Marc Reisner's book Cadillac Desert

Marc Reisner's book Cadillac Desert tells the story of the American West in terms of the search for water, a search that became even more intense as communities developed with a real need for water for drinking, agriculture, and other purposes. This is a battle that continues to this day, and many political animosities have developed between different parts of the West over the issue of water, where it comes from, and who gets to use it. The author notes that much of the western region is either desert or semi-desert, with vast areas containing no towns and no human inhabitants at all as well as no forests, lakes, or rivers. Certain portions of the West, on the other hand, are highly built up, notably the Southern California region, much of which seems like one large city extending down the coast. Reisner traces the history of human settlement in the West and the human and economic needs for water. He spends a good deal of time on the case of William Mulholland, who had come from Ireland in 1878 and worked as a ditch digger for the L.A. water system. He taught himself hydraulic engineering and in time was made superintendent, and he was faced with a rising population that needed more and more water until the Los Angeles River, the only source of water, was simply dried up. Mulholland looked north to the Owens Valley for water, and the controversy over that action continues to this day. Another major effort came with the creation of Hoover Dam, with controversies devel

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necessity at one and the same time. The presence of water decides where settlements are made. The absence of water either prevents settlement or becomes a spur to find water. In some cases, settlements gather around water that later is inadequate, and this leads to efforts to get water from somewhere else. This was the case with the settlement of Los Angeles, which started small enough so that the Los Angeles River was adequate. Fred Eaton was a member of the family that had founded Pasadena, and he wanted a bright future for the Los Angeles region. However, he also knew that there was a reason why this might not come to pass, the source of water. Eaton realized that that source would not serve the region for long, though others believed that there was plenty of water. Eaton could see that the level of the river was dropping fast as water was pumped out of it for the city, and he also knew that the population growth was continuing and so would place even greater demands on what water there was. The population at the time was living off tens of thousands of years of groundwater without knowing how much groundwater there was, and there were limits as to what other sources could be tapped: There was no other source of wate

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