simply great book about the past, present and future of water in the U, S. The focus is on the dry side of America, but not just west of the Rockies, The High Plains and the Ogalalla Aquifer, as well as the Upper Missouri, get extended treatment,
So too does the fact that "rugged Westerners" are ultimately usually socialists when it comes to the issue of water and it being supplied to farms at below cost by the federal government, and acreage limits then being broken.
It's not just the lack of water and cost of water Reisner covers, He also notes that with alkaline soils of much of the West, irrigation tends to raise salt levels, Yes, we may eventually genetically engineer more salttolerant crops, but how far can we take this
The only regret is that Reisner died before being able to pen another issue of this book to take global warming into account fully.
Anyway, especially on the Colorado, as Phoenix and Las Vegas struggle with jobs and diminishing water supplies at the same time, this book reminds us of Ed Abbey's phrase: "The desert always wins.
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I've reread this more than once, every few years, and get new insights every time, I have a friend who is reading a book on the dying of the Colorado River which sounded Interesting to me, but then she prefers a different booK, “Climate Courage.
” I gave her all the reasons why we will not be able to stop global warming, even saying that it is too late, She had heard those reasons, but this author thinks that we will get together and change things around, I dont see this happening, We cant even get together on the virus, much less politics, So, I reads the sample of this book she likes, and it gave all the reasons why we think we cant change, I deleted the sample and di not get the book, Instead, I found this one, It seemed favored amough readers here, The one she likes only got twelve reviews, Are we just pessimistic I dont think so,
So far, in this book, we hear about the explorers of America, and that was pretty exciting to me, Loved the dangerous boat trips along the rivers, but then I hated reading about Lewis and Clark and how they killed beavers for their skins, Mountain men were no different, What we have done to our country and to the world is atrocious, How I will feel about the rest of this book, only time will tell, I am more open to reading another adventure book,
Hours Later. I had to skip much of this book as I didnt want to read about the politics, Things of interest: While I knew that San Diego was a desert, I didnt realize that about Los Angeles, but I really didnt know that San Francisco was also.
It had no trees until they piped in water, The other point of interest was that there are many dams in California, and if one breaks, it can cause others to break at the same time, a domino effect.
My feeling is if California is running out of water, you dont have to worry about the dams breaking,
I think, It doesnt matter where you live, Fine a good State or place to live where there is water, and in time, people will be running there to get away
from the droughts, and you maybe be trampled, if not, they will drink all the water.
More random thoughts: This book reminds me of James Michener, minus the dinosaurs, saber tooth tigers, and wooly mammals,
And then I get to the end of the book, realizing that I have probably only read a fourth of it, So boring. We come to the State where I am living, Oklahoma, The Ogalala aquafer is drying up, I knew that, but this means that we could have another dust bowl, I guess instead of moving here from California, we should have moved to Idaho, Like my friend who is reading “Climate Courage” said, “It is too cold there, ” I once read that Russia is the safest place to live during all this, Yes, I think. If you can only get rid of Putin, The message comes through loud and clear, One should not live west of theth meridian in the American West, As a result of ten years of research and analysis, Mark Reisner , an environmentalist from Minneapolis, writes about the ongoing drought that greeted early settlers there, He details the extreme measures taken by the government and opportune business men to deal with the lack of water in areas where people likely should not have settled in the first place.
Los Angeles, thend largest desert city in the world, was one that demanded more water than most,
This book, right down to its dying cactus on its cover, emphasizes the looming water crisis, The disappearing water parallels the billions of tax payers' dollars that have disappeared through building dams and irrigating crops,
He details by whom, when and how a multitude of dams and reservoirs were approved and built, He makes no bones about those poorly designed or constructed structures and squarely blames the ongoing fight between the Bureau of Reclamation and the US Army Corps of Engineers "for giving water development a bad name".
One of the first of the players was Mulholland, With Roosevelt's help he ensured a dam would be built to divert water for irrigation purposes to some very rich farmers, That is precisely how Owens Valley N, California water was sent down to Los Angeles, Those in Owens Valley could do nothing about it!
"What began as emergency measures often turned into environmental disasters, It was a blanket death sentence for free flowing rivers", . .
Never before had so little economic development been proposed at such exorbitant cost, "
Today, according to the US Army Corps of Engineers' database, there are approximately,dams in the USA, The exact number is not known, though Texas has the most with,,
There were devastating consequences for fisheries, At the time decision makers were of the opinion "new power and water was worth the price",
Water quality also became a huge issue, Water sitting in reservoirs absorbed salt from the soil and carried it forth when diverted to destination points, Mark claims that by the time the Colorado River hits Los Angeles, a cup of water has approximately three tablespoons of salt in it, Adding lemon is the only way to make that drinkable! Tourists in Avalon, California are not served water in a restaurant, With rationing there, a tourist pays for bottled water, The restaurants then do not have to wash glasses,
Due to extensive irrigation soil conditions in the San Joaquin Valley have deteriorated, "Build up of toxic salts has degraded an area the size of France and is causing,billion annually in lost crops, " Wheat crops do not do well, Even cotton is questionable. Main crops in regions with little rainfall are corn, wheat, soybeans, cotton and hay,
Marc writes about several great disasters, For example, the horrors of Teton Dam and the Saint Francis Dam breaking are described, These are backed up by old photos, For more drama, I would suggest you go to the internet and check out the documentaries available there,
He leaves you wondering which of the multitude of dams existing today are stressed to their limits, If the Glen Canyon Dam on the Colorado River goes, he claims it will take out the Hoover Dam in Nevada too,
Mark does not discuss the removal of dams to any extent, but he does discuss the tremendous problem of silt or sediment collected behind the dams and in reservoirs.
Though there are many benefits to having dams, the new society has found other ways to address water issues so as a result, overdams have been removed in the pastyears.
Strategies change based on case basis,
There are downsides to removal other than cost, however, They have found that sediment collected behind the dams and in reservoirs may contain PCBs, dioxide and heavy metals, How to remove toxic materials in the silt and where to put the sediment are two big questions, he says, If successful, quick recovery of a resilient water system and long term benefits could be the reward,
He talks about the Grand Coulee Dam in Washington which provides most of the hydroelectric power in the USA and its role in the production of aluminum for ships and planes during WW.
At that point in time severe drought ensured the approval of several dams on the Columbia River, Dam building peaked in the's, Few were built in the's,
Water rights have been on the table for years, Inthe Indian Tribes were awardedof water rights, They can use it themselves, store it or lease a portion, Inthe Central Arizona Project ensured their water would come from the lower basin states on the Colorado River, The Nov.ST ARIZONA REPUBLIC coincidentally highlights that as a result of climate change and drought, the Navajo who live on,square miles of land, are being forced off their land by drought and encroaching sand dunes.
For more on this informative series go to watercrisis, azcentral. com.
In this book we find all kinds of data on water allocation, California was the problem way back then, It still is. Its burgeoning growth increased water demand from the Colorado River, California and Arizona were in constant dispute about it for many years,
For more current information I had to do some of my own research, Inafteryears in court and amillion bill, Arizona came out the winner, California was allocated.maf million acrefeetof water per year, Arizona got.maf and Nevada,maf. Each state also got all the water in their tributaries, In, however, California was using,maf. , diverting unused water to other states, Arizona created a state water bank in, Today Phoenix claims they have aboutyears of water stored in aquafers this was delivered by the CAP aqueduct for underground storage, They also store water for other states,
Mark ends his book with an afterword, A far cry from the old days, he concludes that today we are more aware of issues with water quality and its salinity, have concerns over endangered fish, and want and need more recreation.
These concerns all require regulatory action, The era of great water projects has ended,
His reminders of the serious discussions by politicians and developers inof NAWAPA has a bone chilling effect, Marc devotes a few pages to discussing it, He emphasized the beauty of Canadian rivers and lakes and that the USA might just want it badly enough to take Canada by force,
Of note are dams in the Peace River area of B, C. which are still proceeding as planned, The James Bay project in Quebec was built during Bourassa's time by Canada, Bill Bennett, Lester Pearson, and Brian Mulroney are just a few of Canadian leaders who were in favor of some type of water management scheme, but Canadians were opposed to the plan.
The fishing industry would have been eliminated mass wilderness areas and wildlife would have been submerged in the quest for moving water to the USA, Hundreds of thousands of people would have had to relocate, Prince George City would no longer exist, Reisner claims Canada would have suffered phenomenal environmental consequences had NAWAPA gone ahead, He commented the plan was one of "brutal magnificence" and "unprecedented destructiveness",
Though the Corps of Engineers considered this project they never made a proposal, It has not been considered seriously since the's, This project was viewed by some as the "hydrologic antichrist", Fortunately Canadian water exports became exempt in the Free Trade Agreement,
Water is the life force, Reisner embraces the desert environment and reaches out to us, making us question how sustainable the American Western states and cities are, Reading this volume of information has made me so much more aware of the looming water crisis, As I visit in Arizona at this time, a symposium was just held on the topic of long term drought and the water supply, Topics such as "the river runs dry", desalination plants, rationing and "snaring mist from the sky" are the norm,
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