# Moving freshwater around on continents

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/moving-freshwater-around-on-continents/951528>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [September 28, 2021, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/moving-freshwater-around-on-continents/951528 "2021-09-28T17:20:04Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 17

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Machine\_Elf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/82dd89/32.png) [@Machine\_Elf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Machine_Elf)\
**Post date:** [September 28, 2021, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/moving-freshwater-around-on-continents/951528/17 "2021-09-28T19:07:28Z")

</div>

> [@snowthx](#):
>
> Since there are many pipelines moving fuels around the country, water could also do the same:
> 
> [Interactive map of pipelines in the United States | American Geosciences Institute](https://www.americangeosciences.org/critical-issues/maps/interactive-map-pipelines-united-states)

Possible, but prohibitively expensive. You can move water downhill easily enough (that’s what rivers are), and you can pipe/pump water throughout a city at acceptable cost. But according to @Oredigger77 in **[this thread](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-know-if-all-these-pipeline-people-want-to-be-useful-why-cant-we-get-water-pipelines/944078/38?)**, it costs about 13 cents to move a gallon of water 100 miles. And irrigation quantities are really massive compared to the commodities we shove through cross-country pipelines. According to this, a bushel of corn requires about 3000 gallons of water, which works out to $390 worth of water if you’re pumping it through pipelines just 100 miles long.

---

_[View the full topic](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/moving-freshwater-around-on-continents/951528)._