Competition for California Water: Alternative Resolutions.
Edited by Ernest A. Engelbert with Ann Foley Scheuring. Berkeley: University
of California Press, 1982. Charts. Graphs. 224 pages. $27.50 cloth. $8.95 paper.
Reviewed by Abraham Hoffman, author of Vision or Villainy:
Origins of the Owens Valley-Los Angeles Water Controversy (1981).
The defeat in 1982 of Proposition 9, the Peripheral Canal
referendum, gave clear indication that California voters are more often
motivated by their emotions than their intellect. A media barrage from both
sides of the Peripheral Canal issue failed to inform the electorate on the
questions involved. It would seem that most Californians made up their minds
about Proposition 9 from the slogans they read on billboards or saw on
television -not the best ways to become informed on vital issues.
In 1981 various agencies within the University of California
system met at Asilomar to discuss California's water problems and to make
projections on the state's water needs into the 21st century. Scholars from the
branches of the University, representing a spectrum of disciplines ranging from
agricultural economics to environmental law, working in committees, prepared a
series of papers addressing aspects of California water issues. The papers were
revised, reviewed, and refereed, and now appear in this volume. The intention
clearly is to provide factual, nonrhetorical information on issues confronting
state planning for this important resource. The reports deal with agriculture,
municipal and domestic use, industry, energy, environmental quality and
recreation, lifestyles, and other aspects. Each committee was asked to consider
three possible scenarios for the future of California water: a status quo with
no major changes in policy, major new projects for producing additional water
supplies, and reallocation of existing water resources as possible alternatives
for future water policy planning. As might be expected, no consensus was
achieved, other than the basic assumption "that California will have continuing
water policy problems."
If the success of the book is to be measured in the factual
information provided in the chapter reports, then the Asilomar conference did
its work well. Although the claim that the book is written in "non-technical
language" may be disputed, and the infelicities of style resulting from
authorship by committee make the reading a somewhat arid effort (ironic,
considering the topic is water), readers of this book will certainly gain an
awareness of the complexities involved in dealing with water policy problems.
Inasmuch as this review is being written for a journal of
history, it seems only fair to note that the book is conspicuously lacking in
historical perspective. Only one chapter, that on customs, laws, and
organizations, makes a substantive effort to provide historical background. The
orientation of almost all of the reports is as of the present, with projections
for the future (only two historians participated in the conference). There is
very little consideration of how California water development arrived at its
present situation/dilemma. One chapter even refers to an action taken "as long
ago as 1974." Such major events and developments as the formation of the
Metropolitan Water District, the State Water Project, the Central Valley
Project, the Hetch Hetchy and Owens Valley controversies, and Sacramento Delta
problems are, historically speaking, either barely mentioned or ignored
completely, as are demographic growth patterns for the state in the 20th
century. Chapter end notes reveal inadequate use of historical studies. With no
backward look at how we came to be where we are, and no consensus as to where we
may be going, the chief value of this book lies in its informing us
of what we are doing with what we have, and the hard choices
that will have to be made for the future.
