Cadillac Desert: The American West and Its Disappearing Water

John Wesley Powell published this report in 1876 in the hopes of encouraging the public and politicians alike that agricultural development in the West was futile. In this report, Powell notes that 40% of the landmass in the United States cannot support agriculture, even with irrigation, due to climate and altitude. The Homestead Acts did not account for either of these two realities. Powell also insisted that in order to prevent water monopolization, farmers must use their water, rather than stockpile it to sell later, and he suggested building reservoirs to increase water storage efficiency. In the report, he proposes that property boundaries be designed to grant equal water access. Powell’s report was revolutionary for its time, although it angered many Westerners.

Annual overdraft occurs when the average annual amount of groundwater pumping exceeds its replenishment by nature. The effects of overdraft include groundwater depletion, chronic lowering of groundwater levels, sinking of the Earth’s surface (land subsidence), and intrusion of seawater. Groundwater overdraft has become a serious issue in the American West.

The Central Arizona Project (CAP) was a pipedream of Arizona’s for several decades. However, California originally opposed the project because it wanted priority CAP water during droughts, something Arizona initially baulked at.