water pipeline from mississippi river to california water pipeline from mississippi river to california

Pipelines usually consist of sections of pipe made of . Heres how that affects Indigenous water rights, Salton Sea public health disaster gets a $250 million shot in the arm. Drought conditions plagued the region throughout 2022, for instance, prompting concerns over river navigation. Donate today tohelp keep Grists site and newsletters free. It boggles the mind. Last updated on: February 10, 2023, 10:54h. 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. All rights reserved. Much of the sediment it was carrying was dropped in the slow moving water of the Delta. 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. 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. Studies and modern-day engineering have proven that such projects are possible but require decades of construction and billions of dollars. Plus, the federal report found the water would be of much lower quality than other western water sources. Doug Ducey signed legislation this past July that invested $1.2 billion to fund projects that conserve water and bring more into the state. Stop letting excess water flow out to sea. The trooper inside suffered minor injuries. But interest spans deeper than that. 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. Paffrath proposed building a pipeline from the Mississippi River to bring water to drought-stricken California. He said wastewater reuse by area agencies has already swelled from 0.20% in the 1980sto 12% of regional water supply. The California Aqueduct carries about 13,000 cubic feet per second through the Central Valley; the Colorado River atLees Ferry runs about 7,000 to 14,000 cfs; the Mississippi at Vicksburg varies from 400,000 to 1.2 million cfs. Heproposed usingnuclear explosionsto excavate the system's trenches and underground water storage reservoirs. (Unrecognizable. Lake Mead, a lifeline for water in Los Angeles and the West, tips toward crisis, July 11). Here are some facts to put perspective to several of the. It might be in the trillions, but it probably does exist.. Among its provisions, the law granted the states water infrastructure finance authority to investigate the feasibility of potential out-of-state water import agreements. The 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, a professor of water law at Arizona State University. Stories of similar projects often share the same ending, from proposals in Iowa and Minnesota to those between Canada and the United States. Asked about a Mississippi River pipeline or other new infrastructure to rescue the Colorado River, federal and state officials declined to respondor said there was no realistic chance such a major infrastructure project is in the offing. In any case, Utah rejected a permit for the project in 2020, saying it would jeopardize the states own water rights. Physically, some could be achieved. Do we have the political will? The federal Water Conservation Bureau gave approval Tuesday to piping 440 billion gallons of water per month to Arizona. These canals and pipelines are . Buying land to secure water rights would cost a chunk of cash, too, which leads to an even larger obstacle for such proposals: the legal and political hoops. To the editor: With the threat of brownouts and over-stressed power grids, dwindling water resources in California and the call to reduce consumption by 15%, I want to point out we are not all in this together. Buying land to secure water rights would also cost a chunk of cash, which leads to an even larger obstacle for such proposals: the legal and political hoops. Moreover, we need water in our dams for. To be talking about pipe dreams, when thats not even feasible for decades, if at all Its a disservice, Scanlan said. 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. 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. 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. 2023 www.desertsun.com. Major projects to restore the coast and save brown pelicans and other endangered species are now underway, and Mississippi sediment delivery is at the heart of them. 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. 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. 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. And biologists andenvironmental attorneys saidNew Orleans and the Louisiana coast, along with the interior swamplands, need every drop of muddy Mississippi water. These realities havent stopped the Wests would-be water barons from dreaming. A pipeline taking water from the Missouri River west makes perfect sense, if you don't care about money, energy, or the environment. Drought conditions plagued the region throughout 2022, prompting concerns over river navigation. 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. 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. . "I'm an optimist," said Coffey, who said local conservation is key. The Colorado River is drying up. Photos of snowfall around northern Arizona. Runa giant hose from the Columbia River along the bottom of the Pacific Ocean to refill Diamond Valley Reservoir. 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. We have to conserve water, butnota ridiculous wave parkthat willprobably go bankrupt? So moving water that far away to supplement the ColoradoRiver, I don't think is viable. Among its provisions, the law granted the states water infrastructure finance authority to investigate the feasibility of potential out-of-state water import agreements. For as long as this idea has been proposed. You could do it.". 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. 10/4/2021. The idea of a pipeline transecting the continent is not a new idea. 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. The only newsroom focused on exploring solutions at the intersection of climate and justice. Water use has gone down 40% per capita in recent years, said Coffey. "Yes, a Superior-Green River pipeline seems unrealistic, even impossible at first glance," Huttner wrote for Minnesota Public Radio. To support our nonprofit environmental journalism, please consider disabling your ad-blocker to allow ads on Grist. PROVISIONAL DATA SUBJECT TO REVISION. The ongoing drought in California has hit its fourth year. Each year . The pipeline will end in the Rocky Mountain National park. Email: newsroom@coloradosun.com 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. Available data for this site Madison County, Illinois. Each year worsens our receipt of rain and snow. Don't bother sending notices on conservation; they willbe ignored. The Western U.S. is experiencing its driest period in more than a thousand years, according to scientists from UCLA and Columbia University. Ive cowboyed enough in my life to know that you just got to stick to the trail, he said. 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. Gavin Newsom if he's. 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. and Renstrom says that unless Utah builds a long-promised pipeline to pump water 140 miles from Lake . Drought conditions plagued the region throughout 2022, for instance, prompting concerns over river navigation. 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. Trans-national pipelines would also impact ecological resources. 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. Drought conditions plagued the region throughout 2022, prompting concerns over river navigation. Letters to the Editor: Antigovernment ideology isnt working for snowed-in mountain towns, Letters to the Editor: Ignore Marjorie Taylor Greene? 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. Janet Wilson is senior environment reporter for The Desert Sun, and co-authors USA Today'sClimate Point newsletter. 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. Arizona state legislators asked Congress to consider a pipeline that dumps Mississippi water into the Green River, but there are alternate possibilities. The distance between Albuquerque, for example, and the Mississippi River perhaps the closest hypothetical starting point for such a pipeline is about 1,000 miles, crossing at least three. 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. Citizens of Louisiana and Mississippi south of the Old River Control Structure dont need all that water. 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. [1] By Brittney J. Miller, The Cedar Rapids Gazette. 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 total projected cost of the plan in 1975 was $100 billion or nearly $570billion in today's dollars,comparable to theInterstate Highway System. About 60% of the region remains in some form of drought, continuing a decades-long spiral into water scarcity. Under the analyzed scenario, water would be conveyed to Colorados Front Range and areas of New Mexico to help fulfill water needs. Would itbe expensive? But moving water from one drought-impacted area to another is not a solution.. I have dystopian nightmares aboutpipelines marching across the landscape, saidglobal water scarcity expert Jay Famiglietti. ", But desert defenders pushed back. 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. 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. Instead, California is focused on better managing the water we have, improving forecasting, and making our groundwater basins more sustainable.. Rescue the oceans from the pollution that flood waters pick up and dump into the ocean, creating dead zones. As part of our commitment to sustainability, in 2021 Grist moved its office headquarters to the Bullitt Center in Seattles vibrant Capitol Hill neighborhood. 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. Many sawSiefkes' idea and others like it as sheer theft by a region that needs to fix its own woes. He said hes open to one but doesnt think its necessary. Talk about a job-creating infrastructure project, which would rivalthe tremendous civilengineering feats our country used to be noted for. Other forms of augmentation, like desalination, are also gaining popularity on the national scene as possible options. Arizona and Nevada residents must curb their use of water from the Colorado River, and California could be next. He said the most pragmatic approach would only pump Midwest water to the metro Denver area, to substitute forimports to the Front Range on the east side of the Rockies, avoiding "staggering" costs to pump water over the Continental Divide. Infrastructure is one of the few ways well turn things around to assure that theres some supply.. 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. 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. 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. But it's doable. 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. 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. So come on out for the plastic Marilyn on our dashboard, and stay for the stupendous waste of water, electricity and clean air. It would turn the Southwest into an oasis, and the Great Basin into productive farmland. 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. 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. 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. He said hes open to one but doesnt think its necessary. 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. Still, he admits the road hasnt always been easy, and that victory is far from guaranteed. 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. Yahoo, Reddit and ceaseless headlines about a 22-year megadrought and killer flash floods, not to mention dead bodies showing up on Lake Meads newly exposed shoreline, have galvanized reader interest this summer. "My son will never know what a six-gallon toilet looks like," she said. 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. In fact, she and others noted, many such ideas have been studied since the 1940s. 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. But there are tons of things that can be done but arent ever done.. The water would be drained via a 36 inch pipe already installed four miles west of Sugarloaf Mountain outside Marquette. Your support keeps our unbiased, nonprofit news free. Instagram, Follow us on The idea of a pipeline transecting the continent is not a new idea. 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. Conservation alternatives are less palatable than big infrastructure projects, but theyre also more achievable. About 33% of vegetables and 66% of fruits and nuts are produced in California for consumption for the nation. Either way, most of these projects stand little chance of becoming reality theyre ideas from a bygone era, one that has more in common with the world of Chinatown than the parched west of the present. Even smaller projects stand to be derailed by similar hiccups. 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. States wish they wouldnt. This would take 254 days to fill.. On the heels of Arizonas 2021 push for a pipeline feasibility study, former Arizona Gov. "Arizona really, really wants oceanfront," she chuckled. The 2012 study didn't discount either option but. Opinion: California gave up on mandating COVID vaccines for schoolchildren. Letter writers have asked why a water pipeline is not constructed from the Mississippi River to the Colorado River. 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. Anyone who thinks we can drain the aquifer and survive is grossly misinformed. 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. Those will require sacrifices, no doubt but not as many as building a giant pipeline would require, experts said. 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. What goes into the cat-and-mouse game of forecasting Colorados avalanche risks? As zany as the ideas may sound, could anywork, and if so, what would be the costs? Lake Mead is at its lowest level since it was filled 85 years ago. The bigger obstacles are fiscal, legal, environmentaland most of all, political. Meanwhile, a rookie Democrat running for governor in Californias recall election last year proposed declaring a state of emergency in order to build a similar project. Posted on: February 7, 2023, 02:30h. Grab hydrogen and oxygen from the air and make artificialrain. "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 . Parsons said theplanwould replenishthe upper Missouri and Mississippi Rivers during dry spells, increase hydropower along the Columbia Riverand stabilize the Great Lakes. 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. 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. But if areas like the Coachella Valley continue to approve surf waveparks and "beachfront" developments in the desert, "we're screwed," he said bluntly. My water, your water. 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. Million sued, and he says he expects a ruling this year. I find it interesting that households have to watch how much water theyare usingfor washing clothes, wateringlawns, washing cars,etc. Flooding along the Mississippi River basin appears to have become more frequent in recent years, as has the [] Here in the scorching Coachella Valley, local governments have approved construction of four surf resorts for the very wealthy. On the heels of Arizonas 2021 push for a pipeline feasibility study, former Arizona Gov. Safety concerns increased in 2020 after a pipeline in Mississippi ruptured in a landslide, releasing a heavier-than-air plume of carbon dioxide that displaced oxygen near the ground. Certainly not the surrounding communities. YouTube star and Democratic political novice Kevin Paffrath proposed the Mississippi River pipeline last week during a debate among candidates seeking to replace Gov. 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. USGS 05587500 Mississippi River at Alton, IL. 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. But grand ideas for guaranteeing water for the arid Westhave beenfloated for decades. Yet their persistence in the public sphere illustrates the growing desperation of Western states to dig themselves out of droughts. Pipe water from the plentiful Great Lakes to deserted towns in the West like Phoenix and Las Vegas. Still, its physically possible. Officials imposed the state's first-ever water restrictions on cities and towns, and California farmers are drilling deeper and . 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. It is time to think outside the box of rain. Design and build by Upstatement. Steps are being taken to address water issues in Buckeye. Absolutely. Even at its cheapest, the project would cost about twice as much per acre-foot of water delivered than other solutions like water conservation and reuse. Page Contact Information: Missouri Water Data Support Team Page Last Modified: 2023-03-04 08:46:14 EST Lower Mississippi River flow means less sediment carried down to Louisiana, where its used for coastal restoration. Each state along the Colorado River basin had the rights to a certain quantity of river water, divided among major users like farms and cities, and the projects were designed to help the states realize those abstract rights. The driver of the truck was not injured. That project, which also faces heavy headwinds from environmentalists, wouldcost an estimated $12 billion. Twitter, Follow us on Title: USGS Surface-Water Daily Data for the Nation URL: https://nwis.waterdata.usgs.gov/nwis/dv? Is this a goo. 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.. At one point, activists who opposed the project erected three large billboards warning about the high cost and potential consequences, such as the possibility that drawing down the Green River could harm the rivers fish populations. In the meantime, researchers encourage more feasible and sustainable options, including better water conservation, water recycling, and less agricultural reliance. To Larsons knowledge, an in-depth feasibility study specifically on pumping Mississippi River water to the West hasnt been conducted yet. "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 . Newsom said the state must capture 100 million metric tons of carbon each year by 2045 about a quarter of what the state now emits annually. Drop us a note at tips@coloradosun.com. . 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. 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. ", Westford of Southern California's Metropolitan Water District agreed. More by The Associated Press, Got a story tip? Just this past summer, the idea caused a firestorm of letters to the editor at a California newspaper. 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.