require more than 300 new dams,canals, pipelines, tunnels, and pumping stations. Tribes in the Colorado River Basin are fighting for their water. Answer (1 of 21): Interbasin transfer is something we try to avoid. Experts we spoke with agreed the feat would be astronomical. Siphon off a big portion, and youd be swapping oneecological catastrophe for another, said Audubons Johnson. Grist is powered by WordPress VIP. If a portion of the farmers in the region were to change crops or fallow their fields, the freed-up water could sustain growing cities. 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. But moving water from one drought-impacted area to another is not a solution.. 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. While the much-needed water has improved conditions in the parched West, experts warn against claiming victory. 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.. 10/4/2021. 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 It might be in the trillions, but it probably does exist.. He said wastewater reuse by area agencies has already swelled from 0.20% in the 1980sto 12% of regional water supply. Instagram, Follow us on Ive cowboyed enough in my life to know that you just got to stick to the trail, he said. 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. Twitter, Follow us on 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 . Wildfire, flooding concerns after massive snowfall in Arizona, Customers will have to ask for water at Nevada restaurants if bill passes, Snow causes semi truck to crash into Arizona DPS Trooper SUV near Williams, A showdown over Colorado River water is setting the stage for a high-stakes legal battle, In Arizona and other western states, pressure to count water lost to evaporation, While the much-needed water has improved conditions in the parched West, Arizona state legislature passed a measure in 2021, RELATED: Phoenix city officials celebrate final pipe installation in the Drought Pipeline Project, the most comprehensive analysis ever undertaken within the Colorado River Basin. Photos of snowfall around northern Arizona. The only newsroom focused on exploring solutions at the intersection of climate and justice. YouTube star and Democratic political novice Kevin Paffrath proposed the Mississippi River pipeline last week during a debate among candidates seeking to replace Gov. The bigger obstacles are fiscal, legal, environmentaland most of all, political. Your California Privacy Rights / Privacy Policy. 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. But interest spans deeper than that. Gavin Newsom reaffirming his support for the ambitious proposal. And, here in the land of the midnight 90-degree temperatures, we are building our very own ice hockey rink, because there is more than enough electricity to freeze that body of water and keep the arena cold enough to keep the ice from melting. A multi-state compact already prohibits any sale of water from the Great Lakes unless all bordering states agree to it, and its almost certain that Mississippi River states would pass laws restricting water diversions, or file lawsuits against western states, if the project went forward. 2023 www.desertsun.com. The idea of diverting water from the Mississippi to the Colorado River basin is an excellent one, albeit also fantastically expensive. 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. Just this past summer, the idea caused a firestorm of letters to the editor at a California newspaper. But it's doable. 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. 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. By the way, none of this includes the incredible carbon footprints about to be stomped on the environment. Even if the government could clear these hurdles, the odds that Midwestern states would just let their water go are slim. "The engineering is feasible. 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. Engineers said the pipelineidea is technically feasible. Follow us on While the much-needed water has improved conditions in the parched West, experts warn against claiming victory. USGS 05587500 Mississippi River at Alton, IL. My state, your state. Trans-national pipelines would also impact ecological resources. People fish in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta's Elk Slough near Courtland, California, on Tuesday, March 24, 2020. At comment sessions on Colorado's plan, he said, long-distance pipelines wereconstantly suggested by the public. 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. 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. Experts say those will require sacrifices but not as many as building a giant pipeline would require. But grand ideas for guaranteeing water for the arid Westhave beenfloated for decades. It's 2011 and the technology exists to build a series of water pipelines across the US, to channel flood water to holding tanks in other areas, and to supply water to drought stricken areas. All rights reserved. Drought conditions plagued the region throughout 2022, prompting concerns over river navigation. Pipe water from the plentiful Great Lakes to deserted towns in the West like Phoenix and Las Vegas. An earlier version of this story misidentified for which agency Jennifer Pitt was a technical adviser. Title: USGS Surface-Water Daily Data for the Nation URL: https://nwis.waterdata.usgs.gov/nwis/dv? 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. 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 . Most notably, the Mississippi River basin doesnt always have enough water to spare. Most notably, the Mississippi River basin doesnt always have enough water to spare. You could do it.". The total projected cost of the plan in 1975 was $100 billion or nearly $570billion in today's dollars,comparable to theInterstate Highway System. 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. 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.. Yes, it would be hugely expensive. 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. 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. 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.. "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 only newsroom focused on exploring solutions at the intersection of climate and justice. 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. YouTube. States have [historically] been very successful in getting the federal government to pay for wasteful, unsustainable, large water projects, said Denise Fort, a professor emerita at the University of New Mexico who has studied water infrastructure. Physically, some could be achieved. But Denver officials have expressed skepticism,because Missouri or Mississippi water isof inferior quality to pure mountain water. Officials imposed the state's first-ever water restrictions on cities and towns, and California farmers are drilling deeper and . 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. 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. Nonetheless, Siefkes trans-basin pipeline proposal went viral, receiving nearly half a million views. The . Latitude 3853'06", Longitude 9010'51" NAD27. Opinion: How has American healthcare gone so wrong? "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. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson), Lawmakers targeting hospital facility fees, Whats Working: How a Denver nonprofit is expanding the benefits of work. CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa Waves of torrential rainfall drenched California into the new year. 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. Politics are an even bigger obstacle for making multi-state pipelines a reality. Do we have the political will? 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. Still, its physically possible. Million sued, and he says he expects a ruling this year. "I don't think that drought, especially in the era of climate change, is something we can engineer our way out of.". Dothey pay extra for using our water? An in-depth feasibility study specifically on pumping Mississippi River water to the West hasnt been conducted yet to Larsons knowledge. About 33% of vegetables and 66% of fruits and nuts are produced in California for consumption for the nation. Noting about 4.5 million gallons per second of Mississippi River flow past the Old River Control Structure in Louisiana, the letter writer explains diverting 250,000 gallons per second would. Stop letting excess water flow out to sea. 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. The federal Water Conservation Bureau gave approval Tuesday to piping 440 billion gallons of water per month to Arizona. Drop us a note at tips@coloradosun.com. Yet some smaller-scale projects have become reality. 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. Facebook, Follow us on Studies and modern-day engineering have proven that such projects are possible but require decades of construction and billions of dollars. Mississippi River drought will impact your grocery bill. The basic idea is to take water from the Mississippi River, pump it a thousand miles west, and dump it into the overtaxed Colorado River, which provides water for millions of Arizona residents but has reached historically low levels as its reservoirs dry up. He frames the pipeline as a complement to water-saving policies. Even smaller projects stand to be derailed by similar hiccups. Trans-national pipelines would also impact ecological resources. Even if the sticker price werent so prohibitive, there are other obstacles. As a resident of Wisconsin, a state that borders the (Mississippi) river, let me say: This is never gonna happen, wrote Margaret Melville of Cedarburg, Wisconsin. Runa giant hose from the Columbia River along the bottom of the Pacific Ocean to refill Diamond Valley Reservoir. 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. Page Contact Information: Missouri Water Data Support Team Page Last Modified: 2023-03-04 08:46:14 EST 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. Take that, Lake Mead. The project would require more than 300 new dams,canals, pipelines, tunnels, and pumping stations, bans large waterexportsoutside of the area. Thats not to mention the housing development again, for the very wealthy with its own lagoon. A recent edition of The Desert Sun had twoletters objectingto piping water from the Mississippi River to the Colorado River, and on to California. 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.
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