Mass migration from West to Midwest, driven by water, could happen if we don't innovate

THIS IS NOT FOR PRINT

Regarding the letter titled "As a Wisconsin resident, I vow: The Southwest will never get our Mississippi River water.":

As far as the Southwest goes, the damage is done. While I agree we must significantly decrease water usage, especially for agriculture, that process is not going to happen quickly and certainly will favor maintaining the status quo with little thought for the health of the Colorado River and tributary ecosystems.

Humans must find ways to adapt and make our impact on the environment an improvement, rather than destructive. "Natural" is no longer an option.

We must innovate to survive in the places we live, rather than ignore these problems until they ultimately trigger mass migration events (i.e. people moving from Arizona to Wisconsin as refugees).

Of course we should balance our needs with sustainability and preservation/restoration of ecosystems. But we cannot go back to a time when any environment of Earth is unaffected by the activity of our species; we have to move forward.

As such, we should look to proposals such as the diversion of a reasonable amount of water from the Mississippi to the Colorado. The impact on Mississippi communities and ecosystems (navigation, health of delta, etc.) must absolutely be minimized, and in fact efforts should be geared toward flood prevention and other beneficial impacts. This is achievable.

Ian Field, Albuquerque

Moving water across the Continental Divide is nothing new

I worked as an engineer for the city of Aurora, Colorado, for 12 years in the 1980s and '90s, and it is no secret that water from the Colorado River basin is diverted under the Continental Divide to the east side of the divide to fuel Aurora’s tremendous growth.  Aurora — Colorado’s third-largest city with a population of 400,000, — buys water rights on the west side of the divide and pumps the water to the east side of the divide via a tunnel into the South Platte River for consumption by Aurora’s residents. The South Platte is a tributary of the Missouri River and ultimately the Mississippi River. This practice has been going on for decades.

Grant Eklund, La Quinta 

Things are going the wrong way in Palm Desert

I have been a Palm Desert resident for over 30 years and up to the recent past, the town was very well run. Then came the mess on El Paseo with posts at the street corners in the street so as to shorten the distance the pedestrians had to walk from corner to corner. Stupid! The cars and trucks couldn’t negotiate the turns, so obviously the posts had to be removed.

Next came the CV Link. While both Indian Wells and Rancho Mirage got to vote on allowing it — and both voted against it —we were not allowed to vote.  Just drive down Magnesia Falls and see the ugliness with the car lanes smaller than the CV Link.

And now Lupine. Why does the council want to block the street? So people can sit and chat and carry food over to a table. Can’t we sit and chat at one of the many, many restaurants on El Paseo. Wouldn’t it be better if the council could help the closed stores to open/reopen?

We are a town of 50,000. If there are five districts, I will be one of 10,000 people and have only one councilman to vote for.  If I don’t like what the councilmen in other districts are doing, I have no recourse.  Is this what the state’s law intended? Doesn’t sound democratic to me.

Louise Kermode, Palm Desert

This article originally appeared on Palm Springs Desert Sun: Mass migration from West to Midwest may happen if we don't solve water