such as John Muir's struggle to prevent the construction of the Hetch Hetchy reservoir and water system, which flooded a valley similar to Yosimite in order to provide a water supply for San Francisco. But the question was then viewed as essentially aesthetic, not one that bore on health and safety.
The environmental issue as we know it first became visible, literally, in the form of Los Angeles smog in the 1950s. It abruptly broadened in 1969 with the Santa Barbara oil spill, which displayed in dramatic form California's environmental fragility.1 The following year saw celebration of the first Earth Day, and in general this period saw the initial growth of the environmental movement, and of environmental questions as a matter of public concern.
1969 was also the year in which the stage was set for what would ultimately become the Proposition 65 debate, when the State Legislature established the Water Resources Control Board. Among its responsibilities were to monitor and ensure the safety of drinking water.2 Regional boards had direct responsibility over water related issues in their areas, with the state board having the power to overrule on appeal.
1Bernard L. Hyink, Seyom Brown, and Ernest W. Thacker, Politics and Government in California, 9th ed. (New York: Thomas Y. Crowell, 1975), 250ff.
2Mary Ellen Leary, "The Water Resources Control Board," California Journal, 16 (March, 1985), 112 112.
Through the decade of the 1970s, the Water Resources Control Board was viewed as generally effective. Local boards tended to be responsive to local business interests, but the state board did not hesitate to overrule local board decisions in response to public appeal. In California politics, "the water issue" continued to mean almost exclusively the question of the California Water Project and the use of northern water in Southern California, a long standing regional dispute.
In the 1...