Patrick Cleary
There is no source of new water--all water is
conserved. Location, location, location _ applies
equally to real estate as it does water, where it
flows and doesn't flow, above or below ground level.
Recently, George Skelton, writing in the Los Angeles
Times ("Water, water everywhere, but not enough is
saved," Capitol Journal, April 4, 2011) brought us
back to Chinatown, and the Valley. He was deriding
the demagoguery of drought, but also seemed to be
advocating for the very water bonds that he claimed
benefitted from such hype. He mentions approvingly a
mooted reservoir in Colusa County and a new dam
along the San Joaquin River near Fresno.
Meanwhile, the Public Policy Institute of
California recommends "re-operating" existing dams
and levees as part of a reconciliation approach to
ecosystem management, especially as regards the
Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, the most critical
water supply for California. In their February, 2011
report "Managing California's Water: From Conflict
to Reconciliation," the authors advocate a "natural
flow regime" for the Delta which would negate the
need for pumping water in the middle of the Delta,
and divert it to a peripheral canal that would
distribute the waters south of the tidal islands to
the distributary rivers. A peripheral canal for the
San Joaquin Delta bedeviled Governor Brown's first
term, as he vacillated in support until finally
abandoning the project.
Prompted by Southern California's recent wet
season, Skelton asks why we do not capture the
excess rain as "precious bounty".
"We could if we had a place to put it and a way
to get it there," says Maury Roos, the state's
veteran chief hydrologist.
As it happens, I recently visited the Water
Replenishment District (WRD) of Southern California,
whose service area includes 43 municipalities in
South Los Angeles County from the Puente Hills in
the north to Palos Verdes and Los Alamitos at the
shore. The WRD manages existing groundwater and
oversees replenishment of the aquifers that contain
the "precious bounty". Analyzing their detailed
aquifer maps, it was clear water levels were well
below capacity, reflecting the drought of the last
few years as well as increased water use. The agency
relies on water from the State Water Project to
replenish the aquifers at spreading grounds formed
by the Rio Hondo River near Pico Rivera. Droughts do
not begin with one dry season nor do they end with
one rainy season.
The larger issue Skelton does not acknowledge is
land use, or more accurately, land miss-use. The
building of dams and levees was necessitated by
developers who founded communities in flood plains,
like Van Nuys, which recently celebrated the
centennial of its founding on February 22, 1911.1
It is situated along the drainage of Pacoima Canyon.
Only three years after its founding it experienced
catastrophic flooding. In California, we live in a
hydraulic society. Water is channeled by pumps from
one place to another through man-made waterways, for
urban, agricultural and environmental purposes. In
the Los Angeles area, once natural creeks and rivers
have been replaced by concrete storm drains and
culverts that scarcely induce a second thought as we
drive along their overpasses. In 1938, flooding in
the Valley prompted the construction of the Hansen
and Sepulveda Dams. Perhaps we have forgotten the
horror of flooding in urban areas.2
William Mulholland was the hero of his age in
that he engineered the delivery of water for
suburban homes and gardens, but also the protection
from flash flooding secured by his dams and levees.
When one of those dams failed, the St. Francis Dam,
he took full responsibility for the devastation and
loss of life and died a short seven years later.
Now, the dams are a collective responsibility. They
are not permanent solutions, as all dams silt up and
fail eventually.
In Los Angeles, we find ourselves in "a landscape
almost completely dependent on technology to
survive," according to David Ulin.3 One
of the side effects of a completely engineered water
cycle is the rainwater runoff that George Skelton
laments. It is true that dams allow water to seep
into the soil and eventually the aquifer, but they
inhibit fish migration patterns and lead to large
scale erosion. Certainly, one of the goals of the
Los Angeles River Revitalization effort should be to
minimize runoff into the ocean.
So I would point to the location of flood plains
and the location of underground aquifers as
guideposts. How well do we heed nature's
indications? The city fathers of Van Nuys did not
read the sand and boulders along the Pacoima Canyon
wash as an imminent danger. The cattle ranchers of
Chino chose not to consider the vast underground
aquifers that might be damaged by the tons of manure
excreted by their cows. The citrus ranchers of
Orange County over-pumped their groundwater until
saltwater threatened the existence of their wells.
Aquifers can be permanently damaged, so their
careful trusteeship is critical. Above ground, where
ownership of land includes rights that might
conflict with the public interest, the call for new
publicly funded dams or levees is often made in
order to deflect private responsibility. As
Chinatown illustrates, "The story is an almost
perfect metaphor, with its insider intrigues and
hidden agendas, and its tension between vision and
corruption, by which L.A. is revealed as a territory
of overlapping surfaces, where private and public
aspirations collide."4 We must look not
to new water works as solutions to our chronic water
problems, but first to ourselves.
1 http://www.laobserved.com/archive/2011/02/happy_centennial_van_nuys.php
2 "Infamous New Year's Day
Flood, Los Angeles Basin, 1934". Biot Report #365:
May 28, 2006
http://www.semp.us/publications/biot_reader.php?BiotID=365
3 http://places.designobserver.com/feature/la_day_la_night/25228/
4 Idmb
