Not enough water? Let’s get more!

NAWAPA would turn around rivers in Alaska and British Columbia . Nearly everyone in Alaska already gets an annual oil-royalty check; NAWAPA could mean they’ll get an annual water-royalty check.

But what about Canada ? Canadians have an almost mystical relationship with "their" water, and they feel no compulsion to cooperate with the USA . But this time they might have to go along with their southern neighbors; the US argues NAFTA covers anything which can through a pipeline.

Besides, NAWAPA is of such a scale and importance what Canadians think won’t matter. A 1.3 million square mile drainage area in Alaska, the Yukon, and B.C. would be connected to Hudson Bay, the Great Lakes, and the Mississippi by canals, tunnels, and existing rivers taking about 400 million acre-feet per year. Moving this water downhill would also generate millions of kilowatts of electricity.

A canal from Lake Erie would run to the Ohio River and into Lake Michigan . From there it would go to the Mississippi . An aqueduct would connect the Great Lakes to the Hudson and New York Eventually water taken from the Great Lakes would be replaced by water from Hudson Bay and James Bay in Canada .

In the west, the Rocky Mountain Trench in Canada , between B.C. and Alberta , would be used for storage. There’d be a thirty-foot deep canal from there to Lake Superior, allowing shipping to go from the Lakes to the Rocky Mountains . With locks, ships could one day reach Vancouver from the St. Lawrence…a man-made Northwest Passage .

Water from the Trench reservoir would go to Flathead Lake , Montana . From there it will go through the Great Basin to a new lake, Lake Nevada , and on to a new reservoir, Lake Vegas .

Then it would be piped across Death Valley and finally to Los Angeles . Lake Vegas will be linked with Lake Mead and then the Colorado . Water will go south from Lake Nevada to Arizona and New Mexico .

Water from the Columbia would be piped to Shasta, where existing infrastructure would take it south.

The consequences for a myriad ecosystems would be profound. The consequences for a society premised on the conviction it can do whatever it wants and then manipulate nature to fit its needs would be catastrophic; when this water is used, there won’t be any more. NAWAPA would thus be another step, a giant step, closer to the final precipice.