Faced with a drought that has stream flows at their lowest levels in 100 years, officials and developers in Colorado are coming up with some water-diversion schemes that would seem pretty wacky if they didn't stand a chance of being enacted. Top of the list is a proposed project called the Big Straw, a 200-mile-long pipeline that would pump 400,000 acre-feet of Colorado River water away from the Utah border, up 4,500 feet and over the Rocky Mountains, and down to the parched communities in the eastern half of the state -- at a cost of at least $5 billion. Enviros argue that the state's water needs can be met through smart conservation practices, without breaking the bank at a time when the state is confronting a $900 million budget deficit. "As we say, the Big Straw sucks," says Elise Jones of the Colorado Environmental Coalition. Swallow hard and read all about straws and other Colorado water schemes, only on the Grist Magazine website.