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A example of why suggestions to pump water to California from across the Rockies are unrealistic
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/navajo-generating-station-powers-and-paralyzes-the-western-u-s/The power generated enables a modern wonder. It drives a set of pumps 325 miles down the Colorado River that heave trillions of gallons of water out of the river and send it shooting over mountains and through canals. That water—lifted 3,000 vertical feet and carried 336 miles—has enabled the cities of Phoenix and Tucson to rapidly expand.
This achievement in moving water, however, is gained at an enormous cost. Every hour the Navajo’s generators spin, the plant spews more climate-warming gases into the atmosphere than almost any other single facility in the United States. Alone, it accounts for 29 percent of Arizona’s emissions from energy generation. The Navajo station’s infernos gobble 15 tons of coal each minute, 24 hours each day, every day.
At sunrise, a reddish-brown snake slithers across the sky as the burned coal sends out plumes of carbon dioxide, nitrogen oxide, mercury, lead and other metals. That malignant plume—containing 16 million tons of carbon dioxide every year—contributes to causing the very overheated weather, drought and dwindling flows of water the plant’s power is intended to relieve.
This achievement in moving water, however, is gained at an enormous cost. Every hour the Navajo’s generators spin, the plant spews more climate-warming gases into the atmosphere than almost any other single facility in the United States. Alone, it accounts for 29 percent of Arizona’s emissions from energy generation. The Navajo station’s infernos gobble 15 tons of coal each minute, 24 hours each day, every day.
At sunrise, a reddish-brown snake slithers across the sky as the burned coal sends out plumes of carbon dioxide, nitrogen oxide, mercury, lead and other metals. That malignant plume—containing 16 million tons of carbon dioxide every year—contributes to causing the very overheated weather, drought and dwindling flows of water the plant’s power is intended to relieve.
And that's just ONE power plant, moving a tiny fraction of the water California needs, only 336 miles.
18 replies
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= new reply since forum marked as read
good idea to me, but evidently the experts did not agree. 
In the meantime, I'll continue to cut back on water usage as best I can.
