Water in the West

Abstract

DOI 10.1515/cjpp-2013-0043 Calif. J. Politics Policy 2014; 6(1): 61–102 Commentary Andrew Fahlund, Min L. Janny Choy* and Leon Szeptycki Water in the West Keywords: climate change; ecosystem services; environmental flows; financing; green infrastructure; water; water-energy; water governance; water infrastructure; water management; water markets; water policy; western water; western history. *Corresponding author: Min L. Janny Choy, Water in the West, a joint program of the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment and the Bill Lane Center for the American West, Stanford ­University, Stanford, CA, USA, e-mail: jannychoy@stanford.edu, website: www.waterinthewest. stanford.edu Andrew Fahlund and Leon Szeptycki: Water in the West, a joint program of the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment and the Bill Lane Center for the American West, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA 1 Introduction “One cannot be pessimistic about the West. This is the native home of hope. When it fully learns that cooperation, not rugged individualism, is the quality that most characterizes and preserves it, then it will have achieved itself and outlived its origins. Then it has a chance to create a society to match its scenery.” ― Wallace Stegner The Western United States is a diverse region of the country, with little in common between places like Cody, Wyoming and Palo Alto, California. One condition common to the region – with the exception of a few coastal communities – is aridity. It seems odd to characterize an entire region by what it lacks, but water has always been the most consistent and frequently cited tie that binds the West. Although a long history of papers, reports, and books have analyzed issues around western water, 1 the last official comprehensive examination of the subject was published 15 years ago. In 1996, Congress chartered the Western Water Policy Review Advisory Commission (Commission) to publish a report, Water in the West: 1 Marc Reisner, Cadillac Desert: The American West and Its Disappearing Water (1986); Stewart L. Udall, Beyond the Mythic West (1990); Wallace Stegner, The American West as Living Space (1987).