CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (AP) 鈥 Waves of torrential rainfall drenched California into the new year. Snowpacks in the Sierra Nevada Mountains have swelled to more than 200% their normal size, and snowfall across the rest of the Colorado River Basin is trending above average, too.
While the much-needed water has improved conditions in the parched West, experts warn against claiming victory. About 60% of the region remains in some form of drought, continuing a decades-long spiral into water scarcity.
鈥淭he drought is so critical that this recent rainfall is a little like finding a $20 bill when you鈥檝e lost your job and you鈥檙e being evicted from your house,鈥 said Rhett Larson, an Arizona State University professor of water law.
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.
Just this past summer, the idea caused a firestorm of letters to the editor at a California newspaper. But interest spans deeper than that. 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.
Studies and modern-day engineering have proven that such projects are possible but would require decades of construction and billions of dollars. Politics are an even bigger obstacle for making multi-state pipelines a reality. Yet their persistence in the public sphere illustrates the growing desperation of Western states to dig themselves out of droughts.
鈥淲e can move water, and we鈥檝e proven our desire to do it. I think it would be foolhardy to dismiss it as not feasible,鈥 said Richard Rood, professor of Climate and Space Sciences and Engineering at the University of Michigan. 鈥淏ut we need to know a lot more about it than we currently do.鈥
WHAT'S BEING PROPOSED, AND WHO IS PROPOSING IT?
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. Widespread interest in the plan eventually fizzled.
Stories of similar projects often share the same ending, from proposals in Iowa and Minnesota to those between Canada and the United States. Yet some smaller-scale projects have become reality.
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. 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. And there are several approved diversions that draw water from the Great Lakes.
On the heels of Arizona鈥檚 2021 push for a pipeline feasibility study, former Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey signed legislation this past July that invested $1.2 billion to fund projects that conserve water and bring more into the state. Among its provisions, the law granted the state鈥檚 water infrastructure finance authority to 鈥渋nvestigate the feasibility鈥 of potential out-of-state water import agreements.
An in-depth feasibility study specifically on pumping Mississippi River water to the West hasn鈥檛 been conducted yet to Larson鈥檚 knowledge. He said he鈥檚 open to one 鈥 but doesn鈥檛 think it鈥檚 necessary.
鈥淚 think the feasibility study is likely to tell us what we already know,鈥 he said, 鈥渨hich is that there are a lot less expensive, less complicated options that we can be investing in right now,鈥 like reducing water use.
PHYSICALLY FEASIBLE鈥擝UT POLITICALLY?
In 2012, the U.S. Department of the Interior鈥檚 Bureau of Reclamation completed 鈥渢he most comprehensive analysis ever undertaken within the Colorado River Basin鈥 at the time, which analyzed solutions to water supply issues 鈥 including importing water from the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers.
Under the analyzed scenario, water would be conveyed to Colorado鈥檚 Front Range and areas of New Mexico to help fulfill water needs. 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.
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 summer鈥檚 viral editorials.
In their technical report, which hasn鈥檛 been peer-reviewed, they calculated that a pipe for moving this scale of water would need to be 88 feet in diameter 鈥 around twice the length of a semi trailer 鈥 or a 100-foot-wide channel that鈥檚 61 feet deep.
Experts we spoke with agreed the feat would be astronomical. Still, it鈥檚 physically possible.
鈥淎s an engineer, I can guarantee you that it is doable,鈥 Viadero said. 鈥淏ut there are tons of things that can be done but aren鈥檛 ever done.鈥
Viadero鈥檚 team estimated that the sale of the water needed to fill the Colorado River鈥檚 Lake Powell and Lake Mead 鈥 the largest reservoirs in the country 鈥 would cost more than $134 billion at a penny a gallon. The price tag for construction would add to this hefty bill, along with the costs of powering the equipment needed to pump the water over the Western Continental Divide.
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.
Local hurdles include endangered species protections, wetlands protections, drinking water supply considerations and interstate shipping protections. 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.
Trans-national pipelines would also impact ecological resources. Lower Mississippi River flow means less sediment carried down to Louisiana, where it鈥檚 used for coastal restoration. Diverting that water also means spreading problems, like pollutants, excessive nutrients and invasive species.
Most notably, the Mississippi River basin doesn鈥檛 always have enough water to spare. Drought conditions plagued the region throughout 2022, for instance, prompting concerns over river navigation.
鈥淣o one wants to leave the western states without water,鈥 said Melissa Scanlan, a freshwater sciences professor at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. 鈥淏ut moving water from one drought-impacted area to another is not a solution.鈥
A PERENNIAL IDEA
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.
鈥淚t鈥檚 possible that the situation gets so dire that there is an amount of money out there that could overcome all of these obstacles,鈥 Larson said. 鈥淚t might be in the trillions, but it probably does exist.鈥
In the meantime, researchers encourage more feasible and sustainable options, including better water conservation, water recycling, and less agricultural reliance. Other forms of augmentation, like desalination, are also gaining popularity on the national scene as possible options.
Those will require sacrifices, no doubt 鈥 but not as many as building a giant pipeline would require, experts said.
鈥淭o be talking about pipe dreams, when that鈥檚 not even feasible for decades, if at all鈥 It鈥檚 a disservice,鈥 Scanlan said. 鈥淧eople need to focus on their realistic solutions.鈥
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