I lived in Fresno for over 2 years. While there, I read a couple of books about the history of water rights and water development in California. One is called Salt Dreams and is mostly about Southern California. The other was a local history about irrigation canals and water rights in Fresno County.
That area was initially desert. The only greenery was along river banks. One canal was built with essentially no money. Individuals would be assigned a section to dig and, in exchange, gain water rights. They sometimes had to take a break from digging it to get a job for a time. When financial drama and legal drama came along later, this canal was fine because money had never been a large part of the equation.
A later canal had money from the start. When financial and legal drama reared its ugly head, this canal really suffered. The fact that money was central to its development turned out to be an Achilles heel.
There were a number of important court cases in Fresno that helped shape water rights in California. California water law is influenced by two conflicting sets of rules. There is an old English principle that you can't take so much water from the river that you are depriving people downstream. This is one expectation of California water law. The other is first come, first served.
As the canals got dug, the once barren landscape grew lush. The book had interesting before and after photos of old farm houses in a barren landscape, then the same house surrounded by trees and greenery.
A number of canal building tools were developed in Fresno and patented. Fresno County played something of a keystone role in water development and water rights development.
They also developed ground water recharge systems. The success of the canals led to the emergence of ponds in low lying areas due to a rising water table. They worked to direct this into the aquifer and help support local wells.
Fresno probably has better water security than the rest of California. It has gone through periods where it was successfully improving the status of its aquifer, probably while most other aquifers in the US were being inexorably drawn down, leading to subsidence.
I am somewhat skeptical of the doomsday pronouncements of articles like this. I suspect there is a lot of room for improvement in terms of using drip irrigation and other conservation farming methods.
Having lived in Fresno, which is absolutely not a barren desert these days, and read about it's water history, I find myself a bit bemused by the fact that it gets so little attention for how it was transformed. People harp on the farmland in the desert. They fail to recognize that Fresno is something of a modern Hanging Gardens of Babylon scenario in part because it's current lushness goes back more than a hundred years, so we don't really recognize that it's current state is a case of widespread, persistent terraforming. However it only gets about 11 inches of rain a year. Without constant tending, the current greenery there would not survive. It would revert to desert.
Anyone interested in water issues in California should read Salt Dreams and also read about the history of water development in Fresno County.
No. It was in a book about the history of the Fresno canal system /irrigation district. I think it had the name of the canal system or district in the title and was written by a local. It was an extremely interesting book.
You might need to get a librarian to help you ID it. Searching online is failing to readily find anything.
No, that doesn't ring a bell. I can't tell you the author or the date.
I read it in the Sunnyside branch of the Fresno County library system. Sunnyside is an unincorporated community on the edge of the city of Fresno. The Fresno County library system could probably help you find the book. It had a light blue cover.
I remember the name as being something very boring and straight forward but open to misinterpretation, like "The history of the normal canal" where normal sounds like a description but was really the name of the canal (but normal is probably not the actual word in question and it may have been irrigation district or similar instead of canal).
Consolidated district is a vague possibility, where it sounds descriptive but is actually the name of the thing in question.
I am seriously bad with names and titles. My mind is a sieve for such.
That area was initially desert. The only greenery was along river banks. One canal was built with essentially no money. Individuals would be assigned a section to dig and, in exchange, gain water rights. They sometimes had to take a break from digging it to get a job for a time. When financial drama and legal drama came along later, this canal was fine because money had never been a large part of the equation.
A later canal had money from the start. When financial and legal drama reared its ugly head, this canal really suffered. The fact that money was central to its development turned out to be an Achilles heel.
There were a number of important court cases in Fresno that helped shape water rights in California. California water law is influenced by two conflicting sets of rules. There is an old English principle that you can't take so much water from the river that you are depriving people downstream. This is one expectation of California water law. The other is first come, first served.
As the canals got dug, the once barren landscape grew lush. The book had interesting before and after photos of old farm houses in a barren landscape, then the same house surrounded by trees and greenery.
A number of canal building tools were developed in Fresno and patented. Fresno County played something of a keystone role in water development and water rights development.
They also developed ground water recharge systems. The success of the canals led to the emergence of ponds in low lying areas due to a rising water table. They worked to direct this into the aquifer and help support local wells.
Fresno probably has better water security than the rest of California. It has gone through periods where it was successfully improving the status of its aquifer, probably while most other aquifers in the US were being inexorably drawn down, leading to subsidence.
I am somewhat skeptical of the doomsday pronouncements of articles like this. I suspect there is a lot of room for improvement in terms of using drip irrigation and other conservation farming methods.
Having lived in Fresno, which is absolutely not a barren desert these days, and read about it's water history, I find myself a bit bemused by the fact that it gets so little attention for how it was transformed. People harp on the farmland in the desert. They fail to recognize that Fresno is something of a modern Hanging Gardens of Babylon scenario in part because it's current lushness goes back more than a hundred years, so we don't really recognize that it's current state is a case of widespread, persistent terraforming. However it only gets about 11 inches of rain a year. Without constant tending, the current greenery there would not survive. It would revert to desert.
Anyone interested in water issues in California should read Salt Dreams and also read about the history of water development in Fresno County.