1/ The mighty Mississippi River – and its direct access to some of the most prolific agricultural plains in the world – gives the US an incredible geopolitical advantage. Its importance to the US economy cannot be overstated.
2/ As noted by @PeterZeihan, “The Greater Mississippi system includes over thirteen thousand miles of naturally navigable, interconnected waterways—more than the combined total of all the world’s non-American internal river systems.” Incredible numbers.
3/ Naturally, rivers are foundational to a country’s inherent strength, and few countries are as blessed as the US in this regard. Rivers represent cheap transportation, reliable irrigation for farming, critical fresh water for drinking, and a ready source of renewable power.
4/ Inspection of a US river map calibrated for water flow is revealing. Two things leap out right away. First, the Greater Mississippi system is, indeed, truly huge. Second, the vastly populated Southwest is overdependent on the flows of the Colorado River. 
5/ The Colorado River stretches 1,450 miles from the Rocky Mountains towards the Gulf of California. It is fed by a large river basin that sprawls over seven states, but the primary driver of water flow is the annual snowmelt in the Rockies.
6/ With 15 dams on the main stem and a dizzying array of canals, the Colorado River and its water are likely the most controversial and heavily litigated on the planet – literally every drop is fought after and accounted for.
7/ The Colorado River is managed and operated under numerous agreements collectively known as “The Law of the River.” Each action upstream impacts people downstream, and allocation decisions are made using agreements that were struck as long as a century ago.
8/ The US Southwest is in year 22 of a historic megadrought – the region’s driest stretch in the past 1,200 years, as estimated by a recent study. This has strained the annual supply from the Colorado River’s many tributaries and heightened attention on its use.
9/ The two largest dams on the river – the Glen Canyon Dam at Lake Powell and the Hoover Dam at Lake Mead – are essential to their respective local power grids. They also furnish visual evidence of how strained the water levels have become. Here’s a recent picture of Lake Mead:
10/ A core issue with “public goods” like water and electricity is the lack of a real-time pricing signal to optimize allocation. The Colorado River is an extreme example of what happens when price is suppressed and allocations are determined by politics.
11/ In essence, the fight over its water is a fight for a government handout because the true value of that water is far higher than the price being paid for it by its politically savvy recipients. Ironically, as shortages emerge, the value of that handout increases.
12/ Such circumstances often result in bizarre outcomes and nowhere is this more evident than in the Imperial Valley of California, one of the biggest beneficiaries of the current Colorado River hierarchy.
13/ Imperial Valley is situated near the end of the Colorado River, just north of the California-Mexico border. Despite being the last stop on the US part of the line, California has the highest seniority claims on the river’s flow.
14/ Approximately 20% of the Colorado River allocations across seven western states go directly to about 200 wealthy landowners in the Imperial Valley. Put simply, this is a powerful cohort.
15/ Leveraging this government-secured bounty, Imperial Valley has been transformed from an inhospitable desert into some of the most prolific farmland in the US. The region is farmed year-round and is a major source of winter fruits and vegetables.
16/ Imperial Valley has never been shorted its allocation from the Colorado River (although it was forced to sell some water to the San Diego Water Authority in 2003), and a quick inspection of the region using Google Earth makes for a stunning picture:
17/ The broad, looming crisis of the Colorado River’s dwindling volume is giving way to immediate, time-sensitive flare-ups. The region faces two urgent challenges: the electricity from the two giant dams is potentially at risk and there’s a desperate need for fresh water.
18/ How might this be solved? Replacing the electricity produced by Glen Canyon (5,000 gigawatt-hours of electricity per year) and Hover Dam (4,000 per year) is simple enough if we look to nuclear power.
19/ The one remaining nuclear power plant in California – the Diablo Canyon Power Plant – is scheduled for closure in a few years. How much electricity does Diablo Canyon produce? 18,000 gigawatt-hours!
20/ The last remaining nuclear power plant in California produces twice as much electricity as the two biggest dams on the Colorado River combined. Not only should Diablo Canyon remain in operation, but the Southwest should also be fast-tracking new builds across several states.
21/ What about solving the water crisis? For scale here, we turn to the largest existing desalination plant in California. The Carlsbad Desalination Plant is situated near San Diego, less than 100 miles from Imperial Valley. It produces 56,000 acre-feet of clean water per year.
22/ Imperial Valley is allocated 3.1 million acre-feet from the Colorado River. While replacing all of the Colorado River’s water is both unfeasible and unnecessary, a couple dozen more desalination plants scattered across the region could certainly make up most of the shortfall.
23/ The company that operates Carlsbad – Poseidon Water – has been proposing to build a similar facility in Huntington Beach, just an hour north of San Diego. The plant is estimated to cost $1.4 billion to complete. It has been a project in limbo for more than 20 years!
24/ Of course, California is led by physics-denying halfwits and the California Coastal Commissioners unanimously ultimately rejected Poseidon’s bid to build the much-needed facility last month. Have fun staying thirsty.
25/ The solution to the electricity and water crises of the US Southwest is deceptively simple. Build a fleet of nuclear power and desalination plants. The region will do neither, and a self-inflected catastrophe undoubtedly awaits. It will be hard to feel sorry for them. <fin>
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