Amid a major drought in the Western U.S., a proposed solution comes up repeatedly: large-scale river diversions, including pumping Mississippi River water to parched states.
Just this past summer, the idea caused a firestorm of letters to the editor at a California newspaper.
In 2021, the Arizona state legislature passed a measure 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.Yet their persistence in the public sphere illustrates the growing desperation of Western states.
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