The Colorado River Aqueduct 

America is the only country I know of that plays music so loud on its documentaries that the commentary cannot be heard.

Thank you, from Southern California, for this video. I am using it in my online science class to help students decide for themselves if it is important for them to conserve water. To me it is imperative to conserve and reclaim as much water as possible. I demo'd putting a 5-gallon bucket in the shower to reclaim 3.5 g water per shower to water plants outside. My students need as much accurate information as possible; this is embedded into my presentation.

I've been to some of the plants as part of my work. They are almost completely original, even down to the door handles and stuff. Masterpieces of the art-deco style in architecture so common at that time. And each pumping station has a tiny village where the crew lives, with green lawns, a swimming pool and all the comforts of home. At first glance it would seem like a fantastic place to live and work, until one realizes how remote some of those plants are.

I've read that the Nestlé company siphons millions of gallons of water a year out of California's San Bernardino forest, which it bottles and sells as Arrowhead brand water, even as drought conditions worsen across the state. And they hardly pay anything to do this -- something like $500 for a license. How can they keep getting away with this?

Meanwhile, Colorado Delta in Mexico is dry and that affects every part of the ecosystem around it.

I worked for the Metropolitan Water District for twenty five years. A good video!

Amazing that, in a desert, none of the agencies thought to cover the canals to cut down on evaporation. Guess they were built in a time when the thought was that the supply was endless .

They make it sound as if they’re doing some amazing job.

My Great Grandfather and my Grandpa helped build it starting at Lake Havasu to our farms in the Coachella valley to grow the date trees.

How did those invasive mussels get from the Great Lakes to the Colorado river?

Secede, and you can kiss all that water goodbye, Cali!

'Use it or lose it'. Sure would be nice if California networked all their reservoirs to handle the 200% snowpack they had last year. IF any reservoir is full or nearing capacity . . . there should be a network of aqueducts to transfer to other aqueducts bringing the entire system to capacity . . . even distribution networks in urban and ag. recharge. THEN any of their allocation from the Colorado unused could be left to storage in Mead . . . "use it or lose it" . . . NOT banked for another year! Arizona could sure appreciate some caring.

local sources?? there is no water native to la other than stored rain water. it is only about 1/2 of one % of the total water they use, all the rest has been stolen from other places.

Meanwhile, the Colorado delta river is dry asf

When the Colorado River dries up, Canada is ready and willing to provide fresh water... for a price.

Look at Chris Davies on the voice over. Great work sir.

Wow spooky the whole California depends on rocky mountains snow. They should build saltwater distillery as back up. You know climate change.

California is overpopulated and is always without water. Sounds like a swell place to live.

Is this why Lake Mead is going dry?

Question, where did you find the soundtrack for this video

Ok, I’m in Florida but I just like to know quick and easy histories of civil engineering.

Yes, and now the usage exceeds the capacity of Lake Mead with levels dropping dramatically, exacerbated by the increasing silt load.

20 years of drought. Now the Colorado River can not supply water to all the desert community. Lake mead and lake Powell are about 1/4 full. The states need to get together and build desalination plants so the water can help full the reservoirs.

242 miles in 2 days is 5 miles per hour. Neato.

I wonder how much is lost to evaporation each year ? Lately it seems we can't waist a drop. Would all pipe be more expensive and would it have paid for it's self by now ?

if it wasnt for the aqueduct i wonder how high would lake mead be? by the damn hoover dam

As you visit this aqueduct please take a moment to give them a gift from your personal water tank.

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Can we Do kayak on it ?

That water looks nice,i would swim in there

Is there fish in the Colorado river aqueduct?

I wonder how many people take a wizz in the canal?

That's high quality H20!

While the sequoia national park supplies water to souther california, here in central california we are in a drought smh!!

You put solar panels over the open canals produce electricity and reduce evaporation losses. How the hell did those shellfish get from the Great Lakes?

Howdy, friends.

Is this an example of living out side of your means. Water is a commodity after like money, right?

Get busy with coastal desalinating plants. Keep the plumbers and fitters working. Use their skills or lose those trades.

What happened to the fish that originally spawned upstream?

Hello Chase >:D

When Lake Mead is gone,what are you going too do then California.

They take most of there water from the mountains here in Colorado every year

guess which state has less water now cuz of this project

pity we dont have more ..carry cross country east to west abundence of rain or other way around. as seasons change

Arizona, Nevada, Colorado, Wyoming, & Utah should present a united front & insist on a water summit that reduces the amount of water my home state of California gets from the Colorado. No matter who's toes get stepped on. No matter what it does to the existing order. Southern California needs a huge decrease in population & this is a sure way of beginning that process.

Where are 30 million people to go when the water runs out next year?

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2:20 Make Aqueduct Great Again.

Just think if they would have added biking infrastructure in the build.

Hello Polytechnic

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I watch this, and I think of the movie Chinatown.

Learn more about southern California's water resources? Southern California has no water resources. Wtf.

Maybe they need to build one to The Great Lakes hahaha

the city of Los Angeles and San Diego should start kinetic in their own water out of the ocean and said of sucking out lake Mead dry

Fascinating video. Quite educational. Makes a great case for kicking California out of the union.

Water world.

hate to be there if the water was shut off

I say ditch the water project no one needs 19 million people in Southern California

Chinese laborers had a big part in building the Colorado canal system. These laborers were the Chinese who were, because of the Chinese exclusion act were dropped off in Mexico. However the Californians in power then needed workers so they recruited Chinese laborers from Mexico. The wealthy barons got the US government to ignore this lawbreaking because of their wealth and power. When the project was completed the Chinese were sent back to Mexico. History shows that the town of Mexicali had at one time over 30,000 Chinese. The Chinese built Mexicali and the roads and infrastructure in many parts of northern Mexico. History forgotten, the many contributions by all immigrants, much less Chinese. RU-vid - Chinese in Mexico and Central America for their significant contributions to Mexican society.

The invasive species brought to US is a great arguement against globalization

cool stuff....wish my country have this so agriculture and grow instead of corruption....at least America think abut its people

A 2015 UC Davis study showed a dual benefit of installing solar panels over the aqueduct; reduced water loss from evaporation and electricity production. Break-even point was estimated at 40 years, but cost reductions and generating efficiency have experienced major breakthroughs in the past 2 years. And we all know California has wasted money on far dumber projects.

People saying you should live where theres no water.. but almost every single one of you live in a place where water, food, building materials, etc, is brought in from other places. No area can really sustain big cities.

Whenever a difficulty comes, Americans rise up to the challenge. I love it.

A very interesting video, but spoilt by the unnecessary background music which doesn't add anything to the film.

Not gonna end well for Humans!

This is a reason Colorado has water problems

The evaporation rate has increased by 4%. That aqueduct is losing a lot of water!

cant keep growing places w/o their own water......but, full steam ahead

What a horrible river it is, People are saying it’s drying up, It deserves to be consumed.

I know from just my swimming pool in Fl, how much evaporates… MILES of open air ducts… they NEED covers ! Its got to be millions of gallons / day they are losing to just evaporation !

hallo

They need to build one from the Mississippi River to the western states the water from the Mississippi River just dumps in to the gulf Mexico

good jerry brown saved the water from san joaquin river to the fish....but trump is gona change some stuff around on this problem.the colorado river and lake mead are at historically low levels.So cal needs nor cal water...and lets eat the fish too.

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Suppose they'll have to use the waste water plants and re use what they've used and pee out already

What a pleasant voice over to tell you you're fucked.

Drougth: CA and rest off the South West got 2 choice, fix the problem or keep the water problem! CA got 85,9 m acre foot, Coloumbia river dumps 191,3 m foot into The Pasific every year. Move 10% off this water. Make a 365m long tunnel from Red Bluff. NV, AZ, Mexico can then keep Colorado water.

They need to build a canal from San Diego along the southern border to the Gulf of Mexico and open this up to shipping.

not for long

And it’s draining the river…

Listen people there’s no body contact in these aqueducts, and reservoirs, also it goes through 5 different treatment plants before it gets to your house. You don’t get raw water through your pipes at home!

Smart. Settle millions of people in an area where there's little to no water. Yup, really smart. NOT.

Typical example of human beings destroy tilia lovely River into a concrete eyesore what positive thing when you get rid of the water I got somewhere to skateboard

Great idea animal falls in there it can't get out a drain of death

bad news rain will no longer due to earth change new season soon.

Interesting but REALLY DATED video. At 0:30, it states California has 19 million residents. As of 2016, the official estimate is more than DOUBLE that figure (39 million)

🤔Why are you taking from an insufficient state and filling your needs with their valuable resources of premium water? Are you planning on destroying the source of the water supply line, as you did before the use of the Colorado water supply? When you have a bigger source sitting next to you. With the use of desalination & Reverse electrolytes from the ocean.

Not as impressive as Rome's aqueducts. They were smart enough to make the water supply independent from pumps and any other machinery, that has to work 24/7

FGN and FJB.

I just want to pee in there.

One thing we need to do is move water from the ocean back inland to places we need it and if we can do that while generating clean energy we have a chance to mitigate climate change and still have a prosperous future. It is really, really hard but it is not impossible. The biggest idea I am trying to express is tunneling aqueducts from the coast, in this case the west coast of the USA inland to feed combination geothermal power and sea water desalination plants. The idea seems to be so big that no one has considered it possible but I believe it is not only possible but it is necessary. For over a century the fossil water contained in aquifers has been pumped out to feed agriculture, industry and municipal water needs. The natural water cycle cant refill fossil water deposits that were filled 10,000 years ago when the glaciers melted after the last ice age. Without refilling these aquifers there is not much of a future for the region of the United states. As a result ground levels in some areas of the San Joaquin Valley have subsided by more than 30 feet. Similar fossil water depletion is happening in other regions all around the world. TBM and tunneling technology has matured and further developments in the industry are poised to speed up the tunneling process and it's these tunnels that are the only way to move large volumes of water from the ocean inland. The water is moved inland to areas where it can be desalinated in geothermal plants producing clean water and power. In many cases the water will recharge surface reservoirs where it will be used first to make more hydro power before being released into rivers and canal systems. It's very important however to not stop tunneling at these first stops but to continue several legs until the water has traveled from the ocean under mountain ranges to interior states. Along the way water will flow down grade through tunnels and rise in geothermal loops to fill mountain top pumped hydro batteries several times before eventually recharging several major aquifers. What I am proposing is essentially reversing the flow of the Colorado River Compact. Bringing water from the coast of California first to mountaintop reservoirs then to the deserts of Nevada and Arizona and on to Utah, New Mexico, Colorado and Wyoming. This big idea looks past any individual city or states problems and looks at the whole and by using first principles identifies the actual problem and only solution. Thank you for your time, I would like the opportunity to explain in further detail and answer any questions

Living in a desert. I know lets go steal are neighbor's water

California always sucking up things

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They should have disabled the comments. Too many hateful people.

Is this supposed to impress me? because it does not

Bunch of top heavy overpaid bureaucrats stealing water