Divert water from Canada and Alaska to form a lake the size of Huron in Montana, fill in San Francisco Bay? read this.

  After having the flu for the past two weeks, yes I got the vaccine, (double whammy shot and flu, a guy can't beat those odds.)I finally got out of the house this morning, I assumed my coffee position overlooking the slough I live on and took in the vista of fog. California is a foggy state, I don't know how many people know that drought, heat, wildfires, and fog, the fog sometimes covers over 1/2 the state. We have not had a lot of fog yet this year because we have not had a lot of rain this year, and the longer we go without the direr the situation is. The western U.S. is notoriously dry, in fact during the years of the westward expansion people often referred to it as "The Great American Desert", It's only partially true, the dry area starts at the 100th meridian, drawing a line from about central North Dakota south through the center of Texas, it is wet to the East and dry to the West.

The drought line, yes it is just that profound. 

It is not a coincidence when a drought is in full force the entire West is in a drought, that's when moving water around becomes political.
  There have always been battles over water, Mark Twain said "Whiskey is for drinking, Water is for fighting over", and fight we do. There have been attempts to increase the amount of water available to the western states, some of them have been pretty crazy, some not thought out and others just not doable.
  One project advocated by the North American Water and Power Alliance proposed a water scheme under the guise of "Water Management", you be the judge. The "big plan", was to divert a few rivers from Alaska southward through Canada and down the Rockie Mountain Trench as well as other routes, taking place during 369 different and separate construction projects. Entering the United States in Northern Montana the water would be diverted to the source of the Colorado and Yellowstone Rivers. Originally conceived in the early 1950's it has not been seriously considered since the 1970's due to, (you guessed it) environmental, economic and political concerns raised by this proposal. however, the problem with that is the project would not be able to produce enough to run it. Others argued it would create 60-80 MW excess after pumping, I personally dought it. The proponents also claimed it would be a cure-all for water pollution, how I don't know, but it was a "do everything" project.

The Parsons Plan, wow it's a hugely bad idea.

It died reportedly by the weight of its complexity, but there is more to it, I suspect there was more than those three issues bringing this monster to its knees. In 1964 an economic blueprint was constructed, the total cost in 1975 was estimated at $100 billion, about the same cost as the interstate highway system. Referred to as the "Parsons plan", it would have diverted water from the Yukon, Liard, and Peace River systems into the Rocky Mountain Trench's most southern half, it would then be dammed creating a 500-mile long reservoir. (805km). The idea included sending some of the water Eastward across central Canada forming a waterway of which would be able to allow ships to cross to the Great Lakes. An additional benefit was billed as stabilizing the water level of the Great Lakes, as well as providing more water to produce more electricity at the Niagra Falls Hydro-electric project. It was a huge project, planning included sending water to the Missouri/Mississippi River Valley's, then pumped over the Rockies by the Sawtooth Lifts in Idaho, then running south through canals and aqueducts to the (Yep) Colorado and Rio Grande Rivers. Some of the water would go to New Mexico, the southern end of the Rockies, and from there pumped to the High Plains, supposedly to stabilize the Ogallala Aquifer. (It is probably in extreme danger now anyway due to the XL pipeline traveling right through the center of it). Increasing the flow of water in the Colorado River would allow more water to enter Mexico expanding agriculture in Sonora and Baja California. We now have at the Southern Border a Reverse Osmosis plant cleaning Colorado river water so it (the now cleaned up polluted water) can be sent to Mexico, it is a billion $ plant. Initially, the Parsons plan proposed using nuclear explosions to dig the waterways and carve underground storage caverns. The project would have provided 75 million acre-feet (93 km3) to dry areas in the North American Continent. This project would have reclaimed 7-8 times more land than the Aswan High Dam. The project would create more electrical generating capacity, but not enough to satisfy its needs.
  There was nothing but problems with the proposed project, including a number of new reservoirs that would be in the center of designated wildness areas, destroying habitat for wildlife not only in the Northwestern U.S. but Canada and would impact Mexico as well. In addition to that hundreds of thousands of people would have to have been relocated, the entire city of Prince George, British Columbia is just one.

Prince George would be under water if this plan were to become
reality.

The Salmon, Lochsa, Clearwater, Yellowstone and Big Hole Scenic Rivers in Idaho and Montana would be lost forever under reservoirs. Six Nuclear Power Plants would have to be constructed just to power the project, (hence my negativity to the idea hydro would create enough, bah humbug). Destroying the Salmon Runs not only on the submerged rivers but on many rivers in Alaska and Canada, there would be no water in them. This project would do more damage to the Western United States, Alaska, Mexico and Canada than the previous 100 years of Dam building. The Parsons project did garner some support in its early years, some politicians thumped their chest proclaiming it would end the drought cycles, meanwhile, everyone else nicknamed it the "Hydrologic Anti-Christ". The project was beaten back and shelved in the 1970's, partly due to Canada insisting water exports be eliminated from NAFTA negotiations. Marc Reisner wrote the book "Cadillac Desert", everyone in the United States should read that book, I have 2 or 3 times, in fact, it is the motivation of my writing this today. I have tried to remember everything I can that I have learned about some of these projects, this one was the worse of them all.
  There were many more schemes, Landry C. Payne, who wrote Water Resources Impact stated "the sheer arrogance and imperial ambitions of the modern hydraulic West" another author Steinberg whom wrote "Down to Earth: Natures' role in American History" called it "the most outlandish water development scheme to emerge in the past 50 years". Unbelievably there are still to this day supporters of this project, most likely the same people that have been scheming to move water from Northern California to Southern California since this Parsons project was shot down. (Link to a plan to move Mississippi River water to California.)
  I will briefly describe another project that was beaten back by the housewives of San Francisco, the Army Corp of Engineers had plans to fill in San Francisco Bay in the 1930s. It is said that the women of the city had the Bay in their view all day long, when wind of filling it in was announced, well guess what broke loose, if there is one group of people you want on your side in any dispute it is the Ladies of any country, they organized, wrote letters and fought it tooth and nail. They won, and today we still have the Bay, people with a little power want our water, some with huge power try, which brings me to the modern day battle.(Link to the Reber plan, let's fill in San Francisco Bay, shall we?)
  We have been fighting the Delta Tunnel project since the 1970's, in the late 70's it was voted down by the entire state, even Southern California that needed the water, the monster project has never lowered its head. During Jerry Browns current administration it gained a full head of steam and is full bore crashing down on us, we have one more year to fight it back, it is economically not doable, no one wants to pay for it, and the water districts won't, no matter what they promise. They don't take care of the Dams they have, (case in point Oroville Dam) they destroyed the Kesterson wildlife sanctuary and have blocked water flow to the Delta. It's an ongoing battle over water in the west, sometimes we hear of the State making offers to "buy" water from other regions.
  The pumping of water is expensive, the only reason we can get away with pumping oil through pipelines over many thousands of miles is that it is sold by the gallon, I don't believe anyone in the Southwest would want to pay by the gallon for water.

The Chrisman water pumping station, over the Grapevine
to Los Angelos, a 700-mile journey, mostly gravity fed.

  I want to get this story out because we are heading into another prolonged drought, and true to form there will be people proposing moving water all over the place. The bottom line is, if it has to be pumped over a longer distance than 300 miles, it ain't gonna shake out fiscally. So no water from the Mississippi, Columbia or Yukon rivers, the only reason the Colorado river worked in providing water is due to it's being uphill from L.A.
  Thanks for reading and sharing, water is important, to me, it's like the air and land, we do not and cannot own any of it, we are a part of it and we would do well to start acting like it.

jacquesandkate  emergencykitsplus.com