The Great Thirst
Water in California
LA Times Series
 http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-op-waterhome,0,396753.storygallery
Statistics
 2012 population: 38,041,430
2010-04-01
1
Los Angeles
3,792,621
2
San Diego
1,307,402
3
San Jose
945,942
4
San Francisco
805,235
5
Fresno
494,665
6
Sacramento
466,488
7
Long Beach
462,257
8
Oakland
390,724
9
Bakersfield
347,483
10
Anaheim
336,265
Water Map
2070-2100 estimates
Changing Water Use
Whereas agriculture used to consume 80% of the state’s
water supply, today 46% of captured and stored water
goes to environmental purposes, such as rebuilding
wetlands. Meanwhile 43% goes to farming and 11% to
municipal uses.
The Economist, October 2009
Managing California’s Water: From Conflict to
Reconciliation
Ellen Hanak, Jay Lund, Ariel Dinar,
Brian Gray, Richard Howitt, Jeffrey
Mount, Peter Moyle, and Barton
"Buzz” Thompson
Free PDF
http://www.ppic.org/main/publication.asp?i=944
Trouble Map
http://www.ppic.org/main/map
detail.asp?i=1094
American Takeover
1846
American Politics
 Jefferson versus Hamilton
 Small federal government and local control (J)
 Central plans and government internal improvements
(H)
 California: localism, laissez-faire, nonactivist
government
 California realities: gold, aridity, great fertility
Thomas Jefferson
 The policy of the American government is to leave
their citizens free, neither restraining nor aiding them
in their pursuits.
 I am not a friend to a very energetic government. It is
always oppressive.
 Were we directed from Washington when to sow and
when to reap, we should soon want bread.
Alexander Hamilton
 A national debt, if it is not excessive, will be to us a national
blessing.
 In framing a government which is to be administered by
men over men the great difficulty lies in this: You must first
enable the government to control the governed, and in the
next place, oblige it to control itself.
 Men often oppose a thing merely because they have had
no agency in planning it, or because it may have been
planned by those whom they dislike.
The Role of Government?
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Liberal Democracy
Regulated Markets
The swinging pendulum
What is the goal of society?
What is the role of the individual?
The History of Water
Destructive Mining
 1849 gold rush
 Hydraulicking
 Pale Rider
Flooding
 Devastating Consequences
 From all portions of the state came the sad tidings of cities
and towns flooded or swept away: stores, goods,
merchandise of every description, ranches, stock, grain,
flour, lumber, and quartz mills, either totally destroyed or
greatly injured. Bridges innumerable and ferries without
number have been carried off, roads broken up and
washed away, and all communication stopped between
one town and another, of only a few miles distant.
 Sacramento 1862
The Great Flood
 Four factors contributed to this greatest of
California’s historic floods.
 1) Record Rainfall
 2) High Population based along streams and rivers
 3) Melting of snow.
 4) Hydraulic mining.
Agriculture
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Sacramento Valley
320 acre plots (avoid speculation as in WGA)
Valley wide planning 1861
Governmental organization and taxation: UGH
Back to localism
Politics leads to concentration: 16,300 acres
Large farms flood small ones
Population Growth
 People tended to live along streams and rivers
because water was necessary for agriculture,
transportation, and mining. Of course, the flood risk
was greatest near the streams and rivers.
Rights?
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Riparian: only stream front
Appropriation: off stream
Consolidation of land – especially stream front
How can you farm with no water?
Let’s try both
Irrigation Districts
 Local control or monopoly power
 General failure
Let’s Try Again
 Solutions needed to be found
 New organizations and strategies
 Stockholders instead of “special government.”
Back to Washington
 Government action should be guided by morally
correct and intellectually informed decisions
 Government bureaucrats and highly trained experts:
engineers, economists, etc.
We Now Move to the Cities