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Water Pipeline: What If An Aqueduct Was Built From The Great Lakes To The Southwest?
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Mar 31, 2025
The American Southwest is running out of water. And while there are many ways to conserve water for the region and create a more sustainable water ecosystem for decades to come, one of the most discussed is the idea of a water pipeline from the Great Lakes to the Southwest. But while this might be technically feasible, the financial costs and environmental damage would be staggering. Not to mention, of course, that the states and Canadian provinces simply wouldn't allow it. But what if an aqueduct was built from the Great Lakes to the American Southwest?
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The American Southwest is under extreme water distress
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A years-long drought has not only impacted the region directly, but also the region's primary water sources such as the Colorado River
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Because of this, there have been renewed calls for additional aqueducts to be built
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So what if the United States built a water pipeline from the Great Lakes to the American Southwest
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Hello and welcome to What If Geography, where we try and answer the great geographic what-if questions of the world
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I'm your host, Jeff Gibson, and today we're going to talk about water... again
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Now, if you've watched my channel before, you've likely watched an episode on this very same subject
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However, today we're talking about a problematic solution to the American Southwest water issue
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a transcontinental water pipeline. But before we get into the episode, be sure to follow me on Twitter and Instagram
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where you can find out more about upcoming episodes, interact with me directly
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and see more of the geographic content that I make. Links are in the description of this video
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The American Southwest is a naturally dry place. It probably comes as no surprise
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that basically the entire region we're talking about today is a desert. And today, this desert is drying out
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While Arizona, Nevada, and California have been able to sustain themselves through large quantities of groundwater reserves
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and aqueducts from the Colorado River, that is quickly no longer becoming a possibility
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You see, the region as a whole, and truthfully much of the western half of the United States
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is currently undergoing a mega drought that has been made much worse by climate change
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At the same time, Arizona and Nevada have seen explosive population growth over the last few
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decades. This has caused a strain on water resources from both ends. Water is, to put it
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lightly, becoming a rare commodity for the region. But while it's easy to blame the millions of
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people, their single-family homes with perfect green lawns, and Phoenix's many, many golf courses
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all of that combined does not take up even half of Arizona's available water
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Instead, the primary culprit is agriculture. Agriculture uses somewhere around 74% of all
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available water in Arizona. This is used to grow things like alfalfa, hay, corn, cotton, wheat
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citrus, olives, and potatoes. As a reminder, Arizona is primarily a desert
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and the state is currently using a lot of that water to grow things within much of this desert
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You can see how the water math doesn't really add up here. It for this reason that Arizona relies on water from outside the state to add to its supply Since 1922 Arizona and the whole American Southwest region in general has relied heavily on the Colorado River
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This agreement, termed the Colorado River Compact, divided the river into the upper basin and lower basin
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For the upper basin, the water is split amongst Colorado, which gets 51.75% of the available water
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Utah with 23% of the water, Wyoming with 14%, and New Mexico with 11.25%
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Arizona also gets a very small portion of the upper basin's water. For the lower basin, the water is split between California
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which receives 58.7% of the water, Arizona with 37.3%, and Nevada with 4%
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In addition to these states, Mexico is allocated about 10% of the total volume of water
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from the entire river. And much of this water is delivered via aqueduct
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to both the Phoenix and Los Angeles metro areas directly from the Colorado River
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In fact, the concept of a pipeline bringing water from another part of the country is not a new one
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In addition to the aqueduct from the Colorado River, both California and Arizona have over a dozen aqueducts
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many of which are well over 100 miles in length. Of course, that's small potatoes
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compared to the over 1,500 mile pipeline that would be required to make it to the Great Lakes
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That said, aqueducts are also not a new technology. As humans, we have been moving massive amounts of water
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around since the Roman Empire. So moving water over great distances would not be impossible, but it would be a huge challenge
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A water pipeline from the Great Lakes to the American Southwest could be a potential solution
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to an increasingly dry and warm climate, but it would not be an easy undertaking
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In fact, such an endeavor would easily be the single largest infrastructure project
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the United States has ever undertaken. But before we get into the costs
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and geographic ramifications of a water pipeline, if you're enjoying this video
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now would be a great time to subscribe. More fun geography videos are just one click away
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The Great Lakes of North America have a lot of water. In fact, there is so much freshwater within the Great Lakes
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that if you were to spread it out evenly across the continental United States, the country would be flooded
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under more than nine feet of water. That's an incredible statistic. All told, the Great Lakes have about 21
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of all surface freshwater on the planet. And honestly, at present conditions
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there's more than enough to sustain sustain the country as a whole. All that said, there are a few problems with accessing that water from the Great Lakes
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and shipping that water halfway across the country. The biggest being that the current US states and Canadian provinces that surround the lakes
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probably won allow it And while that might seem like an easy enough thing to overcome I can assure you it is not Water rights are extremely complicated and often very powerful In 2008 the U states
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of Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Michigan, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and New York, along with the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Quebec, signed what is today called the
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Great Lakes Compact. In it, the group established a series of legal means to manage and govern the
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water and its distribution. And most pertinent to a potential water pipeline is that within this
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compact, there is very strong language that basically states that there will be no additional
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diversions of the water. In order for a water pipeline to be built, all nine states and both
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provinces would need to approve it. And that is very unlikely to happen, mostly because the idea
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is extremely unpopular with the people. As it turns out, those who live near the Great Lakes
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are quite fond of it and as such, protective of it as well. The issue of building a water
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pipeline from the Great Lakes to anywhere else in the country is unpopular with both Democrats
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and Republicans, regardless of any financial incentives. To put it plainly, people do not
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want their water to be shipped to the American Southwest. But even if they were open to it
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would it even be financially feasible? A water pipeline from the Great Lakes to the American Southwest would easily top the list
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of most expensive infrastructure projects in U.S. history. To put this in perspective
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When the Colorado River Aqueduct was built to bring water from the Colorado River to Los Angeles
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it required a $220 million bond in 1933. The Colorado River Aqueduct is also only about 242
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miles long. All else being equal, if this aqueduct was built today, it would cost over $5 billion
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That's very expensive even by today's standards, but it would be much more expensive for a pipeline
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to be built from the Great Lakes. Given that a water pipeline of the same volume would be needed
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at a length of at least 1,500 miles, we can make a rough estimate of what it would cost
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At a minimum, given that a 242-mile aqueduct would cost $5 billion
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it's easy to assume that a pipeline from the Great Lakes to the American Southwest would cost almost $31 billion
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But that's basically a straight line and without factoring in current land ownership conditions
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and terrain difficulties. When all is said and done, a water pipeline at this length
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built for anything less than $100 billion would be nothing short of a miracle
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And there's an actual real-world precedent for this. Beginning in 2003, China began what is today called the South to North Water Transfer Project
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wherein the country is attempting to move water from its wet and rainy southern part to its drier north where its capital city of Beijing lies When completed the longest portion of this aqueduct will be about 750 miles long And as of 2015 the country is attempting to move water from its wet and rainy southern part to its drier north where its capital city of Beijing lies When completed the longest portion of this aqueduct will be about 750 miles long And as of 2014
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more than $79 billion have been spent on such an endeavor. China, being a communist authoritarian
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country, has much more legal leeway into taking land for projects like this, so they are inherently
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able to spend much less. The United States has no such luxury, so any financial costs would be
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much higher. And this doesn't even account for the environmental cost. Even though the Great Lakes
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has a lot of water, it is not infinite. And any amount of water taken from the lake and shipped
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to another part of the country is water that is removed entirely from the ecosystem and won't
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return. It's currently estimated that of all water consumed from the Great Lakes, somewhere around 95
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is returned to the lakes themselves. Water shipped by a pipeline, of course, would not return home
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and when you start taking too much, you really start to see what can happen. Central Asia's Aral Sea is a perfect example of what can happen
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when too much water is diverted from lakes. The Aral Sea was once the fourth largest inland body of water in the world
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but the then Soviet Union diverted its water in the 1950s to grow crops
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These diversions dried up 90% of the lake in the span of a generation and, today, the lake is a literal shadow of its former self
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If a water pipeline was built from the Great Lakes to the American Southwest, it's safe to assume that a similar future would be in the cards for the region
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In particular, if a pipeline was built from the Great Lakes, how long would it be before even more water was needed
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to continue to sustain the dry areas of the country? More to that point, how long would it be before other regions of the United States
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wanted their own water pipeline? You can see where the problem could potentially snowball
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into much larger environmental issues for the region. It's a literal no-win scenario for the Great Lakes region
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A water pipeline from the Great Lakes to the American Southwest is a solution to the West's water problems
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in the same way that a hammer is a solution to juicing an orange. Sure, it can technically get the job done
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but there are far easier and better ways to go about it without wasting so much time, energy, and money
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The real solution to the American Southwest's water issue lies in their own ability to conserve, regulate
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and recycle the water they have left. And yes, that likely means some very tough decisions
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in their collective futures, but it's also their most likely path to a sustainable future
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I hope you enjoyed today's episode on a potential water pipeline from the Great Lakes to the
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American Southwest. If you did, please subscribe to my channel. And if you want to watch more of my geography episodes, you can do so here
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Thanks for watching. See you next time
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