by Jay Lund In 1987, when Mark Reisner published his book Cadillac Desert, I had just begun professing on water management.
Since then, Cadillac Desert has been a “must read” book for Western water wonks.
fell in the tradition of Muddy Waters (1951), Dams and other Disasters (1971), Rivers of Empire (1969), and Water and Power (1983), all written by giants in the field critical of Western water development, but was much better written and marketed (though less scholarly) and the time was ripe for publication of such a thoughtful, popular work.
But contemporary and likely future politics and economics can no longer support continued traditional water project development.
The large federal and state agencies have largely lacked political and financial support needed to develop new talented and ambitious people to effectively lead these institutions in better adapted directions.
There remains little political appetite to fund large federal and state water projects.
But the structure of the West’s economy will continue to make it less dependent on abundant water supplies.
Implications for California and the West Water problems and solutions for the American West continue to change.
These all point to the importance of moving beyond the large projects of the Dominy era and the pessimism of Cadillac Desert.
Reisner, Marc (1987), Cadillac Desert: The American West and Its Disappearing Water, Revised in 1992, Penguin Books.