Drought, Water Law, and the Origins of California's Central Valley Project

Drought, Water Law, and the Origins of California's Central Valley Project PDF Author: Tim Stroshane
Publisher: University of Nevada Press
ISBN: 9781943859061
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 246

Get Book Here

Book Description
This book is an account of how water rights were designed as a key part of the state’s largest public water system, the Central Valley Project. Along sixty miles of the San Joaquin River, from Gustine to Mendota, four corporate entities called “exchange contractors” retain paramount water rights to the river. Their rights descend from the days of the Miller & Lux Cattle Company, which amassed an empire of land and water from the 1850s through the 1920s and protected these assets through business deals and prolific litigation. Miller & Lux’s dominance of the river relied on what many in the San Joaquin Valley regarded as wasteful irrigation practices and unreasonable water usage. Economic and political power in California’s present water system was born of this monopoly on water control. Stroshane tells how drought and legal conflict shaped statewide economic development and how the grand bargain of a San Joaquin River water exchange was struck from this monopoly legacy, setting the stage for future water wars. His analysis will appeal to readers interested in environmental studies and public policy.

Drought, Water Law, and the Origins of California's Central Valley Project

Drought, Water Law, and the Origins of California's Central Valley Project PDF Author: Tim Stroshane
Publisher: University of Nevada Press
ISBN: 9781943859061
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 246

Get Book Here

Book Description
This book is an account of how water rights were designed as a key part of the state’s largest public water system, the Central Valley Project. Along sixty miles of the San Joaquin River, from Gustine to Mendota, four corporate entities called “exchange contractors” retain paramount water rights to the river. Their rights descend from the days of the Miller & Lux Cattle Company, which amassed an empire of land and water from the 1850s through the 1920s and protected these assets through business deals and prolific litigation. Miller & Lux’s dominance of the river relied on what many in the San Joaquin Valley regarded as wasteful irrigation practices and unreasonable water usage. Economic and political power in California’s present water system was born of this monopoly on water control. Stroshane tells how drought and legal conflict shaped statewide economic development and how the grand bargain of a San Joaquin River water exchange was struck from this monopoly legacy, setting the stage for future water wars. His analysis will appeal to readers interested in environmental studies and public policy.

The Central Valley Project

The Central Valley Project PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Central Valley Project (California)
Languages : en
Pages : 188

Get Book Here

Book Description
Description of the water systems in the Central Valley, the effects of floods and droughts, and the dams built to control the water supply. Intended for school students.

The Great Central Valley

The Great Central Valley PDF Author: Gerald W. Haslam
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 0520064119
Category : CALIFORNIA.
Languages : en
Pages : 278

Get Book Here

Book Description
Explores the natural and social history of California's agricultural heartland. This book celebrates the tenacious people of the Valley, where hard work and ingenuity are the means to both survival and success.

Annual Report

Annual Report PDF Author: Central Valley Project (Calif.)
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Reclamation of land
Languages : en
Pages : 142

Get Book Here

Book Description


The Dreamt Land

The Dreamt Land PDF Author: Mark Arax
Publisher: Vintage
ISBN: 1101875216
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 577

Get Book Here

Book Description
A vivid, searching journey into California's capture of water and soil—the epic story of a people's defiance of nature and the wonders, and ruin, it has wrought Mark Arax is from a family of Central Valley farmers, a writer with deep ties to the land who has watched the battles over water intensify even as California lurches from drought to flood and back again. In The Dreamt Land, he travels the state to explore the one-of-a-kind distribution system, built in the 1940s, '50s and '60s, that is straining to keep up with California's relentless growth. The Dreamt Land weaves reportage, history and memoir to confront the "Golden State" myth in riveting fashion. No other chronicler of the West has so deeply delved into the empires of agriculture that drink so much of the water. The nation's biggest farmers—the nut king, grape king and citrus queen—tell their story here for the first time. Arax, the native son, is persistent and tough as he treks from desert to delta, mountain to valley. What he finds is hard earned, awe-inspiring, tragic and revelatory. In the end, his compassion for the land becomes an elegy to the dream that created California and now threatens to undo it.

Trinity River Division

Trinity River Division PDF Author: United States. Bureau of Reclamation
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Trinity River (Calif.)
Languages : en
Pages : 18

Get Book Here

Book Description


The Fall and Rise of the Wetlands of California's Great Central Valley

The Fall and Rise of the Wetlands of California's Great Central Valley PDF Author: Philip Garone
Publisher: University of California Press
ISBN: 0520355571
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 440

Get Book Here

Book Description
This is the first comprehensive environmental history of California’s Great Central Valley, where extensive freshwater and tidal wetlands once provided critical habitat for tens of millions of migratory waterfowl. Weaving together ecology, grassroots politics, and public policy, Philip Garone tells how California’s wetlands were nearly obliterated by vast irrigation and reclamation projects, but have been brought back from the brink of total destruction by the organized efforts of duck hunters, whistle-blowing scientists, and a broad coalition of conservationists. Garone examines the many demands that have been made on the Valley’s natural resources, especially by large-scale agriculture, and traces the unforeseen ecological consequences of our unrestrained manipulation of nature. He also investigates changing public and scientific attitudes that are now ushering in an era of unprecedented protection for wildlife and wetlands in California and the nation.

Ground Water in the Central Valley, California

Ground Water in the Central Valley, California PDF Author: G. L. Bertoldi
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Groundwater
Languages : en
Pages : 56

Get Book Here

Book Description
See journals under US Geological survey. Prof. paper 1401-A.

Central Valley Project Studies

Central Valley Project Studies PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Agriculture
Languages : en
Pages : 472

Get Book Here

Book Description


Cadillac Desert

Cadillac Desert PDF Author: Marc Reisner
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 1440672822
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 674

Get Book Here

Book Description
“I’ve been thinking a lot about Cadillac Desert in the past few weeks, as the rain fell and fell and kept falling over California, much of which, despite the pouring heavens, seems likely to remain in the grip of a severe drought. Reisner anticipated this moment. He worried that the West’s success with irrigation could be a mirage — that it took water for granted and didn’t appreciate the precariousness of our capacity to control it.” – Farhad Manjoo, The New York Times, January 20,2023 "The definitive work on the West's water crisis." --Newsweek The story of the American West is the story of a relentless quest for a precious resource: water. It is a tale of rivers diverted and dammed, of political corruption and intrigue, of billion-dollar battles over water rights, of ecological and economic disaster. In his landmark book, Cadillac Desert, Marc Reisner writes of the earliest settlers, lured by the promise of paradise, and of the ruthless tactics employed by Los Angeles politicians and business interests to ensure the city's growth. He documents the bitter rivalry between two government giants, the Bureau of Reclamation and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, in the competition to transform the West. Based on more than a decade of research, Cadillac Desert is a stunning expose and a dramatic, intriguing history of the creation of an Eden--an Eden that may only be a mirage. This edition includes a new postscript by Lawrie Mott, a former staff scientist at the Natural Resources Defense Council, that updates Western water issues over the last two decades, including the long-term impact of climate change and how the region can prepare for the future.