Would itbe expensive? 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. But water expertssaid it would likely take at least 30 years to clear legal hurdles to such a plan. YouTube. Nonetheless, Siefkes trans-basin pipeline proposal went viral, receiving nearly half a million views. "This sounds outlandish, but we have a massive problem," Paffrath said. continue to approve surf waveparks and "beachfront" developments in the desert, Your California Privacy Rights / Privacy Policy. 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. 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. And biologists andenvironmental attorneys saidNew Orleans and the Louisiana coast, along with the interior swamplands, need every drop of muddy Mississippi water. But interest spans deeper than that. 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. He said hes open to one but doesnt think its necessary. 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. and Renstrom says that unless Utah builds a long-promised pipeline to pump water 140 miles from Lake . "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 . The resulting fresh water would bepiped northto the thirsty state. Donate today tohelp keep Grists site and newsletters free. Doug Ducey signed legislation this past July that invested $1.2 billion to fund projects that conserve water and bring more into the state. In the meantime, researchers encourage more feasible and sustainable options, including better water conservation, water recycling, and less agricultural reliance. Still, he admits the road hasnt always been easy, and that victory is far from guaranteed. The trooper inside suffered minor injuries. Among its provisions, the law granted the states water infrastructure finance authority to investigate the feasibility of potential out-of-state water import agreements. Yet their persistence in the public sphere illustrates the growing desperation of Western states to dig themselves out of droughts. I have dystopian nightmares aboutpipelines marching across the landscape, saidglobal water scarcity expert Jay Famiglietti. It would turn the Southwest into an oasis, and the Great Basin into productive farmland. The Nevada Legislature is considering a bill that, if passed, would require restaurants to only provide water upon customer request. "The engineering is feasible. California Gov. Flooding along the Mississippi River basin appears to have become more frequent in recent years, as has the [] This latest version would curve up through the Wyoming flatlands and back down to Fort Collins, a distance of around 340 miles. About 60% of the region remains in some form of drought, continuing a decades-long spiral into water scarcity. 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. 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 idea is as old and dusty as the desert Southwest: Pipe abundant Great Lakes water to parched cities out West, such as Phoenix and Las Vegas. 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. But we need to know a lot more about it than we currently do.. We are already in a severe drought. But interest spans deeper than that. The California water wars of the early twentieth century are summed up in a famous line from the 1974 film Chinatown: Either you bring the water to L.A., or you bring L.A. to the water. Nearly a hundred years have elapsed since the events the film dramatizes, but much of the West still approaches water the same way. 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. 2023 www.desertsun.com. We can move water, and weve proven our desire to do it. Telling stories that matter in a dynamic, evolving state. 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. Fort, the University of New Mexico professor, worries that the bigwigs who throw their energy behind large capital projects may be neglecting other, more practical options. "My son will never know what a six-gallon toilet looks like," she said. Hydrologic Unit Code 07110009. She can be reached at jwilson@gannett.com or @janetwilson66 on Twitter. In southeastern California,officials at the Imperial Irrigation District, which is entitled toby far the largest share of Colorado River water, say any move to strip theirrights would result in legal challenges that could last years. What if our droughts get worse? "I don't think that drought, especially in the era of climate change, is something we can engineer our way out of.". Historian Ted Steinberg said itsummed up "the sheer arrogance and imperial ambitions of the modern hydraulic West.". Most notably, the Mississippi River basin doesnt always have enough water to spare. Were not looking for the last dollar out of this project, he told me. 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. 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. 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. This is the country that built the Hoover Dam, and where Los Angeles suburbs were created by taking water from Owens Lake. 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. 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. A retired engineer suggested a rather outlandish-in-scope but logical-in-approach solution to the seemingly growing floods in the central U.S. and the water woes of the West Coast - build a nearly 1,500-mile aqueduct to connect the two. 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. 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. It's the lowest level since the lake was filled in the. The state is expected to lose 10% of its water over the next two decades, reports the . The water will drain into the headwaters of the Colorado river. 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. But moving water from one drought-impacted area to another is not a solution.. Much of the sediment it was carrying was dropped in the slow moving water of the Delta. 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. These realities havent stopped the Wests would-be water barons from dreaming. It might be in the trillions, but it probably does exist.. he said. The only newsroom focused on exploring solutions at the intersection of climate and justice. 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. Similar ideas have been suggested about Great Lakes water. Diverting that water also means spreading problems, like pollutants, excessive nutrients, and invasive species. Their technical report, which hasnt been peer-reviewed. Lower Mississippi River flow means less sediment carried down to Louisiana, where its used for coastal restoration. This aerial photo of Davenport, Iowa, shows Mississippi River floodwaters in May 2019. Absolutely. The Arizona Legislature wants the federal government to study the feasibility of constructing a pipeline . 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. Its one of dozens of letters the paperhas received proposing or vehemently opposing schemes to fix the crashing Colorado River system, which provides water to nearly 40 million people and farms in seven western states.