Water, Water Everywhere?

The Nile, the Tigris and Euphrates, the Thames and the Charles - humans have a history of building great cities near great rivers. Only in the 20th century did humanity have enough technological wherewithal (mixed with a little hubris) to build great cities in the middle of the desert.

Californians have argued over water use since the Gold Rush when miners, who used water pressure to uncover gold deposits, squabbled over the region's limited resources with farmers. By 1908, Los Angeles had already outgrown its local water supply, and engineers began building the Los Angeles Aqueduct to import water from the Sierra Nevada mountain range some 250 miles northeast of the young city.

The Colorado River historically has been another source of water for California's agriculture industry and urban areas alike. In 1929, the state agreed to take no more than 4.4 million acre feet (one acre foot equals 326,000 gallons) of water annually from the Colorado River, which also delivers Rocky Mountain runoff to six other states and Mexico. Despite this agreement, California has been taking an average of 5.2 million acre feet of water from the river known as the "American Nile." About 3 million acre feet - nearly 70% of California's allotment - goes to the farmers in the state's Imperial Valley. The excess 800,000 acre feet supplies about 1.6 million urban households.

Growth in other western states like Arizona and Nevada, combined with the worst drought in the river's history, is forcing California to figure out how to live within its allotted 4.4 million acre feet. In fact, the federal government set December 31, 2002 as a deadline for California to come up with and adopt a plan to curb its overuse of the Colorado River. Though former-Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbit put California on notice in 1996, the state still missed its 2002 deadline. The current Secretary, Gail Norton, was forced to order officials to shut off eight massive water transfer pumps on January 1, 2003.

Though water authorities in southern California have stored enough water for 2003 and 2004, it's still not clear how Californians will learn to live on less water.

For more information on this topic, see:

The Department of the Interior's web site
http://www.doi.gov/

State of California's web site about natural resource use .
http://wwwdwr.water.ca.gov

Click on a thumbnail picture to learn about other water rights decisions: