The Great Thirst

List of Figures
List of Maps
Preface to the Revised Edition
1. The Aboriginal Waterscape: Manipulation and Near Harmony
The Waterscape
Waterways and Lifeways
Agriculture and Cultural Patterns
Symbiosis and Community

2. Hispanic Patterns: Community and Authority
"Apportion Water Justly and Fairly"
Lessons in Survival
Misjudgments
Royal Authority and Community Rights
Community Obligations
Community Rights and Private Rights
When Rights Collide: Bien Procumunal
The Darker Side

3. The American Takeover: Laissez-Faire, Localism, and Monopoly
American Political Culture
"First in Time, First in Right"
Hydraulicking and Environmental Destruction
The Politics of Flood Control
Riparian Rights
Monopoly and a Clash of Rights
Lux v. Haggin and the California Doctrine
The Irrigation District and the Persistence of Monopoly
Localism and the Search for Alternatives
The Rainmakers
The Progressive Impulse: From Laissez-Faire to Centralized Planning
Toward the Reclamation Act

4. Urban Imperialism: A Tale of Two Cities
Los Angeles: From Hispanic Village to American City
Legerdemain and the Pueblo Water Right
Girding for Expansion: Municipal Control
The Owens Valley Caper
An Aqueduct for the Future
The San Fernando Valley: Insider Information for Private Gain
Los Angeles' Water Colonies
The Tragedy and Legacy of the Expert: William Muholland
San Francisco: Instant City with an Instant Water Problem
Hetch Hetchy Predicaments: The Federal Government and Boss Ruef
Hetch Hetchy Embattled
Toward a Utilitarian Triumph
The Ironies of Victory
A Comparison of Two Cities

5. Hydraulic Society Triumphant: The Great Projects
The Boulder Canyon Project
The Imperial Valley Impulse
The Colorado River Compact
New Players and New Battles
Compromises and Enactment
The Imperial Valley and the Betrayal of Reclamation Law
New Water and Accelerated Urbanization
The Central Valley Project
Progressive Era Promise and Disappointment
Toward a State Plan
American Political Culture and the Central Valley Project
From State to Federal Project
A Project at Last
The Battle over Acreage Limitation
"Technical Compliance": A Bipartisan Legacy
Public versus Private Power
The State Water Project
A State Plan
Fragmentation, Compromise and Confusion
New Water, Growth, and Inequities

6. Hydraulic Society on the Defensive
Arizona v. California
The Environmental Movement
The Peripheral Canal Fight: Round One
The Peripheral Canal Fight: Round Two
The Pueblo Water Right Challenged
Mono Lake and the Public Trust Doctrine
Owens Valley War: Renewed and Cooled But Not Over
The Fight for the Right to Instream Use
An Increasingly Vulnerable Southland

7. Water Policy at a Crossroads
Tradition versus Reform: The Fate of the Stanislaus River
New and Old Challenges to Dams and Levees
Dams at Risk
The Impermanence of Dams: Earthquakes, Silt, Neglect, and Flawed Planning
Los Angeles: A Vexing in Dams, Levees, Floods and Public Policy
Vulnerable Levees and the Delta
Environmental Crisis: Bay, Delta, and CALFED
Environmental Crisis: Central Valley
Environmental Crisis: Southern California
Subsidized Agriculture and Social Inequity
Water Marketing: Hope, Threat, and Challenge
The Imperial Valley, MWD, and the Market
The Imperial Valley, MWD, San Diego and the Market
The Wheeling-Rate War: MWD and San Diego
The Government Intercedes
One War Down, Another to Go
The Central Valley Project, "Reform," and the Market
MWD, the San Joaquin Valley, and the Market
The Quest for Security and Equity
Open Spaces and Farmland: Going, Going...
A Confusion of Laws
Chaotic Management
Calls for Reform, Fanciful and Otherwise

8. Reflections

Notes
Bibliography
Index