Pumping water from the Northeast to California would use tremendous amounts of energy. The problem with California is that most water is used for irrigation of crops in a desert climate. This is incredibly wasteful and foolish in the long term. Irrigation leads to the destruction of the soil by salt deposition. It is already a problem in California and other areas. To prevent the accumulation of salt on irrigated lands, the land needs to be flushed with massive amounts of water to wash the salts out and extensive tiling to carry the excess water carrying the salts away. The next biggest user of water is for "environmental" uses which sounds terrible to the average person, but is vital for a number of reasons. The most important reason is to maintain the flow in the rivers, so the salt water from the ocean does not migrate further into the San Joaquin river estuary and infiltrate the groundwater. This has already happened to some extent and a number if water wells have been contaminated with salt water near the mouth of the river. The river needs to maintain flow all the way to the ocean to maintain the native species that are dependent on the river and to maintain water quality for human use. The San Joaquin is now one of the most polluted rivers in the world.
The water issues in California are not going to be solved easily. The entrenched agricultural interests are wealthy and very politically powerful. The agricultural interests are subsidized by the sacrifice of the environment of the San Joaquin and by the massive influx of tax dollars from the state and federal governments. The agricultural interests in California are the ultimate welfare queens.
What needs to done is to stop allowing crops that need intensive irrigation from being grown in desert areas. Growing alfalfa for export to Asia in California using up precious water supplies is absolutely insane. Alfalfa can be grown east of the Mississippi in the corn belt and the Northeast perfectly well. The closed farms and dairies of New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania need to be reopened with government subsidies and it will still be cheaper and more environmentally sound than what is going on in California agriculture.
I would suggest some reading on this issue. The complexities of the water issues in California are vital for every citizen to understand. We need to not allow ridiculous and outrageously expensive water subsidies for the agricultural barons of California.
Here is an interesting blog on water issues in California:
http://californiawaterblog.com/
Here is a link to the Wikipedia article about soil salinity:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soil_salinity
The Wikipedia article on the San Joaquin River is very informative:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Joaquin_River
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