Right now, we are looking at paying for crop loss in the drought regions. If we end up with wild fires in those regions, then we are looking at even more aid and insurance paid out. In the areas around the Mississippi, we are looking at crop losses, property loss, business damage, and countless other tragedies.

What I am proposing would be a system of pipelines that could relieve the buildup of flood waters and reroute it to the areas that routinely are stricken with droughts. New York City uses at least one aqueduct that I’m aware of and the city of Los Angeles uses two aqueducts to route city water from other sources. The first of the aqueducts was constructed in 1908. If it could be done back then, it can surely be done today.

We even have a model to follow in building the system. Currently, there are 85,000-95,000 miles of oil pipelines carrying petroleum all over the country. (See Pipeline 101 for more information) If we can do that, we can surely build aqueducts to reroute flood waters. If we were to look at the areas that typically face flood risks and build large aqueducts to the head of rivers and streams that feed the areas typically stricken with drought then we could help thousands of people being effected by disasters and benefit millions of Americans that routinely pay increased insurance premiums and increased prices at the checkout lines.

This obviously would take a great deal of planning and engineering. Unfortunately, while it would benefit so many, it would surely become overly politicized and ultimately fail. I think if it would have been thought of back in the time of Franklin D. Roosevelt, it would have had a chance, probably the only time it would have had a chance.