Letters to the Editor: Really, Californians? Another call for a water pipeline?

To the editor: I’d like to ask if the reader from Chatsworth calling for the construction of a water pipeline from the Mississippi River to Colorado River reservoirs has ever been to Mono Lake, which was nearly destroyed because of an aqueduct to Los Angeles.

Has he seen and considered the pictures of Lake Mead and Lake Powell, along with the long history of California water infrastructure and the damage it has done across the West?

So the plan now is to drain the Midwest too? Will we live on California’s fruits and nuts, while the breadbasket of America blows away in dust again? The sense of entitlement is appalling to the rest of the country.

How about you move here, where the water is, and stop asking the rest of us to subsidize your life and lifestyle in an unsustainable location, while you seek to destroy our environment?

Karl Krause, Ypsilanti, Mich.

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To the editor: I doubt that anyone could estimate how many billions of dollars and the length of time it would take to build a water pipeline that spans 2,000 miles and crosses the Rocky Mountains.

A much faster and probably less expensive alternative is to build desalination plants along the coast.

Gary Ames, Killeen, Texas

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To the editor: After reading the pipeline letter, it finally dawned on me — we have this thing called the bullet train, which has cost billions so far and will cost billions more in the future.

Why not use that money for a water pipeline? Isn’t more water a good thing for a lot more Californians than the train will ever be?

No, I have not penciled out the overall cost of a water pipeline — it obviously wouldn’t be cheap — but surely it should not be any worse than the train.

Fritz Walden, Orange