Water Pipeline: What If An Aqueduct Was Built From The Great Lakes To The Southwest?

As someone who lives on the great lakes, I would do EVERYTHING in my power to stop this. If the people in the American southwest want our water, they are welcome to move here. We are not going to allow our natural resources to be plundered by people living in the desert who want green lawns and swimming pools.

When the Southwest sends us Michiganders some 75-degree days in February, we'll talk about giving them some water.

I forgot what it is but the amount of water needed to grow one almond in California is astonishing

As someone from the great lakes, I can tell you that if they start building the pipeline, they'll need to have really good security for the workers and long term security for the pipeline itself.

The rules here in the Great Lakes region dictate that only areas that are part of the basin (that is, ground water flows to the lakes) are able to take water from the system. Where I live we have Lake Michigan water in our homes. The town 5 miles south of us has to use wells instead, and the water is so poor that most people use bottled water for drinking, and some even use it for bathing and clothes washing. If the rules don't allow this particular town that is only a couple miles out of the Lake Michigan basin to remove water from the lake, rest assured no one involved in the management of the Great Lakes is going to allow the people currently wasting and rapidly depleting the water in the Southwest to destroy our Lakes.

I remember reading a book called " The Late Great Lakes". The one thing I vividly remember is a story where a massive southwest aquifer was completely drained due to the insane demand (people insisting on having green lawns and golf courses, pools, etc.) in a region that isn't set up for such things. In steps the Army Corps of Eng to save the day by designing a pipeline to tap into Lake Michigan. It never gained traction and I hope it never does.

This was a very interesting video, I enjoyed it. I live in Michigan and have my entire life. I personally limit my water use because I know what a process it has to go through before it gets to me. But I am also aware that my location is unique to the rest of the world. I live in the area with the biggest fresh water supply in the world. On that one I consider myself blessed because it's never been of any real concern to me. Relocating the water seems more of a problem, then relocating people. I'm not saying mass caravans of humanity, but there can be solutions on this. There are 8 states and 2 Provinces (Canadian) that sit in this region. There is a lot of good land and water here.

Two things you didn't mention regarding Great Lakes water, first, the water level of the Great Lakes rises and falls with the weather. In drought conditions it goes down and in wet times fills up by as much as six feet of difference. There are about 140 commercial ports on the Great Lakes. That is a lot of shipping and a lot of jobs that depend on lake level. Once people outside the Great Lakes Basin start drawing on the water and relying on it, how do you turn off their tap when the lake levels naturally go down? The lakes have gone down about 25 inches since 2020 naturally without any such pipeline as that proposed. Would people accept someone saying, "sorry, you'll just have to wait a few years for the lakes to come back up." Once the tap is open it will be very hard to shut it off. If the natural waterway goes too low, and the ports can't work, what do the people in the Great Lakes region do to ship and receive goods that now go through the ports? I understand the people in the Southwest have jobs and lives and needs, but so do the people in the Great Lakes region. Nothing is gained by sacrificing one for the other. Second, The American Southwest is a historic drought area on our planet. You can't fix that. To ship water from other parts of the country will only make it possible for more people to live there and increase the demand on scarce resources and the need to move yet more water. If you did use Great Lakes water to try and fix that problem you would only make the demand on Great Lakes water that much worse. The Southwest region must live on their available resources and people should not continue to move to an area where the land doesn't have the carrying capacity. There are other places in the country available for people to move without the cost and environmental damage posed by such a pipeline.

As a Michigander I can tell you that someone is under estimating the impact this would have on the Great Lakes. There have been times when there has been concern over lowering lake levels due to drought and lack of rain and snowfall. As hard as this is to believe I remember years ago the State asking Detroiters to curb their water usage.Then there is the international issue with Canada. Perhaps a better idea would be for people not to move to a desert State. Just as its name implies a desert is an arid place, meaning very little precipitation. And for the record, yes, we are extremely protective of our Great Lakes.

Two years ago a company in Iowa wanted to ship 2 billion gallons of water a year from the Jordan Aquifer out to western states. It was met with incredible resistance and it came to nothing. The backlash to this proposal is only and indicator of how large the backlash would be to building a pipeline from the Great Lakes to the SouthWest.

Some thoughts, living in MI, I know that we would never give up our water, period. The problem in the SW is directly related to the population and their consumption. Although I don't recall that you mentioned it, the Great Salt Lake has similar problems and it does not require fresh water to fix, i.e. it could use the salt water that is geographically closer to it. I could see a salt water pipeline being feasible (although probably not financially possible) and inland desalination plants powered by solar energy, which would be practical but expensive.

I saw an interesting proposal the other day, related to this. Rather than taking water from the great lakes though, they suggested taking water from flood prone areas prior to the storms(so instead of flooding the water is drained then refilled by the storm). They also suggested reusing oil/natural gas pipelines that are no longer used, which would greatly reduce the costs.

Geoff, sending Great Lakes water anywhere is a non-starter. We who live in the Great Lakes region cherish the unique natural phenomenon that is the Great Lakes. Diverting water away from the region would only serve to compromise this natural ecosystem. As you have said, the Lakes are protected by international treaty with Canada and I, for one, cannot think of any plausible scenario that might serve to justify sending this water anywhere.

I drove through Utah recently and my jaw dropped. Was 100 degrees outside and driving through the desert there were green fields with water spewing all over them in the afternoon at the hottest part of the day. I farmed for quite a few years and watering during the day was a big no-no. Couldn't tell if they were being negligent or ignorant but I can tell you alot of that water is being wasted atleast in the area I drove through.

Even if it was feasible to send water from the Great Lakes to the Southwest, I don't think it would ever be enough. You have people down there who waste literally hundreds of thousands of gallons of water on superfluous things like watering lawns, golf courses, and growing crops that extremely water intensive; all despite the water shortage as it is. If you suddenly give them access to millions of gallons of Great Lakes water, they're just going to waste it too.

Question: instead of tapping into an existing lake, why not setup pipelines from flood zones? in other words: setup pipes to divert flood water from one area to a "dry" or drought area - that way, you address two problems at the same time.

My mother is geologist and has specialized in ground water. She is a firm believer that the water in the Great Lakes was a one time gift from receding glaciers during the last ice age in North America. We should be very careful when considering how to manage this incredible gift. I personally think they represent yet another reason why the region will see a population increase in the future.

Speaking as a Canadian on the great lakes I feel the mood it pretty much the same on both sides of the boarder in this region... Never going to happen. good video though. you explained it well

I learned recently that there are a few desalination plants in California. Maybe having more of them over time could be more feasible if the technology advances. Even so, it will probably take a lot of different solutions to work with the water crises that's in the Southwest and through much of the rest of the country if not much of the world.

As someone born in the southwest people used to have rocks in their lawns and maybe some cacti. Some people painted rocks or used astro turf if they wanted that green lawn look. Then in the early 2000's things started to change. And now Sedona, and Scottsdale are practically LA east. LA was in a drought and almost no one stopped watering their lawns. Those same people are now moving to AZ. This is why there is a water shortage