The State of Water: Understanding California's Most Precious Resource

By Obi Kaufmann

Obi Kaufmann, author of the best-selling California Field Atlas, turns his artful yet analytical attention to the Golden State's single most complex and controversial resource: water.

In this new book, full-color maps unravel the braided knot of California's water infrastructure and ecosystems, exposing a history of unlimited growth in spite of finite natural resources—a history that has led to its current precarious circumstances. Yet this built world depends upon the biosphere, and in The State of Water Kaufmann argues that environmental conservation and restoration efforts are necessary not only for ethical reasons but also as a matter of human survival. Offering nine perspectives to illustrate the most pressing challenges facing California's water infrastructure, from dams to species revitalization, Kaufmann reveals pragmatic yet inspiring solutions to how water in the West can continue to support agriculture, municipalities, and the environment. Interspersed throughout with trail paintings of animals that might yet survive under a caring and careful water ethic, Kaufmann shows how California can usher in a new era of responsible water conservation, and—perhaps most importantly—how we may do so together.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Heyday
• Release date: Jun 4, 2019
• ISBN: 9781597144766

Book preview

IllustrationIllustrationIllustrationIllustration

Copyright © 2019 by William Kaufmann

All rights reserved. No portion of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from Heyday.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Kaufmann, Obi, author.

Title: The state of water : understanding California’s most precious resource / Obi Kaufmann.

Description: Berkeley, California : Heyday, 2019. | Includes bibliographical references.

Identifiers: LCCN 2018047383 (print) | LCCN 2018060603 (ebook) | ISBN 9781597144766 (E-book) | ISBN 9781597144698 (pbk.)

Subjects: LCSH: Water-supply--California. | Water use--California. | Water conservation--California. | Water resources development--California.

Classification: LCC TD224.C3 (ebook) | LCC TD224.C3 K353 2019 (print) | DDC 333.91009794--dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018047383

Cover Design: Ashley Ingram

Interior Design: Obi Kaufmann and Ashley Ingram

Published by Heyday

P.O. Box 9145, Berkeley, California 94709

[phone]

www.heydaybooks.com

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

To all the children in my family:

Sophia, Finn, Olive, Zoe, Owen, Austin,

Vander, Olivia, Ruby, and Emilia

Illustration

We don’t govern water. Water governs us.

—Kalahari proverb1

Illustration

We carry into our future at least as many responsibilities as we do rights.

This is our charge.

We have the right to extract, but we have the responsibility to replenish.

We have the right to develop, but we have the responsibility to restore.

We have the right to inhabit, but we have the responsibility to set aside.

Stewardship is the active management of leaving the more-than-human world to its own functioning devices.

CONTENTS

Introduction

01.a The State of Water

01.b Perspective

Part one: The Big Picture

Map 01.01 Water Yesterday, Water Today, Water Tomorrow

An overview of the state of water

Map 01.02 The Wild California Riverscape

The living circuit in the body of California

Map 01.03 California’s Water Projects

The geography of the California water machine

Part two: The Northern Rivers

Map 02.01 Salmon and the Sacramento

A measure of health in California’s natural world

Map 02.02 Restoration of the San Joaquin

Mapping decisions of the valley’s past and future legacy

Map 02.03 Emancipation of the Klamath

The largest dam removal in American history

Part three: Southland Water

Map 03.01 Replenishment of the Salton Sea

Tracking solutions for California’s number-one mess

Map 03.02 Allocations on the Colorado

The denouement of the American Nile

Part four: A Moment of Restoration

Map 04.01 Hetch Hetchy Revisited

The bravest of all opportunities

Part five: Patterns in Conservation

05.a The Future of Human-Water Ecology

05.b Agricultural Use, by the Numbers

05.c Urban Use, by the Numbers

05.d The Wisdom of Future Water Projects

05.e Conservation Summary

Notes

Bibliography

Acknowledgments

About the Author

INTRODUCTION

01.a The State of Water

Most of California, especially the parts where most of the people live, is truly arid. Water is life, and the idea that there is not enough of it to go around is potentially the most divisive splintering agent to this or any society whose environment cannot support agriculture without irrigation.1 It is not just that water security, as an abstract yet all-encompassing priority, is or is not capable of dividing or of ripping apart communities in California on whatever scale, but it is the willingness of political and business entities to exploit that potential that represents the largest threat to our unity and civility.

Unity is at the core of my presentation. There is only one California to serve. If this book carries a political agenda, it is to point out our agreements over our differences. Water culture in California is built as much on tradition as it is on infrastructure. Deconstructing that tradition is not in the scope of this presentation. The disposition of this book is pragmatic, not idealistic. I assume that the answers to the dilemmas that concern us—water security for all, our climate future, preserving our biodiversity, and honoring our history of agriculture and the culture that it supports—are not only out there, but easier, or at least less painful than we might suppose. The job of this book is to examine and present the large water systems of California, and to further argue the case for water conservation, as it is the official policy of the state. But this is not a book on public policy. I don’t spend too much time talking about groundwater, as my main scope of interest is surface water and how systems of rivers and aqueducts impact habitat for wildlife. My bias is to surface water solutions and systems, as that is my focus as a naturalist, a painter, and a lover of the natural world of California.

This book is a cursory survey, a thumbnail view of the ecological reality of our water future by examining the systems of our water past. It is a tall order and I am happy to wade out into the contentious flood. I don’t dwell on speculative or emerging technological solutions for water use. I also don’t delve too much into water rights and seniority. This is not a work of history. Despite its dependence on data-driven maps and statistics, this is as much a work of philosophy as it is a work of systems thinking in the context of California water. In writing this book, I serve you, my community, and thereby myself in a calm circle of understanding. I’m not banging my fist on the table. Those days are done.

This is not a work of pure geographic literacy. I am not pretending to describe this incredibly complex system dispassionately; in fact it doesn’t even interest me to do so. If I were interested in a purely scientific vision, void of passion and perspective—in just another California water study (and plenty of them do already exist)—I would have chosen a different profession. Alas, I am the same artist-naturalist that painted the California Field Atlas and I maintain that my vision—a vision that always begins with data-driven inspiration—is human, biased, nuanced, and at times messy. I let a flowery language of poetry infiltrate this book on many levels.

This book is a specific kind of examination into the California waterscape. It is an account of my own journey to understand it and the way it serves and perhaps doesn’t serve us and the natural world, now and going into the future. I take exceptional license, always, and have shielded myself by calling my work the work of an artist. Although this work resembles a piece