How far out west? People didn't seem to worry much about their yards when I was in CA a few weeks ago, there was a lot of green grass
All the issues with drought out west has made me wonder why they don't pipe water from the Mississippi to Lake mead.
That’s far as fuck. The volume of water that would need to be moved to be worthwhile and the infrastructure needed would be astronomical.
I used to run the water plant for DuPage County. Approximately a million people worth of population. Peak flows in summer were in the neighborhood of 140mil gallons/day. 1800hp pumps pushing 30MGD each and a couple 900hp 15MGD to be able to accommodate a lower flow situation. Discharged out of a 90” and 86” pipe at 100-120PSI. 5, 5 million gallon standpipes in the system to maintain head.
California’s population is just under 40 million people. The climate is much more arid. As the crow flies from the Mississippi River to lake mead is 1400miles. Huge elevation changes. Right of ways for that many miles across public, private and probably reservation land. Add min 500 miles of detours to that line. Multiple massive lines and dozens of lift stations to keep pressure up for transmission of water at that distance.
A bunch of desalination plants would be more practical in pretty much every way.