Water and the California Dream: Historic Choices for Shaping the Future

by David Carle

Overview

In the last one hundred years, imported water has transformed the environment of the Golden State and its quality of life, with land ownership patterns and real estate boosterism dramatically altering both urban and rural communities. The key to this transformation has been expanded access to water from the Eastern Sierra, the Colorado River, and Northern California rivers. "Whoever brings the water, brings the people," wrote engineer William Mulholland, under whose leadership the process of growth through irrigation began. Now, using first–person voices of Californians to reveal the resulting changes, author David Carle concludes that it may be time to stop drowning the California dream of the good life with imported water.

Using oral histories, contemporary newspaper articles, and autobiographies, Carle explores the historic changes in California, showing how imported water has shaped the pattern of population growth in the state. Because water choices remain the primary tool for shaping California's future, Carle also argues that it is possible to improve both the state's damaged environment and the quality of life if Californians will step out of this historic pattern and embrace limited water supplies as a fact of life in this naturally dry region.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781619026179
Publisher:	Catapult
Publication date:	05/10/2016
Pages:	240
Sales rank:	1,160,933
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author

David Carle grew up in Orange County, California, received his bachelors degree at U.C. Davis in Wildlife and Fisheries Biology and a masters degree from C.S.U. Sacramento in Recreation and Parks Administration. He was a park ranger in California State Parks for 27 years; including the Mendocino Coast, Hearst Castle, the Auburn State Recreation Area (in the gold country of the Sierra foothills), and the State Indian Museum in Sacramento. From 1982 through 2000, at the Mono Lake Tufa State Reserve, he shared the unit ranger position with his wife, participating in the long effort to protect that Eastern Sierra inland sea from the effects of stream diversions to Los Angeles. He taught biology and natural history courses at Cerro Coso Community College, the Eastern Sierra College Center in Mammoth Lakes. He is presently retired and serving as historian for the Mono Basin Historical Society. Carle has authored or co–authored 12 nonfiction books and 2 novels.

Table of Contents

Illustrations ix

Introduction: Changes and Choices 1

Part I Frontierland to Fantasyland 11

1 In Grizzly Days 13

2 Save the Cows… Horses Off the Cliffs 21

3 Gold Fever: Afflicted Forefathers 31

4 Statehood, State Water and State Laws 45

5 Railroads and Real Estate, Citrus and Sunshine 55

Part II Historic Choices-Eastern Sierra Water 67

6 Melodrama on the Right Side of California 69

7 Life in the Big City-How Did They Get Away With it? 81

8 Did They See Where They Were Going? 93

9 What If the Los Angeles Aqueduct Had Never Been Built? 103

Part III Historic Choices-Colorado River Water 111

10 "Andlest our city shrivel and die…" 113

11 Boom! Sprawling Gridlock 129

12 People Fumes (I) 145

Part IV Historic Choices- Northern California Water 153

13 A Dam Within Yosemite National Park and M.U.D. for the East Bay 157

14 Big Dams Irrigate Big Farms: The Central Valley Project 169

15 Too Much Is Not Enough: The State Water Project 179

Part V Tomorrowland: Today's Choices in a Hotter, Drier California 193

16 Who Needs Fish? Who Needs Farms? 195

17 The Fate of Mono Lake 211

18 People Fumes (II): Climate Warming and the Changing Water Cycle 217

19 Use Local Water Again and Again, Because Dams Are Little Help 225

20 Visualize Tomorrow-A California Dream 233

References 243

Index 259

Acknowledgments 273