Southern California Wants Minnesota’s Water

We have been hearing a lot about the drought in California and all of the wild fires and just very dry conditions.  And because of this, people in Southern California think that it's the job of the people in the Midwest, and specifically Minnesota - Land of 10,000+ lakes to share the wealth of water with them.

One newspaper even had the headline that read "If Midwest Won't Share, Don't Ask West for Help With Your Problems".  That was from Desertsun.com.  Honestly, I'm not sure what issue we would have here where we would be asking for help from them.  They can't give us their weather, so other than that...

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Even if this was something worth considering, is it even possible?  The short answer is No.  It is not a feasible solution to their drought issues.  And, we actually are dealing with our own drought issues in Minnesota.

The idea was from one letter (and one person who got the ball rolling) is to divert some of the water from the Mississippi to the Colorado River and then send that on to help with the drought in that direction.  A small paper and letter turned into 75,000 page views.  That is significant for that publication, apparently.  It got some national coverage as well as it was picked up by a Google search according to TwinCities.com

Then, on June 30, a letter writer’s suggestion that “we could fill Lake Powell in less than a year with an aqueduct from (the) Mississippi River” got picked up by Google’s “Discover” feed, which automatically matches news items to users based on their interests.

Suddenly, that Desert Sun letter alone was drawing 465,000 online page views, a record for the newspaper, which has a paid daily circulation of 20,000 to 50,000 copies.

Here's the deal.  A lot of people are thinking that Minnesota has an abundance of water, but we don't.  Plus, moving that water to other places would/could bring unwanted species to other bodies of water. Also the DNR says this isn't possible.

“More, generally, it is important to recognize that Minnesota does not inherently have an overabundance of water,” reads Naramore’s statement. “Last year’s drought that affected most of Minnesota is also a reminder of how even ‘the Land of 10,000 Lakes’ can quickly experience severe water shortage issues.”

You can read more on the reasons why this "solution" is not possible here. 

But seriously, what problems would be have here that we would be asking the "West" for help?  Really?