Steps are being taken to address water issues in Buckeye. Additionally, building large infrastructure projects in general has become more difficult, in part thanks to reforms like the National Environmental Policy Act, which requires that detailed environmental impact statements be produced and evaluated for large new infrastructure projects. About 60 percent of the region remains in some form of drought, continuing a decades-long spiral into water scarcity. Mississippi River to Colorado River Solar Powered Pipeline - Halfbakery Sharing Mississippi water with California would help feed America - Yahoo! 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. 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. In any case, Utah rejected a permit for the project in 2020, saying it would jeopardize the states own water rights. 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 . 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. Drought conditions plagued the region throughout 2022, for instance, prompting concerns over river navigation. Dothey pay extra for using our water? Can A Pipeline Really Bring Drinking Water From Mississippi To The West? 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.. 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. There are no easy fixes to a West that has grown and has allocated all of its water theres no silver bullet, she said. 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. All rights reserved. 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. You should worry, Hidden, illegal casinos are booming in L.A., with organized crime reaping big profits, Look up: The 32 most spectacular ceilings in Los Angeles, Elliott: Kings use their heads over hearts in trading Jonathan Quick, This fabled orchid breeder loves to chat just not about Trader Joes orchids. 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. As an engineer, I can guarantee you that it is doable, Viadero said. 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. 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. Still, its physically possible. 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. Column: Building a pipeline to the Mississippi? An idea as harebrained 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. To support our nonprofit environmental journalism, please consider disabling your ad-blocker to allow ads on Grist. Ive cowboyed enough in my life to know that you just got to stick to the trail, he said. Democrat recall candidate Kevin Paffrath wants filter systems | The Trans-national pipelines would also impact ecological resources. Once again, Arizona hopes to import out-of-state water in face of crisis 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. Much of the sediment it was carrying was dropped in the slow moving water of the Delta. Palm Springs newspaper readers' drought fix: Siphon Mississippi But interest spans deeper than that. 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. 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. 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. California wants to build a $16 billion pipeline to draw water out of the Sacramento River Delta and down to the southern part of the state, but critics say the project would deprive Delta farmers of water and destroy local ecosystems. Whereas I understand water rights, but globalwarming has introduced new priorities. An in-depth feasibility study specifically on pumping Mississippi River water to the West hasnt been conducted yet to Larsons knowledge. Officials imposed the state's first-ever water restrictions on cities and towns, and California farmers are drilling deeper and . Doug Ducey signed legislation this past July that invested $1.2 billion to fund projects that conserve water and bring more into the state. Pat Mulroy, head of the Southern Nevada Water Authority, pitched a bold idea at a US Chamber of Commerce event last week: divert excess Mississippi River water to the west to irrigate crops to reduce pressure on the stressed Colorado River. But in the face of continuing, ever-worsening drought and ongoing growth of the cities of the desert Southwest, is there a better idea out there? "I think that societally, we want to be more flexible. It would turn the Southwest into an oasis, and the Great Basin into productive farmland. The concepts fell into a few large categories: pipe Mississippi or Missouri River water to the eastern side of the Rockies or to Lake Powell on the Arizona-Utah border, bring icebergs in. He raised the possibility that policymakers will seek to build a 900-mile pipeline from Lake Superior to the Green River watershed in southwest Wyoming. 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. Even if the sticker price werent so prohibitive, there are other obstacles. 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. Their technical report, which hasnt been peer-reviewed. Has no one noticed how much hotter the desert is getting, not to mention the increase in fires in our area. A pipeline taking water from the Missouri River west makes perfect sense, if you don't care about money, energy, or the environment. Is Getting Great Lakes Water To The Southwest Just A Pipedream California uses 34 million acre-feet of water per year for agriculture. Vessels ran aground and had to navigate very carefully. Infrastructure is one of the few ways well turn things around to assure that theres some supply.. [1] 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. Leading environmental engineering firm to study alternative water ", Westford of Southern California's Metropolitan Water District agreed. The water would be drained via a 36 inch pipe already installed four miles west of Sugarloaf Mountain outside Marquette. What did Disney actually lose from its Florida battle with DeSantis? 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. Just this past summer, the idea caused a firestorm of letters to the editor at a California newspaper. States wish they wouldnt. No one wants to leave the western states without water, said Melissa Scanlan, a freshwater sciences professor at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. 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. Nevertheless, Million hasnt given up, and hes currently working to secure permitting for the fourth iteration of the project. 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. continue to approve surf waveparks and "beachfront" developments in the desert, Your California Privacy Rights / Privacy Policy. Email: newsroom@coloradosun.com It's the lowest level since the lake was filled in the. But pipelines and other big ideaswill always attract interest, hydrology experts said, because they falsely promise an innovative, easy way out. 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. Politics are an even bigger obstacle to making multi-state pipelines a reality. 1999-2023 Grist Magazine, Inc. All rights reserved. Filling Lake Mead with Mississippi River Water No Longer a Pipe Dream The idea of drinking even heavily treated liquid wastemay seem unpalatable, but Westfordthinks people will adapt. Grab hydrogen and oxygen from the air and make artificialrain. 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. 2023 www.desertsun.com. Pipeline | Definition, History, Types, Uses, & Facts | Britannica On the heels of Arizonas 2021 push for a pipeline feasibility study, former Arizona Gov. Would itbe expensive? It is time to think outside the box of rain. For as long as this idea has been proposed. Flooding along the Mississippi River basin appears to have become more frequent in recent years, as has the [] 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. Any water diversion from the Mississippi to Arizona must be pumped about 6,000 feet up, over the Rockies. 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. Is California still in a drought? Recent storms fill many CA reservoirs Water use has gone down 40% per capita in recent years, said Coffey. Water Pipeline: From Mississippi River To The West? - YouTube That project, which also faces heavy headwinds from environmentalists, wouldcost an estimated $12 billion. What states in the Southwest have failed to do is curtail growth and agriculture that is, of course, water-driven. . Each edition is filled with exclusive news, analysis and other behind-the-scenes information you wont find anywhere else. We can move water, and weve proven our desire to do it. 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. California Gov. A Kansas groundwater management agency, for instance, received a permit last year to truck 6,000 gallons of Missouri River water into Kansas and Colorado in hopes of recharging an aquifer. Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. An earlier version of this story misidentified for which agency Jennifer Pitt was a technical adviser. He frames the pipeline as a complement to water-saving policies. Others said the costs of an Arizona-Mexico desalination plant would also likely prove infeasible. PROVISIONAL DATA SUBJECT TO REVISION. 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. Absolutely. Shipping Snow: Could Eastern Water Ease Western Drought? 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. Here are some facts to put perspective to severalof the opinions already expressed here: An aqueduct running from thelower Mississippi to the Colorado River (via the San Juan River tributary, at Farmington, New Mexico), with the same capacity as the California Aqueduct, would roughly double the flow of thelatter while taking merely 1-3% of the formers flow. But moving water from one drought-impacted area to another is not a solution.. Mulroy was the keynote speaker at the convention, held at Mandalay Bay, in Las Vegas, which is one of several that comprises the Chamber of Commerce's . Plus, the federal report found the water would be of much lower quality than other western water sources. Skelton: A pipeline to the Mississippi? Silly as the recall - Los Pumping Mississippi River water west: solution or pipe dream? General Manager Henry Martinez also warned that cutting water to Imperial Valley farmers and nearby Yuma County, Arizona, could lead to a food crisis as well as a water crisis. Letter writers have asked why a water pipeline is not constructed from the Mississippi River to the Colorado River. "To my mind, the overriding fatal flaw for large import schemes is the time required to become operational. All that snow in Arizona is nice now but officials worry that it could create disastrous flooding and wildfire conditions. 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. 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. Conservation alternatives are less palatable than big infrastructure projects, but theyre also more achievable. And there are several approved diversions that draw water from the Great Lakes. 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. YouTube, Follow us on 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. "Arizona really, really wants oceanfront," she chuckled. 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. Can the Mississippi River save Arizona? - wmicentral.com Historian Ted Steinberg said itsummed up "the sheer arrogance and imperial ambitions of the modern hydraulic West.". But Westford and her colleague Brad Coffey, water resources manager,said desalination is needed in the Golden State. What goes into the cat-and-mouse game of forecasting Colorados avalanche risks? Doug Ducey signed legislation this past July that invested $1.2 billion to fund projects that conserve water and bring more into the state. Other forms of augmentation, like desalination, are also gaining popularity on the national scene as possible options. The most obvious problem with this proposal is its mind-boggling cost. 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. A recent edition of The Desert Sun had twoletters objectingto piping water from the Mississippi River to the Colorado River, and on to California. 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. Your support keeps our unbiased, nonprofit news free. 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 snowbirds commonly stay here for at least six months. We want to have more sustainable infrastructure. Donate today tohelp keep Grists site and newsletters free. ", But desert defenders pushed back. 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. No one wants to leave the western states without water, said Melissa Scanlan, a freshwater sciences professor at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. And several approved diversions 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. Arizona needs water. But a Mississippi pipeline is a pipe dream Twitter, Follow us on Were not looking for the last dollar out of this project, he told me. The Mississippi used to flow through a delta full of bayous, shifting sad bars, And islets. But, he said, the days of mega-pipelines in the U.S. are likely over due to lack of environmental and political will. CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa Waves of torrential rainfall drenched California into the new year. 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. Do we have the political will? And biologists andenvironmental attorneys saidNew Orleans and the Louisiana coast, along with the interior swamplands, need every drop of muddy Mississippi water. The water will drain into the headwaters of the Colorado river. Drought-Stricken West Looks to Mississippi River to Solve Water Woes Pipeline debate at center of California carbon capture plans 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. The total projected cost of the plan in 1975 was $100 billion or nearly $570billion in today's dollars,comparable to theInterstate Highway System. But, as water scarcity in the West gets more desperate, the hurdles could be overcome one day. 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. Arizonas main active management areas are in Maricopa, Pinal, Pima, and Santa Cruz counties, leaving much of rural Arizona water use unregulated. For decades, key stewards of the river have ignored the massive water loss, instead allocating Arizona, California, Nevada and Mexico their share of the river without subtracting whats evaporated. The elephant in the room, according to Fort, is agriculture, which accounts for more than 80 percent of water withdrawals from the Colorado River. 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. Snowpacks in the Sierra Nevada Mountains have swelled to more than 200% their normal size, and snowfall across the rest of the Colorado River Basin is trending above average, too. Experts say theres a proverbial snowballs chance in August of most of theseschemes being implemented. The Colorado River's 1922 compact allocated about 23% of the Upper Basin's water to Utah, and the state uses about 72% of that water. China, unlike the US, is unencumbered by NEPA, water rights and democratic processes in general. 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 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. and Renstrom says that unless Utah builds a long-promised pipeline to pump water 140 miles from Lake . Known as one of the greenest commercial buildings in the world, since it opened its doors on Earth Day in 2013 the Bullitt Center has been setting a new standard for sustainable design. Could a water pipeline from the Mississippi River to Arizona be a real solution? But interest spans deeper than that. Water pipeline not feasible - Las Vegas Sun Newspaper All three officials said the construction of a45-mile Delta Water Project tunnel to keep supply flowing from the middle of the state to thirsty cities in the south isvital. Most notably, the Mississippi River basin doesn't always have enough water to spare. 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.. Arizona state legislators asked Congress to consider a pipeline that dumps Mississippi water into the Green River, but there are alternate possibilities. When that happens, it wont be just tourists and recreational boaters who will suffer. The pipeline would help it tap another 86,000 acre-feet of . I can't even imagine what it would all cost. "I don't think that drought, especially in the era of climate change, is something we can engineer our way out of.".