Water and the California Dream: Choices for the New Millennium

In the last one hundred years, imported water has transformed the environment of the Golden State and its quality of life, with land ownership patterns and real estate boosterism dramatically altering both urban and rural communities. The key to this transformation has been expanded access to water from the Eastern Sierra, the Colorado River, and Northern California rivers. “Whoever brings the water, brings the people,” wrote engineer William Mulholland, under whose leadership the process of growth through irrigation began. Now, using first-person voices of Californians to reveal the resulting changes, author David Carle concludes that it may be time to stop drowning the California dream of the good life with imported water. By David Carle