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
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!
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.