American West --Water Issues

 

The West is the most arid region of the country. Today, millions of people live here, but they tend to concentrate in a few places—oases where water is delivered—rather than spreading out on the ground. In fact, much of this region is still unsettled (with fewer than two people per square mile) and likely will never become settled. That fact is not due to any of the historical forces we commonly talk about—Puritanism, the Enlightenment, capitalism, slavery, or television—although they all have had their influence on this region. No, the relative emptiness of much of the West is due to the persisting power of nature to set terms to human life. --Donald Worster

 

Readings:

A map of the arid region of the United States showing drainage districts, 1890-91.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A map of the arid region of the United States showing drainage districts, 1890-91.

Credit: Courtesy Dan Flores
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(source: http://crc.nv.gov/map99.gif)

Response Paper:

In conclusion, Worster states:

...Washington [D.C]  has seemed reluctant to confront the self-seeking demands of land and water entrepreneurs who would impose their values on nature

National Archives

Unused subdivision laid out in 1948, California, 1978
Unused subdivision laid out
in 1948 in California, 1978

 		  
"civilization will continue
to face the challenge of how
to live successfully in
this difficult land"

 
 

and society in the West. But, as I have argued in a number of works, the federal government has more often shared rather than opposed those values. Working together rather than in opposition, capital and bureaucracy have drastically reordered the arid region. They have shared a common logic, a broad plan of conquest, in the name of economic growth. They have achieved, as intended, an "empire" that today boasts forty million irrigated acres and sprawling metropolises. They have accumulated power as well, just as Powell feared they would. The most intriguing question for this historian is how long they will be able to hold on to that power or maintain their imposed order over a desert that can never really be conquered or evaded.

Using Worster, as well as Cadillac Desert, respond to Worster's question: how long will water and land entrepreneurs be able to maintain their imposed order over the arid West?