I have dystopian nightmares aboutpipelines marching across the landscape, saidglobal water scarcity expert Jay Famiglietti.
Arizona Legislators Want to Ship Mississippi River - Planetizen Letters to the Editor: Antigovernment ideology isnt working for snowed-in mountain towns, Letters to the Editor: Ignore Marjorie Taylor Greene? Physically, some could be achieved. This aerial photo of Davenport, Iowa, shows Mississippi River floodwaters in May 2019. Do they thank us for using our water? Theyre all such hypocrites. We've had relatively rich resources for so long,we've never really had to deal withthis before, andwe don't want to change.". These realities havent stopped the Wests would-be water barons from dreaming. Take for instance the so-called Water Horse pipeline, a pet project of a Colorado investor and entrepreneur named Aaron Million. 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. Do we have the political will? 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. It is time to think outside the box of rain. USGS 05587500 Mississippi River at Alton, IL. WATER WILL SOON be flowing from Lake Superior to the parched American Southwest. Politics are an even bigger obstacle to making multi-state pipelines a reality. 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.
Water Pipeline of America - Colorado-Mississippi Pipeline - Zamboanga One method for simulating streamflow and base flow, random forest (RF) models, was developed from the data at gaged sites and, in turn, was . 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. 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. When that happens, it wont be just tourists and recreational boaters who will suffer. Drainage area 171,500 square miles .
Once again, Arizona hopes to import out-of-state water in face of crisis What states in the Southwest have failed to do is curtail growth and agriculture that is, of course, water-driven.
Is Getting Great Lakes Water To The Southwest Just A Pipedream 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. Every day, we hear about water conservation, restrictions. 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. The list of projects that run on similarly magical thinking goes on: Utah wants to build a pipeline of its own from Lake Powell to the fast-growing city of St. George, but Lake Powell has almost no water left.
Could massive water pipelines solve the West's drought crisis? | Grist Arizona and Nevada residents must curb their use of water from the Colorado River, and California could be next. 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. "Arizona really, really wants oceanfront," she chuckled. 2023 www.desertsun.com. But water expertssaid it would likely take at least 30 years to clear legal hurdles to such a plan.
How can we bring water from Mississippi river to west, Arizona - Quora "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 federal Bureau of Reclamation has already looked at piping 600,000 acre-feet of water a year from either the Missouri or the Mississippi. Drop us a note at tips@coloradosun.com. The total projected cost of the plan in 1975 was $100 billion or nearly $570billion in today's dollars,comparable to theInterstate Highway System. Its largestdam would be 1,700 feet tall, more than twice the height of Hoover Dam. But we need to know a lot more about it than we currently do.. Rescue the oceans from the pollution that flood waters pick up and dump into the ocean, creating dead zones. ", But desert defenders pushed back. California uses 34 million acre-feet of water per year for agriculture. Each edition is filled with exclusive news, analysis and other behind-the-scenes information you wont find anywhere else. Talk about a job-creating infrastructure project, which would rivalthe tremendous civilengineering feats our country used to be noted for. 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. As an engineer, I can guarantee you that it is doable, Viadero said. Your support keeps our unbiased, nonprofit news free. 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. 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. So moving water that far away to supplement the ColoradoRiver, I don't think is viable. Certainly not the surrounding communities. And several approved diversions draw water from the Great Lakes. The state should do everything possible to push conservation, but thats not going to cure the issue, he told Grist. 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. On the heels of Arizonas 2021 push for a pipeline feasibility study, former Arizona Gov. 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. About 60 percent of the region remains in some form of drought, continuing a decades-long spiral into water scarcity. 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. 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 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. The actual costs to build such a pipeline today would likely be orders of magnitude higher, thanks to inflation and inevitable construction snags. 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? No. Grab hydrogen and oxygen from the air and make artificialrain. But if areas like the Coachella Valley continue to approve surf waveparks and "beachfront" developments in the desert, "we're screwed," he said bluntly. Releasing more water downstream would come at the expense of upstream users .
Column: Building a pipeline to the Mississippi? An idea as harebrained My state, your state. . The idea's been dismissed for as long as it's. Has no one noticed how much hotter the desert is getting, not to mention the increase in fires in our area. Yet their persistence in the public sphere illustrates the growing desperation of Western states to dig themselves out of droughts. 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. The mountains are green now but that could be harmful during wildfire season. Arizona is among six states, that released a letter and a proposed model for how much Colorado River water they could potentially cut to stave off a collapse. Would itbe expensive? Why not begin a grand national infrastructure project of building a water pipeline from those flooded states to the Southwest? Facebook, Follow us on Studies and modern-day engineering have proven that such projects are possible but would require decades of construction and billions of dollars. 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.
Booming Utah metro wants to pipe in water from Lake Powell so it can Is pumping Mississippi River water west a solution or pipe dream?
A Sense Of Yellow Poem By Carrie Carter,
Articles W