The making of water policy in the American southwest : Environmental sociology and its tools (original) (raw)
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The field of water policy: power and scarcity in the American Southwest
Routledge: Advances in sociology, 2019
Bringing together the analysis of a diverse team of social scientists, this book proposes a new approach to environmental problems. Cutting through the fragmented perspectives on water crises, it seeks to shift the analytic perspectives on water policy by looking at the social logics behind environmental issues. Most importantly, it analyzes the dynamic influences on water management, as well as the social and institutional forces that orient water and conservation policies. The first work of its kind, The Field of Water Policy: Power and Scarcity in the American Southwest brings the tools of Pierre Bourdieu’s field sociology to bear on a moment of environmental crisis, with a study of the logics of water policy in the American Southwest, a region that allows us to see the contest over the management of scarce resources in a context of lasting drought. As such, it will appeal to scholars in the social and political sciences with interests in the environment and the management of natural resources.
Tony E. Wohlers, Aaron L. Mason, John Wood, and Eric J. Schmaltz, "The Tragedy of the Commons Meets the Anti-Commons: Water Management and Conflicts on the Southern Plains of the United States" in: Journal of Environmental Assessment Policy and Management, Vol. 16, No. 1 (March 2014) 1450005 (20 pages). © Imperial College Press DOI: 10.1142/S1464333214500057 ABSTRACT: Based on longitudinal data, relying on the theoretical frameworks of the tragedy of the commons and the tragedy of the anti-commons, we argue: 1) the groundwater permit patterns in Oklahoma are likely to contribute to the tragic overuse of groundwater resources; and 2) the involvement of large and opposing groups that operate within an environment of fragmented access rights undermines the emergence of an efficient water management regime for Sardis Lake in southeastern Oklahoma. The study seeks to reveal patterns of groundwater overexploitation and deconstruct the complex processes surrounding the water dispute over Sardis Lake on Native American land in southeastern Oklahoma so that policymakers understand the relevant dangers and are able to identify sound policy solutions to manage common pool resources. KEY WORDS: Water management, tragedy of the commons, anti-commons, Ogallala Aquifer, Sardis Lake, Native American
2011
Western American or Nevadan history, but all history, including the history of the American West, is the story of people, of who, what, where, when, why and how. Like Monument Valley in a movie by director John Ford, aridity is but a part of the scenery against which the drama is played. The history of the West was much more influenced by, first, the competing philosophies of Jeffersonianism-Jacksonianism-populism and collectivism-socialism-progressivism, second, the tragedy of the commons, and, third, boosterism. Whether the United States would continue in the tradition of Thomas Jefferson and Andrew Jackson, or abandon it to follow a new path was the major social and political debate during the later nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, though not framed in those terms. America chose to find a new path. This choice made possible all the social programs of the Progressive Era, New Deal, and Great Society, including irrigation. In the summer of 2009, I was visiting the Carson City-Reno area to use collections at the Nevada State Library and Archives and Nevada State Historical Society. At the time, President Barack Obama's health care bill was pending in Congress. While driving through the ranch country between the two cities, I noticed several signs spray painted on plywood. The signs proclaimed "Stop Socialism. Stop Obamacare," and the like. I thought, "Ignorant fools! By some definitions as least, the United States is a Garrett Hardin, "The Tragedy of the Commons," Science n.s. 162, no. 3859 2 (Dec. 12, 1968): 1243. x socialist country, has been for over a century, and we Americans like it. You all are absolutely dependent on the federal government for the water that grows your alfalfa and waters your livestock. Even the land you swear to protect until someone pries your gun from your cold dead fingers was given you, or your predecessor in interest, by Uncle Sugar." Part of my objective in choosing this dissertation topic is to examine and demonstrate that America is socialist country, and that we Americans like it. The competition between the Jeffersonian-Jacksonian-populist view and the collectivistsocialist-progressive view is key to understanding the history of the United States generally, and of the American West specifically. Without understanding this competition, one cannot understand the history of the twentieth century which follows. Therefore, chapters two through five, inclusive, provide a detailed analysis of the competition. The phrase "tragedy of the commons" was coined by Garrett Hardin in his 1968 article, "The Tragedy of the Commons" published in Science. In simplest terms, the 2 tragedy of the commons is that a resource owned in common is owned by none, and, therefore, all members of the community have access to it and a right to use it, but no one has the responsibility to manage it wisely. The tragedy occurs as each user seeks to maximize his or her personal gain from the commons, it consumed and destroyed. Hardin observed that technical solutions are not sufficient to resolve the tragedy; rather xi people must fundamentally change their behavior and expectations. In the Western United States, water was a "commons." Residents of this arid region, whether Native Americans, Hispano-Mexicans, or Anglo-Americans, applied several technical solutions, including irrigation, to problem, all of them more or less successful in the short run, but all of them destined to fail in the long run. At no time did they alter their behavior and expectations to bring them into line with their natural environment. A second part of my objective in choosing this topic is to examine the inescapableness of the tragedy of the commons and how it effects the history-and the future-of the West. Chapter six examines the tragedy of the commons as it applies to water in the American West. Boosters in the Western states and territories, cities and towns were both a manifestation of the tragedy of the commons and a independent factor in the history of the American West. The boosters wanted to bring more and more population to their locales in the hope that this would improve the economy generally, and, since boosters were usually business owners and speculators, their own fortunes specifically. However, while this increase in population increased real estate values and economic activity, it negatively impacted the tragedy of the commons. In the short run-the "short run" being defined as the last century and a half, plus maybe another decade or two-the boosters have been successful. Millions of people have migrated to the western states and built huge cities in the desert and semi-desert-Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Phoenix-however, in the long run these cities are doomed to failure as Chaco Canyon and Mesa Verde before them. Chapter seven examines the effects of boosterism, especially in Nevada, to
2013
The 40th anniversary of the publication of Elmer Kelton’s 1973 novel The Time it Never Rained coincides with one of the most severe droughts on record in Texas. Meanwhile, as of 2005, local groundwater conservation districts in Texas are required by law to determine how much groundwater they want to conserve for future generations. Such policy decisions have led to debates in West Texas among agricultural producers over whether pumping restrictions amount to erosion of the famous “rule of capture” and private property rights. This article presents Texas water law history, the Ogallala Aquifer, and its users as a continuing story in which producers and government policymakers are actors. This paper first summarizes the ways in which water challenges in the American West and elsewhere have been classified according to different disciplines and then shows how each of those ways of knowing can be understood as a kind of storytelling. The author uses Kelton’s drought novel and scholarly ...
Rethinking Water in the Arid Southwest: The Need for a New Framework for Managing Water in Arizona
Arizona’s Five Cs (copper, cattle, citrus, cotton, and climate) represent a suite of economic practices, which have very material effects on Arizona’s water resources. These Five Cs have long dominated the development of Arizona’s water policy and law while disregarding the natural limitations of the state’s hydrologic resources. Perhaps more than any other western state, Arizona has undergone rapid and striking demographic changes across the course of the 20th and 21st centuries. This paper: • Provides a grounding in the paleoecological and historical records of past drought in the Southwest, as well as in predictions for the climate change that Arizona will experience in the future. • Explores changes in Arizona water law over time, especially with regards to shifts in the types of water which are actively managed, and the institutions charged with managing Arizona’s overallocated water resources. • Documents how the changing economic needs of powerful Five C actors has driven changes in water law over Arizona history. • Addresses the role of science in creating policy to plan for drought and climate change. Finally, this paper provides a realistic look at Arizona’s priorities and policies regarding water, with an emphasis on a new set of Five Cs which place heightened importance on sustainable agriculture and water-conscious urban planning.
2019
Bringing together the analysis of a diverse team of social scientists, this book proposes a new approach to environmental problems. Cutting through the fragmented perspectives on water crises, it seeks to shift the analytic perspectives on water policy by looking at the social logics behind environmental issues. Most importantly, it analyzes the dynamic influences on water management, as well as the social and institutional forces that orient water and conservation policies. The first work of its kind, The Field of Water Policy: Power and Scarcity in the American Southwest brings the tools of Pierre Bourdieu’s field sociology to bear on a moment of environmental crisis, with a study of the logics of water policy in the American Southwest, a region that allows us to see the contest over the management of scarce resources in a context of lasting drought. As such, it will appeal to scholars in the social and political sciences with interests in the environment and the management of natural resources.
2009
Patterns and perceptions of water use have changed since Anglo settlement in Texas in the early nineteenth century. Change has not been constant, gradual, or linear, but rather has occurred in fits and spurts. This pattern of punctuated equilibrium in water use regimes is the central finding of this dissertation. Water use is examined in terms of built, organizational, and institutional inertias that resist change in the cultural landscape. Change occurs only when forced by crisis and results in water management at an increasing scale. Perception is critical in forcing response to crisis. Four water use regimes are identified. The agrarian regime was characterized by individual family and plantation units that were self-sufficient in their water supply. Water was perceived as abundant, but used sparingly. The agrarian regime began with Texas's declaration of independence from Mexico in 1836 and lasted for the remainder of the nineteenth century. The waterworks regime was characterized by the introduction of piped water. During this second regime, water was still perceived as abundant, but was also taken for granted. The crisis forcing the waterworks regime was the need for better fire protection in cities. The almost constant threat of flood and drought, iv underscored by the Drought of the 1950s, in conjunction with a demographic shift, brought about the dam and levee regime. As a consequence of the Drought of the 1950s, water was for the first time perceived as scarce. We have just entered the groundwater regime. Recent water legislation and a state supreme court decision in favor of a bottled water company are putting new emphasis on groundwater sales from rural property owners to municipal water companies. Empirical studies supporting this theoretical framework are drawn from the heretofore unpublished 1868 journal of Pleasant B. Watson, from municipal bond records in the archives of the Texas Comptroller, from the early history of the waterworks at Bryan, Texas, from newly discovered records of a levee along the Brazos River, from an overview of dam and reservoir construction, and from a recent proliferation of groundwater districts. v DEDICATION To my parents vi ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Acknowledgments are due first to my advisor, Jonathan M. Smith, who introduced me to the literature of historical geography and geographic thought. His logic, organizational and editing skills, respect for the literature, and appreciation for the richness of archival data are his distinctive and much appreciated imprint upon this dissertation. I am also grateful that he agreed to supervise a dissertation about Texas water resources. Many others are due recognition, especially Peter Hugill, the senior member of my committee, for our shared fascination with the levees of Burleson County, and my other committee members, Brad Wilcox, Christian Brannstrom, and Rob Dull. My sincere gratitude is extended to those who guided me through a seemingly endless amount of archival material on Texas water resources-all the while sharing their ideas, enthusiasm, and expertise-especially Anne McGaugh and Shawn Carlson of the Star of the Republic Museum in Washington, Texas for access to the journal of Pleasant B. Watson and for their thoughtful suggestions; Bill Page and Kathy Weimer of the Evans Library at Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas for eagerly donating time, resources, and expertise; Nan Ross and the staff of the Carnegie Library in Bryan, Texas for help accessing records from both Brazos County and the City of Bryan; Lisa Lee of the Map Room in the Burleson County Courthouse in Caldwell, Texas whose enthusiasm for Burleson County is contagious; Jenny Spurrier and the staff of the Southwest Collection at Texas Tech University in Lubbock, Texas for help with the archives of the Center for Historic Preservation and Technology and its predecessor vii programs at Texas Tech University; and Ellen Kuniyuki Brown of the Texas Collection at Baylor University in Waco, Texas. I am also indebted to T. Lindsay Baker, Craig Colten, Clarissa Kimber, Martin Melosi, and Todd Votteler for their time, suggestions, and comments; as well as Ric Jensen of the Texas Water Resources Institute at Texas A&M University in College Station for encouraging a qualitative geographical dissertation about water. John Anderson, preservation officer for the Texas State Library and Archives Commission in Austin, Texas, was instrumental in the restoration of J.C. Nagle's map and five levee profiles from the Burleson County Improvement District No. 1, included at the end of this dissertation as Plates 1 through 6. Grateful acknowledgment is made for unexpected sources of financial supportall with ties to Texas A&M University. My longtime friend Judy Paine-Marshall used the auspices of the Hollis Marshall Foundation to contribute to my geographic library in memory of her late Texas Aggie husband (Hollis Marshall, Class of 1954). The books acquired with this funding will, in time, be passed on to future graduate students. I also received financial support from the Association of Former Students, the Texas Water Resources Institute through the Mills Scholarship Program, and the Department of Geography at Texas A&M University. On a more personal note, thanks go to my friends and family. From A&M's Department of Geography, fellow graduate students Serena Aldrich, Zheng Cheng, Jose Gavinha, and Xu Zengwang were always a welcomed sight in the O&M viii Building and around campus as each of us pursued our studies. Sincere best wishes to each of these fellow Aggies. A very personal acknowledgment is made to my parents whose excitement about world travels and their work with the Dallas Committee for Foreign Visitors brought an almost endless caravan of delightful foreign visitors to our dinner table. Their curiosity, insights, and wonderment about other places were instrumental in cultivating my interest in geography. Then, finally, my son gave me a valuable insight into the concept of scale. My parents introduced me to people and places far away, but my son opened my eyes to Texas and Texans in my own backyard. And to a special friend … pause. To all of these, I owe a sincere debt of gratitude. Words seem inadequate, butthank you, thank you, thank you! ix
Replacing confusion with equity: alternatives for water policy in the Colorado River basin
Maass and Anderson point out that therr observations about water policy "relate to the justice of institutions-ro the relations in irri' gation communities among popular control, distributive shares, ecc,nomic growth, and farmers'concepts of faimess."r Significanrly, the precise nature of these crucial relationships is not speci{ied by the authors; they suggest that the "challenge remains" to find an acceptable "model" for justice, faimess, or equiry with respect ro water distribution and management. A similar plea has been entered recently by Nomis Hundley, jr., based upon his searching review of the checkered legal and political history of warer rights in the West, especially in light of controversies flowing from rhe Winters decision of 1908. We must "find a way of replacing confused law, " Hundley says, "with clear and reasonable principles." "The challenge," he also concludes, "is [o re' place confusion with equiry. "2 Of course, the concem for "equi[y" in the disposition of warer resources is hardly a new issue, particularly in rhe Colorado River Basin. To examine the record of "dividing the waters" in this century is to encounter constant appeals from all sides to principles of "reciprociry, " "rights, " and "equity. " This is as true of officials in rhe western srares and the Supreme Court, which defended its decision in !/loming v. Coloraln as "consonant with the principles of right and equity,"t as it is of those communiries, like the Indians and Mexicans, who have generally been excluded from the decision-making process. Today, however, it is the perception of persistent inequalities and the attempt to assert "water rights,n advanced especially by Indians, which is "the sword of Damocles that hangs over the West. " ln Philip Fradkin's words, "lt threatens, like nothing else, to sever the complex web of laws, agreements, regulations, quiet understandings, and court decisions that, collectively known as the Law of the River, constitute the major determinant in the growth of the West-rhe white man's West, that is, since the Colorado is essentially a white man's river. "* This may be srrong language, but it only states whar we know' In the West, water has gone to those with political power, legal skills, technical knowledge, and sheer tenaciry; others have been excluded. In light of this record and our common reliance on legai adjudication, rl-re complex and trclubling question of "equilv" wrll surely not disappear; for coming generations it post:s questions that u'ill have to be cttnfronted, whether u'e like it or n<tt. REPLACINC CONFUS]ON WITH EQLJJTY We are presented, then, with a double challenge: confusion and uncertainty of principles matched by controversy over "warer rights" within the social order. In these circumstances, norhing could be more rimely than the articulation of a principled understanding of what has come to be called the "equiry perspective. " Such an understanding does not yer exist, at least not with respect to rhe special domain of water distribution, use, and management. Our aim is to develop a rational defense of "equiry," calling upon both rhe general theoretical discussions of "disrributive justice" and the particular circumstances and history of warer policy in the West. The rask is to idenrify and clarify rhose points of contact at the intersection berween the general and the particular. In order to accomplish this aim we propose ro srart with observations abour rwo aspects of the problem: the narure of water as a special klnd of resource, as a "social good"; and the nature of the American "democratic" polirical process and rhe principles and expectations associared wirh it. Water as a Social Good The fundamental social significance of warer was acknowledged at the inception of our civilization. In fact, the earliest discussions of water as a special human resource emerged as part of a series of comments on the conditions appropriate to a "just" political community, to irs health, defense, beauty, and legal arrangements. Thus, in several passages in Tire I aws, Plato sought to show that of all resources and necessities of life, water, because of its basic importance for human well-being and its vulnerabiliry to "doctoring, diverting, or inter