Water to the West

To the Editor:

Let's take the excess water from floods along the Mississippi, and Missouri rivers, and pipe it to the reservoirs and headwaters of the West. Follow existing highways as much as possible. Bing or Google “Water Pipeline, USA, East to West”, “Pipe Dreams: Water Supply Projects in the West”, and “Interstate Water System” for more thoughts, pictures, and diagrams. If oil and natural gas pipelines can be permitted and built clear across the U.S., certainly water pipelines can, too!

Water pipelines are far more environmentally friendly than oil and gas, and would promote agriculture, production of livestock, and wildlife. They would alleviate floods in the Midwest and South, and alleviate extreme drought and loss of hydroelectric power in the West. Solar electric power to power the pumps is in abundance in the South and Southwest, wind power across the Great Plains, and hydroelectric power from flood control dams. As those power sources are intermittent, water would need to be piped uphill from reservoir to reservoir, using check valves along the way. Building and powering such a water pipeline would create thousands upon thousands of jobs and save businesses and the livelihoods of millions of citizens (voters).

This would certainly be the most important infrastructure project ever! Compare it to the Interstate Highway System and the Transcontinental Railroad. It can be done. Cost of the 870-mile first leg between Iowa, and the headwaters of the Colorado, has been estimated at $29 billion, only a small portion of Congress' infrastructure budget. Even the increased revenue from the increase in economic activity might well pay for the project. Further pipelines could be built up to the reservoirs of California. California agriculture would flourish, supplying food to the rest of the nation, create thousands upon thousands of jobs, and control the floods in the East. Everyone benefits.

J. Michael Wharton

Sonora