Where the Water Goes: Life and Death Along the Colorado River

4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars | 477 ratings

Price: 15.75

Last update: 09-06-2024


About this item

An eye-opening account of where our water comes from and where it all goes.

The Colorado River is an essential resource for a surprisingly large part of the United States, and every gallon that flows down it is owned or claimed by someone. David Owen traces all that water from the Colorado’s headwaters to its parched terminus, once a verdant wetland but now a million-acre desert. He takes listeners on an adventure downriver, along a labyrinth of waterways, reservoirs, power plants, farms, fracking sites, ghost towns, and RV parks, to the spot near the US-Mexico border where the river runs dry.

Water problems in the Western United States can seem tantalizingly easy to solve: Just turn off the fountains at the Bellagio, stop selling hay to China, ban golf, cut down the almond trees, and kill all the lawyers. But a closer look reveals a vast man-made ecosystem that is far more complex and more interesting than the headlines let on.

The story Owen tells in Where the Water Goes is crucial to our future: How a patchwork of engineering marvels, byzantine legal agreements, aging infrastructure, and neighborly cooperation enables life to flourish in the desert - and the disastrous consequences we face when any part of this tenuous system fails.


Top reviews from the United States

Paul Tognetti
5.0 out of 5 stars David Owen succeeds in making very complex subject matter understandable to the average reader.
Reviewed in the United States on May 3, 2017
“Lake Havasu marks the beginning of the final and most complex stage of the transformation of the Colorado River from a natural stream into a dispersed and brachiating resource-distribution system. At the lake’s southern end, some water is diverted west, to Southern California, and some is diverted east to central Arizona, and some continues downstream to diversions further south. The lake was created in 1938 by the construction of the Parker Dam, a graceful concrete curve roughly 750 feet from end to end, topped by a blocky colonnade. The website of the Bureau of Reclamation describes Parker Dam as “one part of a system of storage and diversion structures built by Reclamation to control and regulate the once unruly Colorado River,” but it was really built to provide water for metropolitan Los Angeles, nearly 350 miles to the west.” – page 124

Being from the Northeast water shortages are happily one of the farthest things from my mind. Although I have heard about “water rights” in feature films and old TV westerns I knew precious little about the subject. Furthermore, I have always been fascinated about how the American Southwest was ultimately settled and the major role that water played in determining winners and losers. Who were the visionaries who saw the enormous potential of this once arid region and what role did politics play in determining how events unfolded? What obstacles had to be overcome? And just how does all of that water get to Southern California? As you might imagine this an extremely broad and complicated topic that presents a multiplicity of conflicting issues. David Owen is a staff writer for the New Yorker and the author of more than a dozen books. He has obviously done his due diligence and presents his findings in the thoughtful and informative new book “Where the Water Goes: Life and Death Along the Colorado River”. You will discover that the issues depicted here are ongoing and ever-changing. I simply could not put this one down.

It is certainly difficult for the average person to grasp the enormity of these issues without having at least a passing knowledge of the key components of the massive water diversion system that brings all of this water to central Arizona and southern California. In “Where the Water Goes” you will get a crash course in important places like Hoover Dam, Lake Havasu, Parker Dam, the Colorado River Aqueduct, Lake Powell, Imperial Dam, the Salton Sea and the Central Arizona Project and the role that each plays in getting the mission accomplished. You will also be introduced to terminology that will enhance your understanding of the issues involved. And in the final chapter called “What Is to Be Done?” David Owen offers some possible options to ease troublesome water scarcity both in the short run and in the long term.

I found “Where the Water Goes: Life and Death Along the Colorado River” to be a real eye-opener that really enhanced my knowledge of these most important issues. At several points along the way I enhanced my reading by viewing some YouTube videos. I would especially recommend a documentary made in the 1930’s called “Colorado River Aqueduct” which really helped me to visualize what was actually going on. “Where the Water Goes” would be an excellent choice for history buffs, those concerned about the environment and general readers alike. Very highly recommended!
dxpope
4.0 out of 5 stars Four Stars
Reviewed in the United States on May 18, 2017
I am a few chapters in and find it an enjoyable non-fiction read.
Willard Thompson
5.0 out of 5 stars A Sensitive and Insightful Must Read
Reviewed in the United States on May 29, 2017
David Owen's book is not only a must read for anyone concerned (or who should be concerned) about water and environmental issues in the Colorado River Basin, it is a homage to the seven western states and a succinct history of the area and how its arcane water laws came into being. But even more that that it is a beautifully written, personal portrait of the men and women who live and work along the watershed of the Colorado and its tributaries, much in the same vein as Steinbeck's "Travels With Charlie in Search of America." An Important book on many levels that is such a pleasure to read, even if the subject matter isn't always pleasurable. If I had had this book 20 years ago, when as an editor of a agricultural and water focused California newsletter, it wouldn't have taken so long to understand the mishmash of laws and precedents that govern the river and thus the lives of the millions who count on its water.
A. Ghent
5.0 out of 5 stars Good update to Cadillac Desert
Reviewed in the United States on December 6, 2022
If I could give 4.5 stars, I would. I learned a fair bit from this book.

I’m still confused about a lot of western water issues, particularly how individual farmers’ and water districts’ water rights fit in with state water rights under the Colorado River compact. I’m also confused about whether a given water right for individual users is at a pre-specified price due to Federal infrastructure projects or whether a water right basically makes it free to take the water for the specified use. I’m also not clear on the enforcement mechanisms the Bureau of Reclamation (BOR) has when the water levels in Lake Powell and Lake Mead trigger “automatic” cuts… if the states don’t voluntarily comply, can the BOR just turn off certain projects?

Also, why are we letting California consistently overuse its allotment without any sort of sanction? At least that’s my understanding of what has been going on from reading this book. I understand that CA is now on some sort of plan to bring its usage down to its allocation under the compact but I would have thought there were much sharper enforcement mechanisms than a gradual “please try not to overuse”.

I hope a future edition can go into a bit more detail on these sorts of issues.
Robert Graham
4.0 out of 5 stars The real story about your shower.
Reviewed in the United States on December 27, 2017
I am a ranch owner in Colorado with water rights that feed the river. This is a great book if you want to understand what water is all about, and you do not live it. I have a lot of city friends that have no idea how they get their showers and their eyes bug out when you tell them some of this background. The writer is a newspaper writer so this is an easy read, and not tooo technical. And for those of us in it, water can be very technical. I wish every city slicker in the Colorado basin would read this, or at least the broadcasters and environmentalists that have no idea what they are dealing with could use the book to get educated.
Loring
5.0 out of 5 stars If you live in the Western US, you need to know
Reviewed in the United States on January 13, 2024
An excellent accounting of where the water in the Colorado River comes from and where it goes and why it's so important but difficult. The same story is being told of many of the worlds major aquifers and the solutions are just as complex.
Cheryl McInerney
3.0 out of 5 stars Very dry ( no pun intended)
Reviewed in the United States on September 10, 2022
I couldn’t get past chapter three. I found the narrative to be flat and it did not engage me.
Silverio Sierra
5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent book
Reviewed in the United States on February 17, 2022
I bought the book as a Christmas Present for my Father in Law, who is a discerning and very experienced on the subject, and especially on water resources in Texas. He has spent over 30 years studying this subject, and working on desalinization of the affluent to the Brazos and Colorado rivers. He called me twice to thank me for the book, he found it very useful, accurate, informative and entertaining.

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