Original subtitles

We would need 1,000 construction workers.

How long will the construction take?

To build a system bringing water from the mississippi river

Into the colorado river,

We estimate, on rough orders of magnitude,

That it might take approximately 20 years

To do the full construction.

Narrator: We know we could build an aqueduct system to bring water

From one great american river to another

Using a combination of cutting-edge pumping

And monitoring technologyand good, old-fashioned gravity.

Narrator: Once we have all the approvals we need,

And if the central arizona project is any indication,

It would take 5 to 10 times as long to build

An aqueduct system today as in ancient times.

We're talking 20 years for the construction alone,

Which leaves us treading water as we face

The toughest question of all --

What's it all going to cost?

Narrator:The water system of ancient rome is still revered by engineers

2,000 years after it was first constructed.

A recently discovered portion of the aqueducts

It took more than 40 years just to get through the legal

Are developed through the knowledge base

That's acquired over many years of study.

And some of those dateall the way back to early times.

Narrator: Now that we know the where and the how

And the who of a modern take on our aqueduct project,

The next big question is, how long is it going to take?

It turns out the romans had a big advantage

When it came to time, too.

Fast forward 2,000 years,

And the politics is a little more complicated.

Is even part of a sound-and-light show

And political complications of acquiring the land

For the central arizona project.

There were lawsuits.

There were legal challenges.

There was a supreme court case.

Ochsendorf: Water resourcescross national boundaries today.

In ancient rome, the roman empire stretched so far

That roman builders could draw upon a water supply

Hundreds of miles away

To provide consistent water for the city of rome.

If one was replacing the canal that's in the ground today.

The water was also used to flush toilets.

The water was not wasted.

Narrator: In the time of the emperors,

Getting money was as easy as turning on a tap.

But how much did the central arizona project cost?

It was roughly $4 billion over that 20-year period

From 1973 to 1993.

About half of that money was for things like purchasing land,

Issuing permits, what we'll call soft costs.

It wouldn't have to be repeated

Which displayed a dominion over water,

Narrator:And there's one more budget item we haven't even included yet.

In 20 years, we probably have spent easily

Double the cost of the canal to build it

In maintaining it since then,

And it's supposed to last for another 100 years.

Narrator: Okay, let's do the math.

The original cost of $4 billion

Plus four times the original cost in maintenance --

That's $16 billion.

Plus five times

And we're relying on the brawn and brains

In this new shopping mall in rome.

Our mission is to figure out what it would take to build

An even more impressive water delivery system

In america today.

We want to build all the way from the great mississippi

To the mighty colorado

In order to bring clean waterto the parched state of arizona.

♪

We intend to use concrete, electrical power,

And the latest digital and fiber-optic technology.

And all of those disciplines

Of thousands of american workers.

But are we about to be swept away in a flood of debt?

If there's one things the romans were better

At than building smart, it was spending smart.

Ochsendorf: Just near here, trajan's aqueduct traveled underground,

And there was a roman grain mill just in front of me

That was powered by the waterto grind the grain to feed rome.

Once the water powered the wheels,

It could then descend into the center of rome

Where it provided not only public fountains,

Narrator: Seems like we might see a big maintenance bill down the road.

Are much larger in roman concrete,

Whereas in today's concrete,

We're only commonly using very small pieces of gravel.

Narrator: So what did they use in arizona for a ditch

That was more than 23 feet deep and close to 310 miles long?

Turns out, it was a bit of a budget mix.

They recognized that the most expensive component

Of the concrete was the cement.

So they specified mixes

That would reduce the amount of cement.

That are combined with the ash mixture,

Concrete will always crack.

We've had numerous places where we've repaired the aqueduct

Over the course of years because of poor-quality materials.

Narrator: We may not have a lot of volcanic ash lying around,

But we've got some pretty nifty technology

For our modern aqueduct.

Still, it seems like we're just keeping our head

Above water here.

It's easy to repair the concrete.

But it's not nearly as easy to understand, anticipate,

Even those that have come into play since the c.A.P.

Romans built to last.

Romans looked for durable materials.

Narrator: So what would we use today?

The romans got a lot done with buckets, shovels,

And rudimentary cranes.

They even came up with one of the most popular

Building materials of all time.

Cooke: The romans are generallycredited for inventing concrete.

This is something very valuable for us.

And with all of the modern inventions that we have --

And be able to repair a lot of the equipment

Was built, like lasers and computers and gps

And things like that -- without concrete,

It would be pretty difficult to do what we did here.

Ochsendorf: The romans developed concrete

Using volcanic ash from near mount vesuvius.

They discovered that a particular ash was reactive,

Meaning that if it were ground into dust and mixed with water,

It would set hard and become essentially a liquid stone.

Roman concrete is quite different from today's concrete

Because the aggregate, or stones,

That would be inconceivably expensive today.

By relying on roman expertise

And some innovative american technology.

We'll construct it with concrete,

Even if we can't duplicate all the ancient ingredients.

But how many people would we need to build our system?

2,000 years ago,

The romans didn't need to hire construction workers

To build their system of aqueducts.

Tragically, romans were often using slave labor

As a cost-effective way to build something

Narrator: We figure we'll create our bigger, better system

Narrator: We will definitely be paying our workers,

And we'll need a lot of them.

We estimate that it might take 1,000 people

To do the full construction.

Narrator: And we figure we'll bring in the specialists

Who helped design the system in central arizona.

Francom: It took a number of different type of engineering disciplines

Together to build it --

Civil engineers, mechanical engineers,

And electrical engineers.

Who've been doing that.

Associated with the project.

Narrator: So we'll build our modern-day aqueduct

With tunnel-boring machines,

Massive pumping plants, and lots and lots of concrete.

But, could we be headed for troubled water?

Narrator: We're imagining how we could build a modern-day system

To rival the celebrated roman aqueducts.

We've been taking an up-close look

At the central arizona project.

And as it turns out, we're not the only people

Those maintenance costs over the next century.

There definitely are places in the world

Where projects of even larger scale than this

Are probably appropriate.

We've had lots of visitors from eastern and central asia,

Where there are similar types of situations --

Arid regions where people live and need water --

In africa and in south america, as well.

And we have by now two-and-a-half decades

Of lessons learned of running this project.

But they never faced the big water problems

Narrator: And that doesn't include maintenance costs

And the ongoing cost of finding enough power

To keep the water flowing.

It's going to take a tremendous amount of energy

To lift the water through the pumping plants

And then put it in the canal,

So we'd have to look at the existing transmission

Infrastructure and local power sources to see

If we could provide power to the canal system.

Narrator: The ancient romans thought big,

To construct.

We're facing today.

As an engineer, I love the idea

Of connecting the colorado and mississippi river.

However, in the long run, it really isn't practical.

The overall capital cost to construct it,

The length of the canal being over 1,500 miles,

Having to pump water over 9,000 feet vertical --

It would create a water that would be simply too expensive

For the users of the water to pay.

Narrator: But, in the united states,

All the way to the colorado.

Construction of the canal,

So actual excavation of the canal,

Lining the canal with concrete,

And then, next, we'll be building the pumping plants.

Narrator: But wait, there's more.

We're going to crown our water system

With a fountain in the middle of this desert city,

So fantastic, it will putthe fountains in vegas to shame.

We did it!

We built a waterway from the mississippi river

You have more than just the will of an emperor.

We built it out of concrete,moving around natural obstacles,

And providing an alternate route for wildlife.

We included the latest in hydraulic, digital,

And fiber-optic technology.

It took a thousand workers,

Using some of the mightiest machines on earth,

And taking into account all the red tape.

It took us 20 years.

So now, brace yourself for a tidal wave of costs.

It might be in the realm of $50 billion to $80 billion

Narrator: We hope our new aqueduct is a tribute

But it will benefit millions.

Narrator: The romans also placed a value on water

That was, in some ways, ahead of its time.

Today, as we think about bringing water to cities,

There are things we can learn from ancient rome,

And, above all, I would say how to reuse water

Over and over again as a precious resource,

But also as something the public could and should appreciate

And as something that is absolutely essential

For a healthy city and for a healthy population.

You can't predict who will benefit in the future,

To the engineering geniuses that came before us.

Because today, we are standing on the shoulders

Of the giants of ancient rome.

Cooke: What we often don't stop and think about

Is that it's our obligation to be the giants

For the next generation and the next one.

Narrator: Building publicinfrastructure such as waterways

Also reminds us that necessity is the mother of invention.

And when the need is great,great ideas are bound to be born

If we built it today.

Narrator: No matter what the economics of the future look like,

You have the will of an increasingly thirsty public.

Combine political will with innovative thinking

And the well of ideas will never run dry.

Because bringing water from the mississippi river

Would be so expensive,

We would first look at local alternatives.

So we would utilize local groundwater sources

That might be brackish or have a higher salt content

And use some form of desalinization or filtration

To make that water potable.

The next step would be the physical

When we reflect on the past,

We have the romans to thank for their ingenuity...

Rome could never have arrived at 1 million inhabitants

Without this perfect water supply.

...And for their ability to build things that last.

Ochsendorf: Today, when we makean investment in infrastructure,

We're often thinking only about the initial cost

Or the immediate beneficiaries.

Roman infrastructure shows that,

If you build it well to last for centuries,

We are very concerned about it.

Thelander: Too many times people think that their food

Comes from the grocery store.

Food starts at the farm level,

And you can't always replace food from one area

By importing it from another.

Narrator: And the drought in this area is expected to continue.

Thelander: We're pretty much growing something year-round.

This water coming in allows us to farm all of our acreage,

So we've had a good, plentiful supply of water.

We're concerned about the drought in colorado.

That gets less than eight inches of rain a year.

Narrator: And this isn't the only place headed for disaster.

Cooke: With all the successes that we've had,

They have not undone the reality of climate change

And a hotter, dryer future.

Narrator: By 2025, 2/3 of the people on the planet

Won't have enough water.

This is a problem even too big for an emperor.

Cooke: But there's a huge ocean out there that can be tapped.

It's more expensive than the source of water

That we have right now, but at some point,

And prior to that, it was all groundwater,

That's another $84 billion

For a grand total of...

$104 billion over the planned lifetime

Of this modern aqueduct system.

But before you wrap your mind around the colossal costs

Of building an even bigger system,

You need to meet someone who might provide some perspective.

My name is dan thelander.

I'm an arizona farmer here in the maricopa-stanfield area.

C.A.P. Started delivering water here in about 1985,

The economy and the market will straighten that out.

And the groundwater was beingdepleted at a pretty rapid rate,

So there were a lot of farms that were being fallowed

Because of the lack of water.

So the c.A.P. Coming in here

Really was the salvation for this area.

Narrator: Thelander and his family grow cotton

And wheat plus alfalfa and corn for dairy cattle.

Thelander: Me and my nephew and my son farm about 5,000 acres.

We have 15 employees, and so that's what keeps us all going.

Narrator: But it's not easy in a region

Who call the land home.

And we'll look at trying to find an effective and efficient path

That would minimize the amount of excavation,

Minimize the number of tunnels going through mountains

And try to minimize the number of times

That the canal would have to go up and down.

Narrator: That's the way they did in rome.

They worked with, not against, nature.

Next, we need to buy rights for the land we'll be using,

And let's not forget --

We also need to consider our four-legged friends

Plot a course from a map.

In some lands, we might be disturbing sensitive land

And have to do environmental set-asides or other things

That make sure we don't hamper the natural environment

Or migration paths of animals.

Narrator: We'll follow c.A.P.'s lead and build our canals

So that wildlife would have a special right of way.

As a matter of fact, it's camouflaged

So that they can't tell that they're walking above the water

Because, otherwise, they may be frightened.

♪

Bigger than the central arizona project.

Narrator: We want to do our part to helpsolve the impending water crisis

By constructing a modern-day water system.

But can we pull together the resources

And funding we'll need before it's too late?

Narrator: The romans have built some of the most enduring

And aesthetically pleasing architecture in the world.

The ingenuous thinking that went into the roman aqueducts

Was far ahead of its time.

But in america, we know how to build big.

So we're imagining the biggest aqueduct ever made...

From traditional roman construction.

We're planning to transport billions of liters of water

From the mississippi river to the colorado river.

That's over 1,500 miles,

Five times as long as the aqueduct system

That extended across the entire roman empire.

Okay, let's do it.

If we were to build an aqueduct like the c.A.P.,

But longer to be able to reach into the mississippi river,

What we would do today would be, first,

Of creating a siphon to make water go uphill.

The romans developed a genius plan

To share it with their people.

You bring high volumes, great volumes of water

Over long distances without any electrical power.

You just use natural gravity.

The romans built waterways on a precise slant

To deliver one of the basics of life free of charge

To the city's homes, fountains, mills,

And their public thermal baths.

The romans also drew on the ancient principle

Once they knew the water was safe to drink,

While their knowledge of fluid mechanics

Was not as advanced as today,

Roman engineers knew how to regulate the flow

And the speed of water

So that it could even go uphill slightly, if necessary.

Narrator: The use of an inverted siphon

Allowed the romans to get water under obstacles.

Gravity pulls the water down,

And then the increasing weight of the water

Creates enough pressure to push it up

Which makes water highly contested politically.

As it passed through the city over and over again.

Narrator: Today, we're all about recycling.

But we've got some costs the ancient romans

Didn't have to worry about.

Unlike them, we like to pay our workers.

Plus, when they needed land, they just took it by force.

We rely on a watershed to provide a source

Of clean drinking water.

Today, that watershed could lie outside of the geography

Of a city,

To exactly the same level on the opposite side.

Narrator: Why did the ancient romans go to all this trouble

When the tiber river runs right through rome?

Well, you wouldn't want to drink this water.

After every war -- and the romans had so many wars

With their neighbors in their early years --

You had some dead bodies

Shifting there in the the tiber river.

Narrator:Luckily for this warring nation, there was another option.

The romans discovered water in the famous seven hills of rome,

And they tested it to be sure it was uncontaminated.

But where are we going to build our new mega-system?

This is central arizona,

One of the driest places in north america.

We're not close to an ocean at all.

We have, uh, some areas where there's precipitation

And even, uh, some small lakes.

But they're far away, generally,from where the population lives.

Narrator: Arizona's population is over 7 million and rising.

This is the perfect place for our case study.

We want to build an aqueduct of our own

To bring clean water to millions.

To bring water to the people who need it most.

How are we going to do it?

What are we going to build it out of?

How long is it going to take us?

How many people do we need?

And, can we pull it off without drowning in debt?

Let's look for a location first.

It turns out, even with an existing aqueduct in place,

Arizonans are still thirsty.

We are in a droughtthat has lasted 18 years so far.

Narrator: Maybe there's a way to use modern machines

They're more than a remnant of ancient times.

And we're still using inverted siphons today

On modern aqueducts.

So we've got to devise an enormous system

That's efficient, nature-friendly,

And won't break the bank.

And with water supplies reaching new lows across the globe,

We'll need to work harder and smarter than the romans

In order to get our modern-day mega-aqueduct up and running.

Narrator: After 2,000 years,

Tourists still flockto the famous fountains of rome.

So the romans reused the water in a very clever way

They're part of one of the most innovative

And efficient water systems in history.

We're imagining what it would take to create

An even better system today.

And, as it turns out, we may need it sooner than we think.

Many climate scientists speculate that, uh,

The new normal is actually worse

Than what we're experiencing right now.

Narrator: For that same reason, this impressive aqueduct system

Was built back in the 1970s

That the architecture of infrastructure

Today, climate-change experts are warning us

About increasing drought.

The new normal is actually worse

Than what we're experiencing right now.

Narrator: But can today's engineers measure up

To the brilliance of the ancients?

Ochsendorf: Often today, engineering is unseen.

In ancient rome, you see the stone,

You see the arch, you see the aqueduct,

And you can immediately see

To rival the great aqueducts of rome?

Is a celebration of public works.

Narrator: And if even if we find a way,

Are we going to be able to afford it?

It might be in the realm of $50 billion to $80 billion.

Narrator: We're on the jobsite of one of the world's greatest wonders.

And we're wondering, how long would it take...

How much would it cost...

How many workers would we need?

Could we even do it, if we built it today?

-- Captions by vitac -- www.Vitac.Com

Of the great cities today nearly 2,000 years later.

Ancient rome, europe's sole superpower.

It's greatest engineering achievement --

Running water.

The water engineering of rome

Was one of the great marvels of the ancient world.

Narrator: Rome's aqueducts -- artificial rivers --

Brought almost 200 million gallons a day

To a city where a million citizens

Lived more cleanly than anyone in history.

They were able to rival public sanitation systems

Captions paid for by discovery communications

Narrator: There was water everywhere and plenty to drink.

Busting pipes became beautiful fountains.

Today, water never seems to be where we want it,

When we want it.

We're concerned about the drought in colorado.

Narrator: We're not in rome,

But could we do as the romans did?

No one can do it alone.

We don't always agree, but we always work it out.

Narrator: Can we build a water system

We've come to rely on.

More than 5 billion people won't have enough water.

So we're imagining our very own aqueduct --

The biggest water-delivery system the world has ever seen.

It will be ancient ingenuity versus 21st century innovation.

But the romans have a headstart in this contest.

They figured out how to take advantage

Of one of the earth's elemental powers.

The first rule a water engineer learns

Is that water flows downhill.

Narrator: And, they helped develop the basic building material

Climate-change scientists predict that by 2050,

But can we figure out their magic formula?

When the romans developed concrete using volcanic ash,

It opened up a whole new world of construction.

Narrator: We don't have easy access to volcanic ash

Like the romans did.

And how are we going to construct a colossal aqueduct

System like theirs without creating a crushing footprint?

The water provided bathcomplexes with a consistent flow

For cold and hot pools,

And went on to power many other systems throughout rome.

Into the city of rome.

La bella roma.

We love it for its food and its music.

Its fountains are so magnificent,

They've inspired movies.

But it's what's underneath them that's even more impressive.

That's because roughly 80% of this amazing system

Is underground.

In ancient rome, there were more than a dozen aqueducts in all.

Combined, they covered more than 500 miles.

They brought water all the way from the apennine mountains

And ancient methods to bring even more water

The system carried enough drinkable water

For a million households.

And the romans did it with style.

Some of these arches were built as long ago as 312 b.C.

And they instill passion to this day.

Ochsendorf: All of the infrastructure built to provide for the city of rome

Was seen as a celebrationof engineering and construction.

Narrator: The ancient romans could never have guessed

How much we would need water today.

Requires a lot of data,

They constitute a number of water orders

That come into our lead dispatcher.

He takes those and turns those into customer requests.

He uses the computer to take those flows and create,

Essentially, a flow schedule throughout the c.A.P. System.

Narrator: The romans did spot tests along their system

To make sureeverything was running smoothly.

In arizona, it's done remotely

With the help of fiber-optic technology.

So, because controlling all of those pieces of equipment

That we're in here today.

The central arizona project installed

A fiber-optic cable along the full length of the canal.

With that, we're able to monitor thousands of what we call

Data points on a near continuous basis,

Just to allow us to see from our centralized control center

Exactly what's happening in the field at every pumping plant,

At every turnout where we make deliveries to our customers,

And at every check gate where we control the flow of water.

Narrator: We'll reap the benefits of this modern-day technology

When we plan our new water system.

If you can think of an acre of land

So, what the central arizonaproject has is a unique feature,

Which is a single plant that is a pump and generation station,

Which allows us to take water and pump

During periods of low-power cost and low-water use

To fill up a reservoir or lake, and then in periods

Of high-power cost and high-water use,

Allow us to make releases and generate electricity

And sell that back on the grid.

The central arizona project really

Is a marvel of engineering.

But it can't hurt to take a few tips from the tried

With 1.6 million feet deep of water on it,

That's the amount of water

Moved every year off the colorado river.

Narrator: To track the constant flow of all that water,

The c.A.P. Relies on the hard-working employees

In their control center.

Dent: If I'm a city or a farmer or an irrigation district or a tribe,

And I want to get water from the central arizona project,

It starts with, essentially, a water order or a phone call.

And that phone call comes into the control center

These are open, difficult political questions.

It's a very dangerous, manmade river.

Narrator: We're going to need a system that's as efficient

As the central arizona project

But much longer.

And we still need to figure out where to build it,

And we may want to avoid any border crossing.

Ochsendorf: The politics of water today are much more complicated.

When the supply of the water exists in another country

But a city of millions is across the border,

How do we ensure thatboth countries are provided for?

They can't come inside the fence.

But in ancient rome, it was simpler

Because of the extent of the conquests of the roman empire.

Narrator: Politics aren't the only thing that have changed

Since the ancient romans built their first aqueducts.

Today, we also have access to different building materials

To work with.

The romans' elegantly-designed system has been around

Since the days of julius caesar,

And much of it has stood the test of time.

There are so many things we can learn

The romans slowed down the water at several places

And true roman building techniques

That helped shape the ancient aqueducts.

Narrator: We want to recreate a system

Like the renowned roman aqueducts, only longer --

Long enough to bring a lot of water

To a very dry region of our planet.

And we've got to ensure that the water stays clean enough

For people to drink.

2,000 years ago, the romans did this

By keeping their aqueducts covered.

But, they came up with a way to afford it.

Along the aqueduct to allow impurities to settle.

But although it was slow, the water was always moving.

Got it.

So just keep it moving, and keep it underground.

But as it turns out, that kind of cover-up costs.

It quadruples the base price.

So c.A.P. Opted for a maintenance crew

And a few rules for the public.

They can't go in the water.

Not having the tools that we have available

Simple, but precise.

Roman builders were able to survey over great distances

To provide nearly a straight line

And nearly a constant slope over long distances.

The surveying required for the aqueducts

Is one of the marvels of the ancient world.

Cooke: Modern man is continually surprised by the precision

Which those things were built,

Just using rudimentary things like sextons.

It boggles even my mind how exact those things are,

In rome, the ancient engineers kept it simple --

Today like gps and laser sighting and things like that.

Narrator: And if they needed another aqueduct,

They just built it on top.

Back here in america,when the central arizona project

Was in its planning phase, no detail was overlooked.

Francom: They were doing very early sighting studies

For the central arizona project,

Tried to pick a path that balanced earthwork,

Balanced the cost of going through mountains or over them,

And they utilized some very basic survey tools.

Uh, is a renewable resource.

To this parched state.

80% of arizona's population gets their water

From the massive colorado river 336 miles away.

Arizona is an arid environment,

And so we don't supply enough natural water

In our area to supply us.

We've, uh, had a tendency to utilize groundwater,

But that's a limited resource.

So using something like the colorado river water

And bringing water into our arizona central area,

Narrator: But when it came time to go through a mountain,

Narrator: But it's not just arizona that relies on this water.

Seven different states tap into the colorado river.

And after nearly two decades of drought,

This well is running dry.

So we're setting our sights

On another mighty american river --

The mississippi.

We'll need to build about 1,500 miles of aqueduct

To connect the mississippi and colorado rivers.

But how are we going to do that?

Narrator: In arizona, it took 14 pumping stations

From the existing canal system down underneath a river,

And pop up on the other side.

Narrator: But, one of the biggest obstacles

Faced by american engineers

Was how to maintain the flow of water --

Something the romans did by tilting their waterway

Ever so slightly.

You had a continuous flow of water.

This was never stagnant water.

It was running day and night.

We were actually pulling water, in some ways,

To keep this system going.

So the mechanical advantage that we have in modern times

As compared to the romans is,

We have the ability to lift water from the lower location

Actually to a higher location.

And the central arizona project takes full advantage of that,

As the water we lift starts in a location

That's lower than all of our major cities.

Narrator: This process makes central arizona project, or c.A.P.,

The largest electrical-power user in the state.

Grinds its way through the toughest rock

They had to get creative.

We have a number of areas where we had to build a tunnel

Directly through a mountainside.

It was built with a tunnel-boring machine

That at that time was a --

Was a very, you know, technological advancement

On the cutting edge of things.

Narrator: The tunnel-boring machine was invented

By a french engineer in the 1700s.

A massive wheel fitted with multiple blades

Narrator: First century a.D.

Without disturbing the layers overhead.

It's the same technology that's often used to build subways.

When there wasn't a mountain in the way,

There was a river.

Francom: Many times, the romans chose to go over,

Utilizing a series of viaducts.

But for most of the central arizona project,

When we crossed we chose to use

What's called an inverted siphon.