Death of the Colorado River

http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/full-frame/100225/colorado-river-mexico

The Colorado River used to pulse 1,450 miles from the Rocky Mountains to the Sea of Cortez. But today this lush vein of plenty evaporates into thin air before crossing the Mexican border. Photographer Brain L. Frank roamed northern Mexico and the American Southwest, documenting the human toll of the river's disappearance.

The American southwest has been going through a period of abnormally wet climate for the last thousand years. The climate for this region is normally much drier than humans have encountered. Dust to dust is something the folks who live in these regions will realize shortly.

If you ignore Canadian Legal objections, the engineering objections are severe. You have to channel the water from the Great Lakes to the Colorado River. If the distance was flat, possible, but you have something called the Continental Divide between the two. Thus not only do you have to channel the water, you have to get it up and over that divide. For drinking water that is not much of a problem, the cost of treating the water probably will exceed the costs, but if a lack of drinking water was the main reason for the water shortage that could be fixed by permitting people to outbid current users of water. i.e. you will pay $1 for a pint of water, but will you pay a $1 a pint for your crops? The answer to the second part of that question is a big NO. We have no shortage of drinking or home use water in the Southwest, we do have a shortage of water for everything else. The worse part is these other users of water do NOT want to pay a $1 a pint. They can NOT afford it (Even the most expensive golf course can NOT afford such water costs to keep the greens green. The big displays of water in Las Vegas also is driven by water as less then a dollar a pint and lets not bring up farming and ranching. All use much more water then home users and are unwilling to pay for the water. This is the problem is the Southwest NOT a general lack of water, but a general lack of CHEAP water.

The only way for any movement of water to be cheap if you are discussing water from the Great Lakes to the Colorado River is if the US Government uses federal funds to pay for the project. i.e. those areas HURT by the Great Lakes being diverted gets to pay for the diversion in addition to the rest of the Country. This is the second hurtle to such a plan (The first being the Canadian legal objections). Such a plan will only work if paid for by general Federal Revenue, the payments from the users of the Water will NOT cover the costs (and I suspect will NOT even cover the cost of operating the system once it is built let along the Capital costs to build the system).

Lets look at WHAT has to be built, a water channel from Lake Superior to and down the Mississippi River to St Louis, then reverse flow the Missouri and Plate Rivers till you get to the Continental divide. Then through the Continental Divide till the Colorado River. An alternative way is a series of water lifts, lifting the water on the same route. The water will have to be pumped from one level to the next at a high cost in the terms of energy used to get the water from 733 feet BELOW Sea Level (The Depth of Lake Superior) to 466 Feet at St Louis, up the Missouri to Kansas City at 690 feet, then to 2,770 feet to the source of the Plate River, then over (or through) the Continental Divide to the head waters of the Colorado at about 9000 feet. Yes a climb of about 10,000 feet (Ignoring the actual mountains height on the Divide itself). Some how we have to PUMP this water over that mountain AFTER pumping the Water (Or reverse flowing the Missouri and Platte Rivers) to the headwaters of the Platte. The problem is NOT that this is impossible from an engineering point of view (It is possible) but the VOLUME of water NEEDED makes it impossible. The Russians have a similar plan to pump water from the Ob to the Aral Sea, but it requires only pumping of water over 600 feet, NOT 10,000 feet (and even it is limited, to refill the Aral Sea AND will work with a division of the Volga to the Aral Sea, that requires no pumping).

Lake Superior:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Superior

St Louis:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Louis,_Missouri

Platte River:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Platte_River

Colorado River:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colorado_River

Re-routing the Ob River:
http://www.ecoworld.com/waters/refill-the-aral-sea.html
http://www.cacianalyst.org/?q=node/233

I'm being sarcastic of course but damn....that's what I see at night when I dream...