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The Eastern US Should Not Send a Single Drop Of Water West
They’ve drained their rivers, and now they want to drain yours.
The western United States continues to languish under a historic drought which has led some people to propose outlandish solutions to the growing problem. One such solution is for a system of pipes and pumps to be built linking the Mississippi and Colorado river basins. The theoretical design would have water pumped from rivers east of the Rocky Mountains to rapidly depleting reservoirs west of the Rocky Mountains.
To such a proposal, the only reasonable response is not one drop.
There are so many things wrong with this proposal it is hard to know where exactly to begin.
For some people, it might be hard to watch the west slowly run out of water, but this is a crisis largely of their own making. Policymakers have skirted the looming issues for decades. They refused to curb development. They refused to put much-needed water restrictions in place for the communities drawing from the Colorado River. Now that the threat is approaching existential levels, their response is to simply take water from someone else.
Giving into such a demand would simply be irresponsible.
