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The pipeline would help it tap another 86,000 acre-feet of . But moving water from one drought-impacted area to another is not a solution.. The state is expected to lose 10% of its water over the next two decades, reports the . 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. 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. ", But desert defenders pushed back. But, as water scarcity in the West gets more desperate, the hurdles could be overcome one day. 1999-2023 Grist Magazine, Inc. All rights reserved. No. It was the Bureau of Reclamation. Diverting that water also means spreading problems, like pollutants, excessive nutrients and invasive species. Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. The elephant in the room, according to Fort, is agriculture, which accounts for more than 80 percent of water withdrawals from the Colorado River. Rescue the oceans from the pollution that flood waters pick up and dump into the ocean, creating dead zones. 2023 www.desertsun.com. But it's doable. "Yes, a Superior-Green River pipeline seems unrealistic, even impossible at first glance," Huttner wrote for Minnesota Public Radio. To Larsons knowledge, an in-depth feasibility study specifically on pumping Mississippi River water to the West hasnt been conducted yet. 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 idea of drinking even heavily treated liquid wastemay seem unpalatable, but Westfordthinks people will adapt. Steps are being taken to address water issues in Buckeye. In it, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and Idaho Attorney General Ral Labrador contend that a new interpretation of a Clean Water Act rule is too vague, oversteps the bounds of federal authority and puts the liberties of states and private property owners at risk. and Renstrom says that unless Utah builds a long-promised pipeline to pump water 140 miles from Lake . China, unlike the US, is unencumbered by NEPA, water rights and democratic processes in general. 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. The Mississippi used to flow through a delta full of bayous, shifting sad bars, And islets. One method for simulating streamflow and base flow, random forest (RF) models, was developed from the data at gaged sites and, in turn, was . Parsons said theplanwould replenishthe upper Missouri and Mississippi Rivers during dry spells, increase hydropower along the Columbia Riverand stabilize the Great Lakes. She can be reached at jwilson@gannett.com or @janetwilson66 on Twitter. Each year worsens our receipt of rain and snow. California Gov. A pipeline taking water from the Missouri River west makes perfect sense, if you don't care about money, energy, or the environment. "Mexico has said it didn't although there has been a recent change ingovernment.". But water expertssaid it would likely take at least 30 years to clear legal hurdles to such a plan. He said hes open to one but doesnt think its necessary. An in-depth feasibility study specifically on pumping Mississippi River water to the West hasnt been conducted yet to Larsons knowledge. 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? The idea of a pipeline transecting the continent is not a new idea. 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. Its largestdam would be 1,700 feet tall, more than twice the height of Hoover Dam. 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. It dawned on Million that Colorado had unclaimed rights to water from the Green, since the river was part of the Colorado River system, and he devised a plan to build a pipeline that would pump water around the Rockies to the city of Fort Collins, where he lives. Other forms of augmentation, like desalination, are also gaining popularity on the national scene as possible options. At comment sessions on Colorado's plan, he said, long-distance pipelines wereconstantly suggested by the public. Your support keeps our unbiased, nonprofit news free. 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. 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. The water will drain into the headwaters of the Colorado river. These realities havent stopped the Wests would-be water barons from dreaming. 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. 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. 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. All rights reserved. Nonetheless, Siefkes trans-basin pipeline proposal went viral, receiving nearly half a million views. Yet their persistence in the public sphere illustrates the growing desperation of Western states to dig themselves out of droughts. Take for instance the so-called Water Horse pipeline, a pet project of a Colorado investor and entrepreneur named Aaron Million. Under the analyzed scenario, water would be conveyed to Colorados Front Range and areas of New Mexico to help fulfill water needs. The 2012 study didn't discount either option but. The Western U.S. is experiencing its driest period in more than a thousand years, according to scientists from UCLA and Columbia University. "Nebraska wants to build a canal to pull water from the SouthPlatte River in Colorado, and downstream, Colorado wants to take water from the Missouri River and pull it back across Nebraska. For instance, a Kansas groundwater management agency received a permit last year to truck 6,000 gallons of Missouri River water into Kansas and Colorado in hopes of recharging an aquifer. The Colorado Sun is a journalist-owned, award-winning news outlet based in Denver that strives to cover all of Colorado so that our state our community can better understand itself. Proponents of these projects argue that they could stabilize western cities for decades to come, connecting populations with unclaimed water rights. In the meantime, researchers encourage more feasible and sustainable options, including better water conservation, water recycling, and less agricultural reliance. 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. Most notably, the Mississippi River basin doesn't always have enough water to spare. The most obvious problem with this proposal is its mind-boggling cost. The Great Lakes Compact, signed by President George W. Bush in 2008,bans large waterexportsoutside of the areawithout the approval of all eight states bordering them andinput fromOntario and Quebec. "Arizona really, really wants oceanfront," she chuckled. People fish in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta's Elk Slough near Courtland, California, on Tuesday, March 24, 2020. 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. 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. "To my mind, the overriding fatal flaw for large import schemes is the time required to become operational. "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. The only newsroom focused on exploring solutions at the intersection of climate and justice. "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 . Hydrologic Unit Code 07110009. Other forms of augmentation, like desalination, are also gaining popularity on the national scene as possible options. The project would require more than 300 new dams,canals, pipelines, tunnels, and pumping stations, bans large waterexportsoutside of the area. We have to conserve water, butnota ridiculous wave parkthat willprobably go bankrupt? This story is a product of theMississippi River Basin Ag & Water Desk, an editorially independent reporting network based at the University ofMissouri School of Journalismin partnership withReport For Americaand theSociety of Environmental Journalists, funded by the Walton Family Foundation.