Why no canal between the flooded Midwest and the parched southwest?

[jasg]

Could the hyperloop carry water? If not, perhaps a canal along the Southern route through Texas could be stocked with crocodiles to stop illegal immigrants. The savings on The Donald’s wall might pay for the canal!

[lance_strongarm]

@mbh

To elaborate: there are mountain ranges running the entire length of the continent. In the US, they are called the Rockies. In Mexico, they are called the Sierra Madre. In New Mexico and Arizona, they have a few other names. Where one ends and another begins is largely an arbitrary distinction made by some mapmaker. But the Continental Divide runs right through New Mexico, and even our flatlands are at high elevations.

Yeah, this is an idea that would involve a canal across the Continental Divide. Not a small task.

Maybe we could built it as a moat at the Mexican border, and Trump could get Mexico to pay for it.

[Kent_Clark]

Welcome to the SDMB Hugh Metheny. I see you’ve just joined and you’ve chosen to revive this thread with your very first post. To have a long and happy life on the Board, here’s a cultural note you might want to follow.

Here in General Questions we have a term called “Cite?” which means we ask someone to backup an assertion with actual facts. So when you say:

@Hugh_Metheny

4. The Southern route from Mississippi through Texas like the Interstate would work.

When more than six and one-half years ago, Squink pointed out:

@Squink

The lowest point on the continental divide trail, which any canal must cross, is 3,900 feet near Columbus, New Mexico.
The elevation of the Mississippi River is 686 feet (209 m) in Minneapolis, where it joins with Minnehaha Creek.

So at a minimum you’d have to lift your canal water 3,214 feet to get it over the divide.

And given that the longest canal in the world, the St. Lawrence Seaway, has only about a 600’ differencefrom its lowest to highest points, I’m going to ask you to show any kind of study or projection that shows your canal idea is even possible, let alone “would work.”

Thanks.

[syncrolecyne]

There are a few natural “canals” that already could serve this purpose, namely the Colorado River and Rio Grande. These follow the best route from an accessible water source to lower elevations through very arid regions. And both of these streams are taxed to the limit by local irrigation use.

The best solution might be to somehow increase precipitation and run-off around the primary sources of these rivers, as well as their main tributaries, such as the Pecos River.

We could boost both rivers with treated wastewater from the larger cities that they pass.

[Horatio_Hellpop]

The southwestern states worked out their water rights 90 years ago with each other and are locked into water treaties based on population and water usage in the 1920s. Arizona, now home to some major population centers, sure wishes now that they hadn’t signed away their only real river, a point not lost on Oregon and Washington when Californians talk about a similar canal from the Columbia river. (Phoenix gets by on water from a vast underground lake today.)

Joan Didion wrote a wonderful essay on the history of California water management. It’s in her book Where I Came From.

[Lord_Feldon]

@syncrolecyne

We could boost both rivers with treated wastewater from the larger cities that they pass.

Doesn’t this already happen?