SAN ANGELO, Texas — The Mississippi River has too much water right now. West Texas has too little.

Does that give anyone an idea?

"I recall reading stories about a plan to channel Mississippi water to West Texas," Bobby623 wrote in Tuesday's Daily Chat on gosanangelo.com.

"You have to wonder how green West Texas might be today if that plan had survived," he added.

I've heard stories of the plan for a pipeline or canal to the Mississippi for years, but I always figured they were pre-Internet myths.

Guess what?

If the Texas Water System had proceeded as planned, San Angelo and other West Texas cities such as Abilene, Snyder, Colorado City, Pecos, Midland, Odessa and Lubbock might be on the receiving end of that Mississippi floodwater.

The idea, which took shape in the 1960s, was to pump "surplus" water from Northeast Texas and the Mississippi River delta in Louisiana to cities in Texas and New Mexico.

The plan proposed a system of canals and pipelines. The project would have required building 68 dams and reservoirs.

The total price tag? An estimated $10 billion — and that was in 1969 dollars, when you could buy a Stetson hat for as little as $15.

The plan was suggested after the 1950s drought — the time it seldom rained for seven years.

The plan was requested by Gov. John Connally in 1964, and the Texas Water Development Board presented it to him and other state officials four years later. Officials estimated the cost to the state would be about $3.5 billion, with the rest coming from federal funds.

It was a mammoth, incredibly expensive project, but the '50s drought had made believers out of many people. Something had to be done!

The state's Water Development Board, which created the plan, pulled no punches. Their message was simple and scary: Texas didn't have enough water to meet the state's needs in the future. They estimated that without new water sources, West Texas cities such as Abilene, El Paso, Lubbock, Midland, Odessa and San Angelo would run short by 2020.

During those pre-Ivie Reservoir days, San Angeloans were willing to seek water wherever they could, investigating everything from cloud seeding to recycling wastewater to clearing water-sapping mesquite and salt cedar. The Water System seemed like a no-brainer.

"A bold and imaginative plan for meeting the water needs of all of Texas during the next 50 years," a reporter wrote in the Standard-Times.

The plan's way too complicated to explain here, but the Texas portion involved two huge canal systems. The Trans-Texas Canal, the one that would have helped this area, stretched completely across the state, from Northeast Texas to El Paso and beyond to New Mexico.

Planners said delivery of water could begin in the late 1980s.

So why didn't it?

As a U.S. bureau of Reclamation official told the paper in the '70s, the engineering and construction of the canals and reservoirs "is the simplest part of the plan. Engineers can calculate exactly, but the politics of the plan will be the most difficult part."

Political powerhouses like Gov. Preston Smith tried a number of approaches to push the plan thorough. One involved appointing a "Committee of 500" Texans to promote the project. West Texans on the committee included San Angelo Mayor Ray Dorrance, Concho Valley Council of Governments Director Jim Ridge, Upper Colorado River Authority board members Dale Leddy, Fred Conn and Rep. Forest Harding and San Angelo business owner Hunter Strain.

But, despite all efforts, the state's "Biggest Dream Ever," as a 1968 editorial headline called the plan, became a daydream as support from politicians and voters dried up.

The plan may not have been doable, even back in that age of massive Interstate highway construction and moon landings.

But imagine if it had worked. Imagine muddy Mississippi River water. Endlessly flowing across West Texas. Green, blooming deserts.

Rick Smith is a local news and community affairs columnist. Contact Rick at rsmith@gosanangelo.com or 325-659-8248.