Cadillac Desert: The American West and Its Disappearing Water

Annual overdraft occurs when the average annual amount of groundwater pumping exceeds its replenishment by nature. The effects of overdraft include groundwater depletion, chronic lowering of groundwater levels, sinking of the Earth’s surface (land subsidence), and intrusion of seawater. Groundwater overdraft has become a serious issue in the American West.

The Central Arizona Project (CAP) was a pipedream of Arizona’s for several decades. However, California originally opposed the project because it wanted priority CAP water during droughts, something Arizona initially baulked at. As a result, California’s strong anti-CAP lobbying group stalled CAP in Congress. The two states finally agreed to negotiations (i.e., Arizona agreed to California’s demands) in 1968, and the project’s construction began in 1973. It is a 336-mile long canal that transverses some of the hottest terrain in the West. The project cost $4 billion (or about $30 billion today). While several cities in Arizona would receive some water, the project was first and foremost an irrigation project to save farmland that had overextended its groundwater. 

In 1922 the Colorado River Basin states (Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming) met to determine how to divide water from the river between the upper basin states (Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming) and the lower basin states (California, Arizona, and Nevada). The river’s water supply primarily originates in the upper basin states, yet the demand was primarily with the lower basin states. The upper basin states were concerned that water development projects, including dams, would deprive them of their future ability to use water from the Colorado. The reason for this was the Western water law doctrine of prior appropriation, by which the first person (or state) to use water for beneficial use acquires rights to the water.

On their own, the states were not able to agree on how to divide the water. Commerce Secretary Herbert Hoover suggested that the basin be divided into two artificial basins (the upper basin and the lower basin), with each basin receiving 7.5 million acre-feet. The remaining 1.5 million acre-feet went to Mexico. This amount was based on the Reclamation Service’s estimated average annual flow of 17.5 million acre-feet, which was too high of an estimate. The negotiators for each state signed this deal, known as the Colorado River Compact, but it failed to gain traction with voters and legislators in the states for another six years. Arizona continued its refusal to ratify the compact for another 35 years over water allotment disagreements.

In his final days as Commissioner of Reclamation, Michael Straus created the Colorado River Storage Project. The act was intended to develop the water resources of the upper basin states through a series of dams. These dams would allow the upper basin states to store water from the Colorado, enabling them to utilize the water allotted to them via the Colorado River Compact. It also served to reclaim some stretches of arid land via irrigation projects and generate hydroelectric power. Revenue generated from the hydroelectric power supported subsidies for high-altitude desert farmers in the upper basin states. They were growing crops that, at the time, should not have been grown due to the crop-surplus problem in the United States. The Colorado River Storage Project was signed into law in 1956 with minimal opposition. It would cost far more than the original estimate of $1.6 billion. The subsidies per farm would equate to $2 million, which was five times the farms’ actual worth.

The Corps of Engineers, the US Army’s construction arm, has its origin in the Revolutionary War. It officially came into existence in 1794, but its transformation into one of the most successful bureaucracies began in the late 19th century. The Corps began to lead the restyling of US rivers to accommodate barges. It also became the lead federal flood control agency, originally focused on building levees and dikes, but then moved to reservoirs. In 60 years, it built over 600 of these flood-control reservoirs. It concentrated its activities in the East and Midwest until the Great Depression, when it moved into the Western region. This move put the organization in direct competition with the Bureau of Reclamation.

President Abraham Lincoln signed the Homestead Act into law on May 20, 1862. The law’s primary purpose was to encourage settlement of the West by providing settlers with 164 acres of public land. Before becoming owners of the land, homesteaders paid a small filing fee and had to continuously reside on the plot of land for five years. Homesteaders, after six months of residency, were also able to purchase the land for $1.25 per acre from the government. By 1900, this law had resulted in 80 million acres of public land distribution. There were several later incarnations of this act, including the Desert Lands Act, the Timber and Stone Act, and the Timber Culture Act. 

The terminus of Owens River, Owens Lake, was situated about 4,000 feet above sea level. Because Los Angeles sat at a few feet above sea level, aqueducts and siphons, rather than pumps that used watts of energy, could easily bring water from Owens River to the city. This fact encouraged Fred Eaton and William Mulholland to pursue this water source for the city of Los Angeles. 

The business of trading favors among congressional members is known as the “courtesy” system, or the pork barrel by its critics. Reisner notes:

The phrase “pork barrel” derives from the fondness on the part of some southern plantation owners for rolling out a big barrel of salted pork for their half-starved slaves on special occasions. The near riots that ensured as the slaves tried to make off with the choicest morsels of pork were, apparently, a source of substantial amusement in the genteel old South (309).

Water projects were a big part of the pork barrel. House and Senate committees, in concert with water development agencies, reward members who vote in favor of water projects and punish those who do not. This punishment can involve stopping federal money from being allotted to their district. 

During the late 1870s, a long humid cycle resulted in above-average rainfall in parts of the American West. Proponents of westward expansion, who believed that God had chosen the American people to occupy this wild environment, used this climatic episode to their advantage. They came up with a new school of meteorology to explain it. This school of thought held that “rain follows the plow” (35), meaning agricultural development would alter the climate and increase precipitation in the West. Subsistence farmers from the East, who faced higher population density, more expensive land, and agricultural fields that had to be cleared of rocks and tree stomps each year before planting and harvesting, were particularly drawn to this theory, and many headed west as a result. The terrible drought cycle that began during the late 1880s demonstrated this theory’s fallacy, which resulted in 50% of families moving back east from the plains. 

The Reclamation Act of 1902 established the Bureau of Reclamation (originally named the US Bureau of Reclamation). This legislation authorized the construction and operation of federal water supply projects in the American West. The purpose of these projects was for irrigation of lands, opening large swaths of the arid West to settlement. These largescale irrigation projects, which lacked sufficient private and state capitol to support them, were supported by federal investments. Under the early terms, the Reclamation Fund sponsored projects. The sales of federal land in the West supported this fund. The sales of water to farmers were then supposed to pay for the rest of the project. However, because farmers were exempt from paying interest on their repayments, it resulted in a substantial subsidy for them. These reclamation projects became burdensome for American taxpayers rather than the farmers who benefited from them. 

The aqueduct that brought water from Owens Valley to Los Angeles passed through San Fernando Valley, which was located north of the city. Prior to the aqueduct, the valley was dry grasslands. William Mulholland, who designed and supervised the aqueduct’s construction, chose this valley for two reasons. The first is based on hydrology. Water dumped on the earth in the valley would drain into the Los Angeles River and its aquifer, “creating a large, convenient, nonevaporative pool for the city to tap” (73). This was important because Mulholland had not budgeted for a reservoir, and the project was already overbudget. The second reason was this location allowed the project to pass the city charter’s debt ceiling clause, ensuring that there were funds for its construction.