Yearly we watch helplessly as the Missouri, Mississippi and Ohio River valleys and their tributaries display the enormous power of water by flooding…destroying lives and property. We, as taxpayers, spend millions and billions of dollars every year doing clean up and rebuilding to see a reoccurrences in following years. I am suggesting that rather than repeatedly spending money as a reaction to a common, destructive occurrence we spend that money once as a proactive measure to significantly minimize that common occurrence…flooding of Midwestern states…through the repurposing of an existing infrastructure.

The lower 48 States are crisscrossed with thousands of miles of abandoned, buried pipeline infrastructure. These abandoned pipelines provide pathways to pump and siphon flood waters from the above mentioned river valleys and other flood prone areas to the arid, higher elevations in Western States for surface storage in facilities like Lake Mead, other river systems and injection into aquifers.

In a time we need to create employment opportunities this project will create numerous operational jobs plus manufacturing jobs for implementation supplies and repair parts.
The system will, at least, require the following items:

1. Existing contract review to determine if this venture should be:
A. Public/Private co-op
B. Public only
C. Private only
D. Corps of Engineers standing…short and long term
E. Use of other existing public R.O.W., such as the Interstate system, for new primary or tributary pipes to create shortcuts or use of existing grades for a more productive system.
F. Crossovers between parallel pipelines to facilitate repairs or increase the volume of pipe space available.

2. Pipeline inspection equipment manufacturing and use.

3. Plastic liners to prevent the water from contacting residue materials previously carried by the pipeline.
A. Development
B. Manufacturing
C. Installation
D. Reparability

4. Repair of pipeline sections to repair or pump station construction

5. Pump station equipment manufacturing and installation
A. Pumps
B. Power sources for pumping (primary) and as co-generation systems (secondary).
C. Filters
D. Back-flow preventers to maintain energy saving siphons and pump pressure.
E. Trash disposal
F. Testing laboratories for establishing water quality
G. Reservoirs for contaminated flood waters from the disruption of waste water treatment plants and other facilities.

6. Creation of river valley reservoirs that may be used as water collection points as the ‘headwaters’ for the pipeline system.

7. Hydro power stations to retrieve some of the energy used to pump the water to higher elevations.

8. Low level operation during non-flood times to keep system in a good state of repair.

Thank you!!