Cadillac Desert by Marc Reisner- "Water Resource Development "

However flawed such(prenominal)(prenominal) programs may be, they are certain to continue (14).

The history of urine development in the United States can probably be traced back as far as the settle set of 1862. This statute presumed that the country's resources and character could be developed by enceinte settlers half mile square sections of land. In the West, the Homestead playact provisions were adapted to different localities. One form of the law, the desolate Lands Act, applied to arid land. In order to take ownership, settlers had to " found proof of irrigation." Unfortunately, in many instances this was quite difficult to accomplish. tour the close-knit Mormon societies had been able to irrigate valleys in Utah, hardly a(prenominal) other locations had constant streams or were flat enough to change Desert Lands Act compliance (42).

Following the Civil War, lav Wesley Powell was among the first to examine the West's water supply paradoxs. Although he had lost an artillery at the Battle of Shiloh, the ex- major explored the Colorado River and surrounding lands. He wrote that the Homestead Acts were "blind to reality (45)." A 160-acre unirrigated western provoke was to small, and an irrigated 160-acre farm was too big. Powell noted that a farmer could subsist on 80 irrigated acres. This observation may have motivated him to recrudesce his own irrigation plans (46). It wasn't until the droughts of the late 1800s, however, that the government got involved in irrigation.

The refilling Act created an engineering bureaucracy. initially called the Reclamation Service, it later acquired the name, Bureau of Reclamation. The Bureau's projects were financed by a Reclamation fund. Theoretically, this fund was to be filled by proceeds from the trade of federal land in the western states. In addition, time to come payments to the fund would be made through the sale of water to farmers. Section 9 of the Act implied that the money gained from land gross revenue in any particular state should be spent in that state. This clause ultimately provided a rationale for director, Frederick Newel's, unchecked ambition. By 1924, 27 projects had either already been completed, or were at a lower place construction (114).

Yet another illustrious figure in water resources development, Bill Warne served as California's water resources director. In 1965, so governor Pat Brown and Warne were dealing with a major problem. While the voters had approved a $1.75 billion bond end for the California Water Project, the money would barely pay for the Oroville Dam, San Luis Dam, and a 444-mile aqueduct down the San Joaquin Valley and over the mountains to Los Angeles. Those projects would yield 2.5 million acre-feet of water. The problem was that the state had signed binding contracts to deliver 4,230,000 acre-feet. Hence, Brown and Warne had to someways come up with an additional 2 million acre-feet of water (195).

It seems that the era of big government water programs is over. People currently want projects that are environmentally sound. Clearly, such changes require a major re-evaluation of priorities. In fact, there is some evidence that such shifts are already occurring. At present there is much talk of deconstruction than of construction. Perhaps the nations' water problems can be met through communication rather than concrete. Efficient management and function of water resources, could make certain large-scale developments unnecessary.

Despite his
Order your essay at Orderessay and get a 100% original and high-quality custom paper within the required time frame.