On some Areas of Aggreement, and Possible / Actual Difference. You Raise some Good Points which are Well Taken by me.

Much of the Area *is* Naturally a Desert or Arid to Semi-Arid. In such Natural State, -It is Not Meant for Major Metro Areas.

And even if Water is Somehow Brought in Reasonable to Great Abundance to the West, -Your Point about Populations Naturally Expanding to Fill the Area's Carrying Capacity will Still Hold. That may Take Awhile, -Given What Water Abundance there is, -but Eventually this will Occur. By that Time, Hopefully we'll have Economical Seawater Desal Down Pat. Even there, -Other Western Resources can be Stretched to and Beyond a Limit.

There's an Increased to Increasing Western Population in any Event, -Even Without a Great Water Infusion to the West. Which Does, and Will Continue, to Draw On and Drain Limited Western Resources. In Many Respects, -This is All the More Reason *For* Bringing Water *To* the West!

Still, People there will Eventually Expand in Population, -to Fill Out that "Resource Balloon"! As a variation of the Phrase "Nature Abhors a Vacuum!", -It can perhaps be said that Mankind effectively Abhors a "Resources Abundance Vacuum"!

As to Already Burdened Riparian Systems, -I have some Question as to Whether the Water Rich Lower Mississippi Qualifies as Such. True, Municipalities, Metro Areas, and Industry there Do Draw their Substantial Water Needs from Such. But Then Again, -There is Such Abundant Water Volume there!

Even if as Much as a Tenth of the Lower Mississippi's Flow is Diverted Westward, -I'd Think that there Still can be an Overabundance of Water for the Area, to Spare! For Home / Personal, Municipal, and Industrial Water Needs, for Mississippi River Shipping, for the Prevention of Saltwater Intrusion at New Orleans and Other Louisiana Locales. Often Diversion Schemes are a Matter of Robbing Peter to Pay Paul. If Drawn from an Already Stretched or Overburdened System, -that Only Makes such Matter Worse. But in the Lower Mississippi's Vast Volumes of Water, (Perhaps even at one of *It's* Droughts), -I'd Think that the Lower Mississippi's Waters may be an Exception to such General Rule.

We may also Not Want to Draw from it's Very Lower Reaches, -out of concern for the Great Chemical Pollutant Soup there! Or to Adequately Address such Matter if we Do there adraw.

We Wouldn't Want or Need to Draw from such Lowest Reaches anyway. But we Would Want to Draw from at least the St. Louis Area or Below. More Likely Below that Area. St Louis, of course, Marks the General Beginning of the Lower Mississippi. Where it Becomes Quite a Different Kind of River! More Northerly is Shallower, and of a Good Deal Smaller Volume of Water. Drawing from there may Well Take Out Too Much!, for any such Given Area / Areas Further Downstream. But St. Louis South, -is a Different Sort of River. And Water to the West adrawn from here, -I Think is Both Abundant and Doable!

We'd also Want to Avoid Transporting Such Across Colorado!, -Over the Great Colorado Rockies Hump! But Rather South and/or North of Such! I'd Put the Greater Weight, at least Initially, on Going South!, of that Colorado Rockies Concentration! We can thereby Still Link Up with the Eastern Colorado River. From which the Colorado Itself, Can then Naturally Carry such Abundant Water All the Way to the Mojave!, and Baja's Sea of Cortez.

So I Think that Otherwise if Technologically and Economically Feasable, -That Lower Mississippi Water Can and Shud be Brot on over to our West. This can Abundantly Releive the Western Water Stress, at least in some Areas, -for a Long While!

But it Still Remains True, -Even There, -That Man will Still Eventually Expand, to Fill even that Carrying Capacity there!

And it Still Remains True, -that Absent such "Artificially" Propped Up Water Abundance, -However Good such a System is, -The Area Still is in it's Natural State, -Semi Arid to Desert!

Which then Brings the Question, -"Should we Alter / Settle / Build? -Or Take and Work with Nature's Cues, -and Leave the Place Peaceably Alone? I Go For the Right Measure and Combination of Both!

It is in Principle No Different, -Than our Having Artificially Heated Homes up here in our Northern Winters! Absent the Good to Great Artificiality which Heats our Homes, -the Natural State of the Homesite, -is a Far Colder Location!, at Such Time!

Such Extra Abundance, Winter Home Heating or Western Water, -Will Last Only as Long and Well, -as our Artificially Placed Systems Hold Up. And / Or our own Expansion to it's Carrying Capacity will Permit.

So it Sort of Becomes a Question of, -How Much Does or Should Society Keep On Going with Such?! To then Find a New Resource Rich "Something Else", -When the Inside of such Resource Bubble Starts Getting Crimped?

Or to Refrain, Quit, Conserve, Cut Losses, and to Leave Things to Naturally Be, and Alone?!

To More or Less "Conquer" Nature, -or to More or Less Work Respectfully With, and Within it!?

Of course Man's Often Tried to Conquer or Look Down his Nose at Nature! And's Often Found that to be Utter Folly! Mao, for Instance, -Tried to Do that in China, -and Ran Into Mother Nature's Brick Wall!, -for It!

And even in the Best of Man's Artificial Systems, -Nature is Still at Root and Base, -In Control and Calling at least Many of the Shots! We of Mankind Must Remember and Respect That!

But in the Case of "Water to the West", -I Think that it Can and Shud, -Be a Combination of Both of the Preceeding! In Proper Combination and Measure. To the Extent that Such is Economically and Technically Feasable, -We Can and Shud, Bring this Abundant Water to the (Arid, Dry, Droughty, Parched, Stressed, Thirsty) Desert West! But to at the Same Time Remember, -that this is All Artificially Based! That Nature and the Area's Natural Clime, -is Ultimately Yet in Control! But to the Extent Doable, -This Can and Should be Done! While Yet Keeping Mother Nature and Father Time!, Fully in Mind! We Shud Not Shy from Bringing such water Abundance to a Dry West! (To Extent Doable, Again). But to Respect and Remember Always, the Artificiality (However Good to Great!), that it is Based Upon!

Finally, -I Think I'd Agree that there are Water Wars, -or at least Definite Water Frictions and Conflicts!, -Coming Up! I've Seen Several Good Books on the Present and Upcoming World Water Crisis, in Bookstores. As Well as One Written by the Late Senator Paul Simon, on the Matter! Couple that with Increasing Populations and Increasing Resouce Drawups and Pressures, And Climatic Change or Shifts, Etc. Oil and Fossil Fuels Shortages are a Very Real Issue, and Will Continue to be. But even it Can, and I'm Afraid Will Come to Pale, -Beside Upcoming Water Ones! Lets Hope For, and Back!, -Desalinization's Economical Success! Before such "World Water Crimp" Takes Place. [color:"black"] [/color] [email]Chris Kavanaugh[/email]