As California fights two fires—one southeast of San Francisco and one in Plumas National Forest west of Reno—we are once again reminded of the dryness of the climate in most of the western United States. This is on the heels of a major fire in Lake Tahoe and the state’s second largest fire on record near Santa Barbara.
Those of us who live in the West’s large urban areas know
that we depend on limited
water reserves, and that much of it is brought from far away, but it often
takes the raging fires of the summer months to remind us of just how precious
our water is.
We divide our limited water supplies between many important uses: agriculture, urban amenities, recreation (parks, pools, golf courses, etc.), preserving ecosystems, and fighting fires, among others. Every time we divert water to meet a new demand, we are taking it away from somewhere else: for example, when LA built an aqueduct to bring the water it needed from Owens Valley, the environment in the Valley was forever altered.
In Owens Valley
Revisited, Gary Libecap
explores the conflicting demands for water in Southern California throughout
the last century, showing that the transfer was both a benefit and detriment to
everyone involved. Fire is necessary in
the lifecycle of a forest, but each of the fires currently burning are the
result of human action—one was even sparked by equipment being used to repair a
water pipe—and severe environmental strain resulting from over-development and
drought.
As the population of the West grows, and the search for the water to support that population continues, Libecap offers an interesting perspective on our priorities and values.
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