water pipeline from mississippi river to californiahow old is eric forrester in real life

States wish they wouldnt. By the way, none of this includes the incredible carbon footprints about to be stomped on the environment. 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. An acre-foot is enough water to serve about two households for a year, so it could supply water to 150 million customers. Studies and modern-day engineering have proven that such projects are possible but would require decades of construction and billions of dollars. On the heels of Arizonas 2021 push for a pipeline feasibility study, former Arizona Gov. 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. Not mentioned was the great grand-daddy of all schemes for re-allocating water, known as the North American Water and Power Authority Plan. 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. 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. Makes me wonder how this got this far, whose interests are being served and who's benefiting. Booming Utah metro wants to pipe in water from Lake Powell so it can 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? 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. Even if the government could clear these hurdles, the odds that Midwestern states would just let their water go are slim. 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. Weve had a few blizzards along the way, and some gun battles, but it is what it is.. Pumping Mississippi River water west: solution or dream? Gavin Newsom reaffirming his support for the ambitious proposal. Two hundred miles north of New Orleans, in the heart of swampy Cajun country, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in 1963 cut a rogue arm of the Mississippi River in half with giant levees to keep the main river intact and flowing to the Gulf of Mexico. It boggles the mind. Most notably, the Mississippi River basin doesnt always have enough water to spare. Your support keeps our unbiased, nonprofit news free. 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. Can you solve drought by piping water across the country? - New York Times 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. In 1982,efforts were made to revive the plan by a Parsons company engineer, and the Lyndon Larouche movement supported itas recently as 2010. Diverting that water also means spreading problems, like pollutants, excessive nutrients and invasive species. . Letters to the Editor: Antigovernment ideology isnt working for snowed-in mountain towns, Letters to the Editor: Ignore Marjorie Taylor Greene? Could a water pipeline from the Mississippi River to Arizona be a real 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. 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. Other forms of augmentation, like desalination, are also gaining popularity on the national scene as possible options. Drought conditions plagued the region throughout 2022, for instance, prompting concerns over river navigation. China, unlike the US, is unencumbered by NEPA, water rights and democratic processes in general. Guess Who Proposed the Missouri River Pipeline in the Federal Haul icebergs from the Arctic to a new southern California port. PROVISIONAL DATA SUBJECT TO REVISION. They also concluded environmental and permitting reviews would take decades. Yet their persistence in the public sphere illustrates the growing desperation of Western states to dig themselves out of droughts. and Renstrom says that unless Utah builds a long-promised pipeline to pump water 140 miles from Lake . "I'm an optimist," said Coffey, who said local conservation is key. Is sending Mississippi water to West feasible? Experts weigh in 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.. She said extensive public education, aided by federal mandates and financial incentives, eventually led toa wholesale transition that saves millions of gallons of water. Don't bother sending notices on conservation; they willbe ignored. ", But desert defenders pushed back. The sharing of water would greatly contribute to California being able to feed the nation. 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. To Larsons knowledge, an in-depth feasibility study specifically on pumping Mississippi River water to the West hasnt been conducted yet. The state is expected to lose 10% of its water over the next two decades, reports the . . He said hes open to one but doesnt think its necessary. Mississippi River drought will impact your grocery bill. 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. Today, any water pipeline could cost from $10 billion to $20 billion with another $30 billion in improvements just to get the water to thirsty people and farms. A pipeline to the Mississippi River Perhaps the biggest achievement Paffrath said he would accomplish if elected governor would be to solve California's water crisis by building a. But grand ideas for guaranteeing water for the arid Westhave beenfloated for decades. 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 idea of a pipeline transecting the continent is not a new idea. But, as water scarcity in the West gets more desperate, the hurdles could be overcome one day. "To my mind, the overriding fatal flaw for large import schemes is the time required to become operational. 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. Arizona and Nevada residents must curb their use of water from the Colorado River, and California could be next. 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. Moving water from the Mississippi River to west would require massive Do they thank us for using our water? Instagram, Follow us on The ongoing drought in California has hit its fourth year. Filling Lake Mead with Mississippi River Water No Longer a Pipe Dream Stop letting excess water flow out to sea. So moving water that far away to supplement the ColoradoRiver, I don't think is viable. 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 to pump even more water out of the already-depleted Lake Powell. 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. Petition End Floods in America by Creating a Pipeline Network to 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 Old River Control Structure, as it was dubbed, is also the linchpin of massive but delicate locks and pulsed flows that feed the largest bottomland hardwood forests and wetlands in the United States, outstripping thebetter-known Okefenokee Swamp that straddles Georgia and Florida. Is Getting Great Lakes Water To The Southwest Just A Pipedream Palm Springs newspaper readers' drought fix: Siphon Mississippi 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 the loss of so much water from the. Still, its physically possible. We've had relatively rich resources for so long,we've never really had to deal withthis before, andwe don't want to change.". Others said the costs of an Arizona-Mexico desalination plant would also likely prove infeasible. 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. Yet some smaller-scale projects have become reality. [1] 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. The river's web, if some have their way, could become even larger. 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. Your California Privacy Rights / Privacy Policy. A recent edition of The Desert Sun had twoletters objectingto piping water from the Mississippi River to the Colorado River, and on to California. Just pump water a few miles from the Mississippi near Des Moines into the Ogallala aquifer. From The Pueblo Chieftain (Chris Woodka): Hausler's idea is to bring water from the Mississippi just below its confluence with the Ohio River across Missouri and Kansas into Colorado. 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. Heproposed usingnuclear explosionsto excavate the system's trenches and underground water storage reservoirs. 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. Booming Utah metro wants to pipe in water from Lake Powell so it can 2023 www.desertsun.com. Lower Mississippi River flow means less sediment carried down to Louisiana, where it's used for coastal restoration. It might be in the trillions, but it probably does exist.. The trooper inside suffered minor injuries. Last time I heard, we are still the United States of America.". 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. 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. Most recently, in 2012, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation produced a report laying out a potentially grim future for the Colorado River, and had experts evaluate 14 big ideas commonly touted as potential solutions. How can we bring water from Mississippi river to west, Arizona - Quora More by The Associated Press, Got a story tip? "Mexico has said it didn't although there has been a recent change ingovernment.". Donate today to keep our climate news free. John Kaufman, the man who proposed the Missouri River pipeline, wants to see the artificial boundaries expand. Page Contact Information: Missouri Water Data Support Team Page Last Modified: 2023-03-04 08:46:14 EST . In the meantime, researchers encourage more feasible and sustainable options, including better water conservation, water recycling, and less agricultural reliance. 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. 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. 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. Water pipeline not feasible - Las Vegas Sun Newspaper 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. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, prodded by members of Congressfrom western states, studied the massive proposal. 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? USGS 05587500 Mississippi River at Alton, IL. 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. Its largestdam would be 1,700 feet tall, more than twice the height of Hoover Dam. Can A Pipeline Really Bring Drinking Water From Mississippi To The West? Here are some facts to put perspective to several of the. "The desalinationplant Arizona has scoped out would be by far the largest ever in North America,"said Jennifer Pitt, National Audubon Society's Colorado River program director. 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. 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. 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. 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 . 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. Local hurdles include endangered species protections, wetlands protections, drinking water supply considerations and interstate shipping protections. 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. 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. The Colorado River is drying up. Savor that while your lawns are dying. A multi-state pipeline could easily require decades before it delivers a drop of water," said Michael Cohen, senior researcher with the Pacific Institute. 1999-2023 Grist Magazine, Inc. All rights reserved. Physically, some could be achieved. Stories of similar projects often share the same ending, from proposals in Iowa and Minnesota to those between Canada and the United States. 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. The memorial also suggests that the pipeline could be used as stormwater infrastructure to prevent regular flooding along the . . Yet their persistence in the public sphere illustrates the growing desperation of Western states to dig themselves out of droughts. It was the Bureau of Reclamation. In the meantime, researchers encourage more feasible and sustainable options, including better water conservation, water recycling, and less agricultural reliance. Could massive water pipelines solve the West's drought crisis? | Grist Lower Mississippi River flow means less sediment carried down to Louisiana, where its used for coastal restoration. The idea of drinking even heavily treated liquid wastemay seem unpalatable, but Westfordthinks people will adapt. Why does California want to build a $16 billion water pipeline? Water Piped to Denver Could Ease Stress on River - The New York Times 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.. Pipelines usually consist of sections of pipe made of . In fact, she and others noted, many such ideas have been studied since the 1940s. Twitter, Follow us on Politics are an even bigger obstacle to making multi-state pipelines a reality. Just this past summer, the idea caused a firestorm of letters to the editor at a California newspaper. But interest spans deeper than that. Imagine a Five foot diameter, half burried pipeline covered with photovoltaic cells on the upper half. "I think that societally, we want to be more flexible. He said hes open to one but doesnt think its necessary. All rights reserved. But there are tons of things that can be done but arent ever done.. It's the lowest level since the lake was filled in the. Each year . It might be in the trillions, but it probably does exist.. Why not begin a grand national infrastructure project of building a water pipeline from those flooded states to the Southwest? 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. These canals and pipelines are . The snowbirds commonly stay here for at least six months. Your support keeps our unbiased, nonprofit news free. I can't even imagine what it would all cost. Mississippi River drought will impact your grocery bill. Certainly not the surrounding communities. The project would require more than 300 new dams,canals, pipelines, tunnels, and pumping stations, bans large waterexportsoutside of the area. Lake Superior Water Headed to the Southwest - Word on the Street 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. Doug Ducey signed legislation this past July that invested $1.2 billion to fund projects that conserve water and bring more into the state. 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. 10/4/2021. 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. Filling Lake Mead with Mississippi River Water No Longer a Pipe Dream. CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa Waves of torrential rainfall drenched California into the new year. 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. 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. 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. But interest spans deeper than that. Sharing Mississippi River water with California would feed America 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. 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. Pumping Mississippi River water west: solution or dream? 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. The Arizona Legislature wants the federal government to study the feasibility of constructing a pipeline . Arizona's legislature allocated$1 billion in its last session for water augmentation projectslikea possible desalination plant, and state officials are in discussions with Mexican officials about the idea, saidBuschatzke. The Arizona state legislature allocated seed money toward a study of a thousand-mile pipeline that would do exactly this last year, and the states top water official says hes spoken to officials in Kansas about participating in the project. It would turn the Southwest into an oasis, and the Great Basin into productive farmland. The water would be drained via a 36 inch pipe already installed four miles west of Sugarloaf Mountain outside Marquette. As part of our commitment to sustainability, in 2021 Grist moved its office headquarters to the Bullitt Center in Seattles vibrant Capitol Hill neighborhood. The elephant in the room, according to Fort, is agriculture, which accounts for more than 80 percent of water withdrawals from the Colorado River. An in-depth feasibility study specifically on pumping Mississippi River water to the West hasnt been conducted yet to Larsons knowledge. 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. The Abandoned Plan That Could Have Saved America From Drought If we had a big pipeline from Lake Sakakawea, we wouldn't just dump it into Lake Powell. "This sounds outlandish, but we have a massive problem," Paffrath said. The Western U.S. is experiencing its driest period in more than a thousand years, according to scientists from UCLA and Columbia University.

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