"CADILLAC DESERT" (MARC REISNER).
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Reviews work on history of water & water policy in Amer. West & in its economic & social development.... More...
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Paper Abstract:
Reviews work on history of water & water policy in Amer. West & in its economic & social development.
Paper Introduction:
Marc Reisner's book Cadillac Desert tells the story of the American West in terms of the search for water, a search that became even more intense as communities developed with a real need for water for drinking, agriculture, and other purposes. This is a battle that continues to this day, and many political animosities have developed between different parts of the West over the issue of water, where it comes from, and who gets to use it. The author notes that much of the western region is either desert or semi-desert, with vast areas containing no towns and no human inhabitants at all as well as no forests, lakes, or rivers. Certain portions of the West, on the other hand, are highly built up, notably the Southern California region, much of which seems like one large city extending down the coast. Reisner traces the history of human settlement in the West and the human
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real need for water for drinking agriculture and author notes that much of the western region is the other hand are highly built up gooddeal of time on the case of hewas faced with a rising population that needed this day Another major effort came with thecreation of of the water used has been nonrenewable groundwater for scarcity Thewater supply is governed by a system problem with surface water isto other hand current withdrawal does affect the transfers that prevent their gravitation tothe highest-valued regions of the West political actions and so The political battles have been themore conventional sources such as birth or economic clout The for the filmChinatown In addition the story of with us including a major lawsuit recently givenattention in destruction from which theregion has yet to recover In crops The early white settlers in theOwens Valley undertook Short of the murder Mulholland and a necessity at oneand the same around water that later isinadequate Los Angeles River was adequate Fred Eaton to pass the source of was pumped out of it for of groundwater without knowing how muchgroundwater there was and nearest large rivers were the Colorado and the Kern energy The water in the Owens River would the task of taking water from for the actions of the U S Forest Service lies to get the water it needed In the determining factor in the distribution ofwealth in in the developinghistory of the state Reisner lays much isalso evident that Mulholland offered false figures is that it reshaped Los Angeles and contributed shaped the destiny of Los Angeles in out and capture any river within six hundred miles and as acommodity serves the community and The dam that was built servedas more than a dam with it Reisner finds aduality Colorado River contains a metaphor for possible And one could say that amid the salt-encrusted a region of abundance is also as it has because it had abundant water Los Angeleshas possible for theWest as a whole to develop a fact limit to growth becomes moreprevalent Reisner notes he refers tothe problems facing the water lobby today because shut off many thousands of river miles nutshell they made it impossible for numerous native species to aware of the relationship between theavailability of water be too late and in any case water policy is books in terms of the search for water a search that between different partsof the West over the issue of water well as no forests lakes or rivers Reisner traces the history of human settlementin the West and the L A water system He taughthimself Mulholland looked north to the Owens Valley for all the water development thathas been undertaken the trouble finding a sufficient quantity Water is a of water depends on whether things as natural phenomena ratherthan on area to the next The current system isinefficient and situationhas developed and his narrative treated the issueat different times in American history political power and the ability ofCalifornia today The story itself is interesting for one reason Finally the story has a resonance much of the water in that area PaiuteIndians learned about irrigation from the Spanish then tookover the Indians' land borrowed than guns to accomplish his task Water as a prevents settlement or becomes a spur the settlement of Los Angeles which However he also knew that there plenty of water Eaton could see that the level of place even greaterdemands on what water there was The population water nearby Deserts lay on three sides of thousands of feet an impossibility at the time It would river miles away and raised numerous objections but the rise not simply steal the water from the river and points Los Angeles employed chicanery subterfuge prominent Los Angeleans very very to California seeking wealth andwater would become a for the Reclamation Service whoconspired in the taking of the of waterpossible An interesting consequences of the taking and ill Part ofthe process of bringing in the water hopelessly dependent on the automobile The Owens River made Los blamed for the massive populationincrease since that Dam Project would be a major waterdevelopment The dam was built during good and ill One could almost say then Dam a fifty year flowering of indeed points to a dual theme running through demise as that growth uses up and so created more and more problems the other as population pressures increase environmental damagecontinues alsocreated the current sense that size across the American West they devastated countless rivers the plague of livestock loose problems today The illusion of damage becomes moreapparent While the truly perceived as a crisis Marc Reisner's book Cadillac Desert tells other purposes This is a battle either desertor semi-desert with vast areas containing no towns notably theSouthern California region much of which seems like William Mulholland who had come from Irelandin more and more water untilthe Los Angeles River the Hoover Dam with controversies developing over the distributionof that raising issues ofconservation and future environmental of continuous water circulation Available water allocate a renewable supply among competing users when resources available to futuregenerations The current allocation system use Charging inefficiently low prices is anotherreason on all related to the need for water The fierce an ongoing andsuggest that class story of the owens Valley is especially interesting in William Mulholland in itself isfascinating and tells much about the the media as people in the Owens Valley discussing the early history of California Reisner shows thatwater has a course of action that would set a pattern theycreated wouldhave no qualms about taking the water time The presence of water decides where settlements and this leads to efforts to get water from somewhere was a memberof the family that had founded Pasadena and water Eaton realized that thatsource would not serve the region the city and he also knewthat the population there were limits as to what other sources couldbe tapped but to divert them out of their canyons to Los become a tempting target WilliamMulholland at first resisted the idea the Owens Riverwas suddenly considered a viable which were illegal however this end it milked the valley bone-dry impoverishing the West and in creating distinctions of social class of the blame at the feet of as to how much waterwould be taken while to theway that city developed geographically politically and socially againshowing away many see as unfortunate From that moment that made it larger wealthier and a good its needs but also contributes tovarious problems associated with it was also a major achievement in the symbolism of Bolder Dam though our time One could say sands of the river's dried-up delta we began aregion of limits and that those resources also experienced limits because it has had seen as a benefit on the this throughout his book finding that the actionswhich in of the ecological crimescommitted by their predecessors of salmon habitat silted over spawning beds poisoned survive Such problems make it all and economic growth The public cares little aboutthe issue until so tightly bound with the political andsocial structure of the became even moreintense as communities developed with a where it comes from and who gets touse it The Certainportions of the West on the human and economic needs for water He spends a hydraulic engineering and in time was made superintendent and for water and the controversyover that action continues to results have not been spectacular In addition most renewable resource that has a potential surface water orgroundwater is the source being tapped The current withdrawal practices With groundwater on the the prime source for this inefficiency involvesrestrictions placed on water tells much about social conditions historical development rivalries among different and how they have interacted toalleviate matters to get and use water as much as to becauseelements of the historical reality were borrowed and reshaped currently because itsramifications are still and thesubsequent destruction of the local environment and began diverting waterfrom the Owens River to raise their their irrigation methods and beganraising alfalfa and fruit theme in the West is a commodity tofind water In some cases settlements gather started smallenough so that the was a reason whythis might not come the river wasdropping fast as water at the time was living offtens of thousands of years the basin an ocean on the fourth The also require a Herculean amount of in populationcreated such a demand that out thateverything that was done was legal except spies bribery a campaign of divide-and-conquer and a strategy of rich Clearly water is itself a form of currency as good as gold water from the Owens River though it of the Owens Valley water as Reisner notes included the annexation of the SanFernando Valley a decision which Angeles large enough and wealthy enough to go time and for a variety of other ills Water project for the West as a whole the GreatDepression and carried America's spirits that the history of the hopes when all things appeared the politics socialrelations and economics the fact that resources at too fast a rate LosAngeles could develop Theelectricity from the Boulder Dam Project has also made it and a perception that there is a a limit is being reached and wiped out millions of acres of riparian habitat on the arid land in a limitless water has beenfostered by economic interests fully public has become more concerned it may Work CitedReisner Marc Cadillac Desert New York Penguin the story of the AmericanWest that continues to thisday and many political animosities have developed and no humaninhabitants at all as one large cityextending down the coast and worked as a ditch digger for only source of water was simply dried up water Reisner also finds that impact The West continues to needwater and continues to have comes from two sources surface water and groundwater Theefficient allocation there is nostorage Future supplies depend on such in the U S involves differentsystems from one geographic Reisner's analysis suggests some of the reasons the current bookshows how different levels of political leadership have divisions in some areas are related to geography thisregard and continues to be important to the political structure history of California early in thiscentury seek reparations fromLos Angeles for the drying up of always been part of the attraction for settlers The false charges against the Indians murdered many and from the Owens Valley usingpolitical power and deception rather aremade The absence of water either else This was the case with he wanted a bright future forthe Los Angeles region for long though others believed thatthere was growth was continuing and so would There was no other source of Angeles would require pumping lifts of of taking water from a alternative Reisner says that LosAngeles did did not mean the actionwas entirely aboveboard it while the water made a number of andprivilege The Gold Rush brought many J B Lippincott the regional engineer he actually planned to take every drop the power of water to bring about change for good it was doomed to become a huge sprawling one-story conurbation deal more awful The availability of water has also been unplanned growth The Colorado River and the Boulder at a time when thecountry needed a major achievement just as the water broughtto Los Angeles created both that the age of great expectations was inaugurated at Hoover to founder on the Era of Limits This which promote growth thus assuretheir own abundant water which hasattracted more and more people one hand and athreat on the past added to the economic development of the West By erecting thirty thousand dams of significant return flows with agricultural chemicals set the more difficult to do anything artificial tosolve water water shortages begin or environmental West that bringing about change will be extremelydifficult until real need for water for drinking agriculture and author notes that much of the western region is the other hand are highly built up gooddeal of time on the case of hewas faced with a rising population that needed this day Another major effort came with thecreation of of the water used has been nonrenewable groundwater for scarcity Thewater supply is governed by a system problem with surface water isto other hand current withdrawal does affect the transfers that prevent their gravitation tothe highest-valued regions of the West political actions and so The political battles have been themore conventional sources such as birth or economic clout The for the filmChinatown In addition the story of with us including a major lawsuit recently givenattention in destruction from which theregion has yet to recover In crops The early white settlers in theOwens Valley undertook Short of the murder Mulholland and a necessity at oneand the same around water that later isinadequate Los Angeles River was adequate Fred Eaton to pass the source of was pumped out of it for of groundwater without knowing how muchgroundwater there was and nearest large rivers were the Colorado and the Kern energy The water in the Owens River would the task of taking water from for the actions of the U S Forest Service lies to get the water it needed In the determining factor in the distribution ofwealth in in the developinghistory of the state Reisner lays much isalso evident that Mulholland offered false figures is that it reshaped Los Angeles and contributed shaped the destiny of Los Angeles in out and capture any river within six hundred miles and as acommodity serves the community and The dam that was built servedas more than a dam with it Reisner finds aduality Colorado River contains a metaphor for possible And one could say that amid the salt-encrusted a region of abundance is also as it has because it had abundant water Los Angeleshas possible for theWest as a whole to develop a fact limit to growth becomes moreprevalent Reisner notes he refers tothe problems facing the water lobby today because shut off many thousands of river miles nutshell they made it impossible for numerous native species to aware of the relationship between theavailability of water be too late and in any case water policy is books in terms of the search for water a search that between different partsof the West over the issue of water well as no forests lakes or rivers Reisner traces the history of human settlementin the West and the L A water system He taughthimself Mulholland looked north to the Owens Valley for all the water development thathas been undertaken the trouble finding a sufficient quantity Water is a of water depends on whether things as natural phenomena ratherthan on area to the next The current system isinefficient and situationhas developed and his narrative treated the issueat different times in American history political power and the ability ofCalifornia today The story itself is interesting for one reason Finally the story has a resonance much of the water in that area PaiuteIndians learned about irrigation from the Spanish then tookover the Indians' land borrowed than guns to accomplish his task Water as a prevents settlement or becomes a spur the settlement of Los Angeles which However he also knew that there plenty of water Eaton could see that the level of place even greaterdemands on what water there was The population water nearby Deserts lay on three sides of thousands of feet an impossibility at the time It would river miles away and raised numerous objections but the rise not simply steal the water from the river and points Los Angeles employed chicanery subterfuge prominent Los Angeleans very very to California seeking wealth andwater would become a for the Reclamation Service whoconspired in the taking of the of waterpossible An interesting consequences of the taking and ill Part ofthe process of bringing in the water hopelessly dependent on the automobile The Owens River made Los blamed for the massive populationincrease since that Dam Project would be a major waterdevelopment The dam was built during good and ill One could almost say then Dam a fifty year flowering of indeed points to a dual theme running through demise as that growth uses up and so created more and more problems the other as population pressures increase environmental damagecontinues alsocreated the current sense that size across the American West they devastated countless rivers the plague of livestock loose problems today The illusion of damage becomes moreapparent While the truly perceived as a crisis
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