Trans-Basin Pipelines as a Solution to Water Resources: A Network for Water Resilience and Economic Vitality

For several years, much of the country struggled with stubborn drought. Then, floods came to Texas, and California had a generationally-high snowpack. The problems and wide variations between water demand and water supply are well known. Not as well known outside our industry is that per capita water consumption is down 38% since 1980. Conservation is working, but it's time we took a serious and open-minded look at augmenting water resource resilience by construction of an integrated system of trans-basin pipelines. Fortunately, our nation is blessed with an abundance of water. While we speak of water shortages in times of drought, when considered globally and even to some degree with respect to our continent, we actually have all the water we have ever had, and we also have all the water we will ever have. Our water supply problem is that our water and our people are often separated. Our water supply problem is further magnified when our water and our agriculture are also separated. Fortunately, recent awareness of the water-energy-food nexus has brought this issue more to the public arena. We have the means to address this by moving our water from where we have it abundantly to where we need it badly. Australia has done this, and some areas of North America have begun to. Other areas can benefit from what has been learned in these places. Eight of the American Public Works Association's top ten projects of the 20th century involved water. Let's have another innovative public works project, strengthen the resilience of our water resources, put hundreds of thousands of Americans to work in dozens of fields, strengthen our economy, and ensure our future economic vitality with respect to water resource resilience. This topic and author received an ASCE Innovative Thinking award in 2016. Our water, engineering, and public service professionals are challenged like never before. This paper presents an opportunity for leadership.