River Harvesting is a concept of taking a little bit of water from a lot of places, resulting in a lot of water that is not noticed from a lot of places.
When water in a river is about to meet the ocean, it can be removed from the said river and piped elsewhere. To stop the salt water flowing upstream in the river, a manmade barrier or restriction in the river would need to be built to adjust the flow of the river to compensate for the water that has been removed.
Pipes and pumps would be installed and the goal will be to pump as much fresh water as possible out of the river and into the water piping network without upsetting the balance of nature.
The Columbia River discharges 7,136,397,000 gallons per hour into the ocean. That is 118,939,950 per minute.
The Columbia could supply Nevada and Northern California, Eastern Washington, Eastern Oregon, Idaho, Utah, Arizona.
Water Usage
Los Angles uses 524,000,000 gallons per day. In 5 minutes the Columbia river discharges enough water to feed Los Angeles for an entire day.
The United States uses 322,000,000,000 gallons per day. This means that in one day the Columbia River could supply 171,273,528,000 gallons of fresh which could supply half of the United States. This is every day, that much fresh water is going out into the ocean. This is just an example. The Sacramento River is between the Columbia River and Los Angeles.
Every 4 minutes, the Columbia and Sacramento River discharge more fresh water into the ocean, than Los Angeles can use in a day.
The Mississippi River discharges 383,264,913,600 gallons of water into the ocean every day and that alone would be enough to supply the entire United States. The water would need to be taken right where the water starts to become brackish and not starve any upstream users. Again taking this much water out of the river would dramatically upset the balance of nature, but if 2% of the water volume was taken at various locations upstream and ONLY when the water flow in the river would allow it, a lot of water could be taken out of the river and not effect things downstream in the river. If the water flow in the river was low, all water removal would be put on hold until the water flow increased to the level that could allow pumping again. This water could be used in Texas, Kansas, Arkansas, Nebraska, Colorado, Oklahoma, New Mexico, South Dakota, Wyoming, North Dakota, Montana & Missouri.
The Sacramento River discharges 18,186,663,413 gallons per day into the Ocean. This would take 18 days to provide enough water for the United States to use in one day.
The Colorado River at its lowest which is about now discharges 272,745,014 gallons per day. This would mean that it would take 3.5 years to provide enough water for the United States to make it through one day. Taking water from the Colorado River cannot be allowed, but adding water into the upper reaches of the Colorado River would have a huge effect on the water cycle.
All of these rivers combined discharge enough water every 13 hours to feed the entire United States for a day. This is where the reality of things comes into play. In other words the above mentioned rivers discharge twice as much FRESH water into the ocean every day than the entire US can use.
Of course a single pipe to supply that much water would be impractical and unimaginable, but many smaller pipes could easily make an impact and they would not have to run all of the time. If 50 pipes took 2% of the required water from 50 different locations, enough water could be moved and redistributed. Once the areas had enough water, the water supply could be slowed or diverted. Again, when more water is in an area, the extra moisture will cause more rain in that area. It is quite possible that within years of this system operating, enough rainfall could change the balance and pumping water might not been needed any more.
If half of the foreign aid budget was given to this project, we could have most of the network up and running within 12 months. We could probably employ most of the homeless people who wanted to work, to work on the projects, so we could solve the homeless problem as well.
Lake Superior could supply North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana, Wyoming. If a pipe could reach Flaming George, that water would eventually end up in Lake Mead.
The Snake River could supply Utah and also the Colorado River.
No water would be pumped across the Rocky Mountains. There is enough water on the western side of the Rocky Mountains to eliminate the need to pump water up and over the Rocky Mountains, which would be impractical to do so.
Southern California would use desalinated water from inland desalination plants. Sacramento River water would be used in central California.
Water throughput in the Hoover Dam could be cut by 75%. Solar could be used by Las Vegas. Lake Powell throughput could be cut by 30% and eventually 75%.