Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Contributors
- Foreword
- Acknowledgments
- 1 The West in profile
- 2 The Great American Desert transformed: aridity, exploitation, and imperialism in the making of the modern American West
- 3 The Central Valley of California
- 4 Land and water management issues: Texas High Plains
- 5 Water resources of the Upper Colorado River Basin: problems and policy alternatives
- 6 Growth and water in the South Coast Basin of California
- 7 Toward sustaining a desert metropolis: water and land use in Tucson, Arizona
- 8 Water management issues in the Denver, Colorado, urban area
- 9 New water policies for the West
- Appendix: Advisory Panel, Arid Lands Project
- Index
3 - The Central Valley of California
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 23 March 2010
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Contributors
- Foreword
- Acknowledgments
- 1 The West in profile
- 2 The Great American Desert transformed: aridity, exploitation, and imperialism in the making of the modern American West
- 3 The Central Valley of California
- 4 Land and water management issues: Texas High Plains
- 5 Water resources of the Upper Colorado River Basin: problems and policy alternatives
- 6 Growth and water in the South Coast Basin of California
- 7 Toward sustaining a desert metropolis: water and land use in Tucson, Arizona
- 8 Water management issues in the Denver, Colorado, urban area
- 9 New water policies for the West
- Appendix: Advisory Panel, Arid Lands Project
- Index
Summary
The conflicts and control of water in California have been the source of political careers, personal fortunes, and Hollywood movies. Water has characteristics of both public and private property. Over the past century, water management and development have shifted from small local institutions to predominately large public agencies. The impetus for changing institutions came from physical, economic, and technical shifts; the implementation was manifest political power.
This chapter presents a brief overview of the physical and economic characteristics of California's Central Valley, followed by a historical overview of economic development in the valley, including water law and the major actors in the development and management of water. Emerging problems in the Central Valley water industry are then presented, and the policy solutions to these problems are developed. These conclusions lead to the prediction that California's water institutions are about to change substantially again.
Physical and economic setting
Hydrologically, the Central Valley is divided into three basins, the Sacramento, San Joaquin, and Tulare Lake, based on the drainage areas of rivers and streams. In their unimpaired state, all Central Valley rivers drained to the ocean through the Sacramento–San Joaquin Delta and San Francisco Bay. Owing to reservoir and aqueduct construction, the Tulare Lake Basin is closed, with outflows occurring only in extremely wet years.
Interbasin transfers have concentrated on moving water from the northern half of the state, which receives 75 percent of the precipitation, to the southern half, which receives only 25 percent but contains two thirds of the population.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Water and Arid Lands of the Western United StatesA World Resources Institute Book, pp. 85 - 126Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1988
- 1
- Cited by