"CADILLAC DESERT" (MARC REISNER).   Term Paper ID:26021 Click to get this paper

Essay Subject: Reviews work on history of water & water policy in Amer. West & in its economic & social development.... More...

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Paper Abstract: Reviews work on history of water & water policy in Amer. West & in its economic & social development. Paper Introduction: Marc Reisner's book Cadillac Desert tells the story of the American West in terms of the search for water, a search that became even more intense as communities developed with a real need for water for drinking, agriculture, and other purposes. This is a battle that continues to this day, and many political animosities have developed between different parts of the West over the issue of water, where it comes from, and who gets to use it. The author notes that much of the western region is either desert or semi-desert, with vast areas containing no towns and no human inhabitants at all as well as no forests, lakes, or rivers. Certain portions of the West, on the other hand, are highly built up, notably the Southern California region, much of which seems like one large city extending down the coast. Reisner traces the history of human settlement in the West and the human Text of the Paper: The entire text of the paper is shown below. However, the text is somewhat scrambled. We want to give you as much information as we possibly can about our papers and essays, but we cannot give them away for free. In the text below you will find that while disordered, many of the phrases are essentially intact. From this text you will be able to get a solid sense of the writing style, the concepts addressed, and the sources used in the research paper. The Owens River made Los Angeles large enough and wealthy enough to go out and capture any river within six hundred miles, and that made it larger, wealthier, and a good deal more awful (1 2).The availability of water has also been blamed for the massive populationincrease since that time and for a variety of other ills. Eaton realized that thatsource would not serve the region for long, though others believed thatthere was plenty of water. Thewater supply is governed by a system of continuous water circulation.Available water comes from two sources--surface water and groundwater. Cadillac Desert. Charging inefficiently low prices is anotherreason. It would also require a Herculean amount of energy (61). The early white settlers in theOwens Valley undertook a course of action that would set a pattern--theycreated false charges against the Indians, murdered many, and then "tookover the Indians' land, borrowed their irrigation methods, and beganraising alfalfa and fruit" (59). The current system isinefficient, and the prime source for this inefficiency involvesrestrictions placed on water transfers that prevent their gravitation tothe highest-valued use. Reisner also finds that for all the water development thathas been undertaken, the results have not been spectacular. The PaiuteIndians learned about irrigation from the Spanish and began diverting waterfrom the Owens River to raise their crops. The dam that was built servedas more than a dam--it was also a major achievement at a time when thecountry needed a major achievement. Water as acommodity serves the community and its needs but also contributes tovarious problems associated with unplanned growth. New York: Penguin books, 1993.----------------------- 1 In addition, the story of William Mulholland in itself isfascinating and tells much about the history of California early in thiscentury. WilliamMulholland at first resisted the idea of taking water from a river 25 miles away and raised numerous objections, but the rise in populationcreated such a demand that the task of taking water from the Owens Riverwas suddenly considered a viable alternative. involves differentsystems from one geographic area to the next. Water is a renewable resource that has a potential for scarcity. Reisner notes this throughout his book, finding that the actionswhich in the past added to the economic development of the West alsocreated the current sense that a limit is being reached, and he refers tothe problems facing the water lobby today because of the ecological crimescommitted by their predecessors: By erecting thirty thousand dams of significant size across the American West, they devastated countless rivers, wiped out millions of acres of riparian habitat, shut off many thousands of river miles of salmon habitat, silted over spawning beds, poisoned return flows with agricultural chemicals, set the plague of livestock loose on the arid land--in a nutshell, they made it impossible for numerous native species to survive (511).Such problems make it all the more difficult to do anything artificial tosolve water problems today. The political battles have been fierce an ongoing andsuggest that class divisions in some areas are related to geography,political power, and the ability to get and use water as much as to themore conventional sources such as birth or economic clout. Another major effort came with thecreation of Hoover Dam, with controversies developing over the distributionof that water. The public cares little aboutthe issue until water shortages begin or environmental damage becomes moreapparent. Future supplies depend on such things as natural phenomena ratherthan on current withdrawal practices. Deserts lay on three sides of the basin, an ocean on the fourth. The problem with surface water isto allocate a renewable supply among competing users when there is nostorage. The story of the owens Valley is especially interesting in thisregard and continues to be important to the political structure ofCalifornia today. An interesting consequences of the taking of the Owens Valley water,as Reisner notes, is that it reshaped Los Angeles and contributed to theway that city developed geographically, politically, and socially, againshowing the power of water to bring about change for good and ill. Reisner says that LosAngeles did not simply steal the water from the river and points out thateverything that was done was legal, except for the actions of the U.S.Forest Service, which were illegal; however, this did not mean the actionwas entirely aboveboard: Los Angeles employed chicanery, subterfuge, spies, bribery, a campaign of divide-and-conquer, and a strategy of lies to get the water it needed. In some cases, settlements gather around water that later isinadequate, and this leads to efforts to get water from somewhere else.This was the case with the settlement of Los Angeles, which started smallenough so that the Los Angeles River was adequate. Eaton could see that the level of the river wasdropping fast as water was pumped out of it for the city, and he also knewthat the population growth was continuing and so would place even greaterdemands on what water there was. The story itself is interesting for one reason becauseelements of the historical reality were borrowed and reshaped for the filmChinatown. The Colorado River and the Boulder Dam Project would be a major waterdevelopment project for the West as a whole. Marc Reisner's book Cadillac Desert tells the story of the AmericanWest in terms of the search for water, a search that became even moreintense as communities developed with a real need for water for drinking,agriculture, and other purposes. Reisner lays much of the blame at the feet of J.B.Lippincott, the regional engineer for the Reclamation Service, whoconspired in the taking of the water from the Owens River, though it isalso evident that Mulholland offered false figures as to how much waterwould be taken while he actually planned to take every drop of waterpossible. Reisner traces the history of human settlementin the West and the human and economic needs for water. One could say that the age of great expectations was inaugurated at Hoover Dam--a fifty- year flowering of hopes when all things appeared possible. And one could say that, amid the salt-encrusted sands of the river's dried-up delta, we began to founder on the Era of Limits (121).This indeed points to a dual theme running through the politics, socialrelations, and economics, the fact that a region of abundance is also aregion of limits and that those resources which promote growth thus assuretheir own demise as that growth uses up resources at too fast a rate. Finally, the story has a resonance currently because itsramifications are still with us, including a major lawsuit recently givenattention in the media as people in the Owens Valley seek reparations fromLos Angeles for the drying up of much of the water in that area and thesubsequent destruction of the local environment, destruction from which theregion has yet to recover. Reisner's analysis suggests some of the reasons the current situationhas developed, and his narrative tells much about social conditions,historical development, rivalries among different regions of the West,political actions, and so on, all related to the need for water. The absence of water either prevents settlement or becomes a spur tofind water. The West continues to needwater and continues to have trouble finding a sufficient quantity. This is a battle that continues to thisday, and many political animosities have developed between different partsof the West over the issue of water, where it comes from, and who gets touse it. Theelectricity from the Boulder Dam Project has also made it possible for theWest as a whole to develop, a fact seen as a benefit on the one hand and athreat on the other as population pressures increase, environmental damagecontinues, and a perception that there is a limit to growth becomes moreprevalent. He spends a gooddeal of time on the case of William Mulholland, who had come from Irelandin 1878 and worked as a ditch digger for the L.A. The population at the time was living offtens of thousands of years of groundwater without knowing how muchgroundwater there was, and there were limits as to what other sources couldbe tapped: There was no other source of water nearby. Theefficient allocation of water depends on whether surface water orgroundwater is the source being tapped. The Gold Rush brought many to California seeking wealth, andwater would become a form of currency as good as gold in the developinghistory of the state. The presence of water decides where settlements aremade. Los Angeleshas also experienced limits because it has had abundant water, which hasattracted more and more people and so created more and more problems. While the public has become more concerned, it may be too late,and in any case, water policy is so tightly bound with the political andsocial structure of the West that bringing about change will be extremelydifficult until truly perceived as a crisis. Certainportions of the West, on the other hand, are highly built up, notably theSouthern California region, much of which seems like one large cityextending down the coast. He taughthimself hydraulic engineering and in time was made superintendent, and hewas faced with a rising population that needed more and more water untilthe Los Angeles River, the only source of water, was simply dried up.Mulholland looked north to the Owens Valley for water, and the controversyover that action continues to this day. In discussing the early history of California, Reisner shows thatwater has always been part of the attraction for settlers. The nearest large rivers were the Colorado and the Kern, but to divert them out of their canyons to Los Angeles would require pumping lifts of thousands of feet--an impossibility at the time. The dam was built during the GreatDepression "and carried America's spirits with it" (121). Part ofthe process of bringing in the water included the annexation of the SanFernando Valley, a decision which shaped the destiny of Los Angeles in away many see as unfortunate: From that moment, it was doomed to become a huge, sprawling, one-story conurbation, hopelessly dependent on the automobile. Clearly, water is itself a determining factor in the distribution ofwealth in the West and in creating distinctions of social class andprivilege. The illusion of limitless water has beenfostered by economic interests fully aware of the relationship between theavailability of water and economic growth. The water in the Owens River would become a tempting target. The current allocation system in the U.S. The author notes that much of the western region is either desertor semi-desert, with vast areas containing no towns and no humaninhabitants at all as well as no forests, lakes, or rivers. LosAngeles could develop as it has because it had abundant water. Fred Eaton was a memberof the family that had founded Pasadena, and he wanted a bright future forthe Los Angeles region. Reisner finds aduality in the symbolism of Bolder Dam, though, just as the water broughtto Los Angeles created both good and ill: One could almost say, then, that the history of the Colorado River contains a metaphor for our time. With groundwater, on the other hand,current withdrawal does affect the resources available to futuregenerations. Work CitedReisner, Marc. Short of the murder, Mulholland wouldhave no qualms about taking the water from the Owens Valley, usingpolitical power and deception rather than guns to accomplish his task. In the end, it milked the valley bone-dry, impoverishing it, while the water made a number of prominent Los Angeleans very, very rich (62). Water as a theme in the West is a commodity and a necessity at oneand the same time. However, he also knew that there was a reason whythis might not come to pass, the source of water. The bookshows how different levels of political leadership have treated the issueat different times in American history and how they have interacted toalleviate matters. In addition,most of the water used has been nonrenewable groundwater, raising issues ofconservation and future environmental impact. water system. If this paper is not what you are looking for, you can search again: Search for: or Click here to request an essay written just for you.

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