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I like the idea of flooding a desert.
But not to make a wildlife refuge, or to 'change the climate'.
At the base of the Dead Sea Valley is the dead sea itself. It is one of the richest mining areas for rare elements that had been dissolved in fresh water recovered in the form of salts and sediment, on Earth.
The basin acts as a massive solar powered evaporator. However, because of the fresh water demands placed on the inflowing rivers into the Dead Sea, the Dead Sea is shrinking at an alarming rate...
What I propose is not to flood the area with fresh water. That is an irresponsible waste of a preciously scarce resource. (The evaporation rate is too high, the water would become brackish if not downright salty on it's own, and that vapor is not guaranteed to precipitate anywhere near the surrounding area.)
However, if you flooded the basin with SEA WATER from either the Red Sea or the Mediterranean (an already super salty ocean whose evaporation exceeds the inflow of 'fresh' seawater from the Atlantic at the Straights of Gibraltar, you can use the natural evaporation of the basin/sun to continue mining the sea at a nice rate...
So to with Death Valley. Flood it with sea water from the Sea of Cortez. Make another 'Salton Sea'. Turn it into a massive mining center.
There is no guarantee that any water vapor will precipitate anywhere within in North America, let alone Texas. But you will have a great mining reserve.
However, the difference may be with the underlying aquifer becoming contaminated (Ogallala perhaps?) and the native flora and fauna going extinct... There is less of a risk of this happening in the Dead Sea, as there are only a few types of microbes living there right now.
