Water Wars – American Disasters

Warning: Undefined variable $num in /home/shroutdo/public_html/courses/wp-content/plugins/single-categories/single_categories.php on line 126

Warning: Undefined variable $posts_num in /home/shroutdo/public_html/courses/wp-content/plugins/single-categories/single_categories.php on line 127

In the past few weeks, I have worked to centralize the central topic of my proposal. My original idea was to analyze the collapse of the St. Francis Dam in the Santa Clarita Valley in Southern California within the context of the California Water Wars of the early twentieth century. However, as my research advanced, I decided to focus my topic on the Water Wars themselves as a disaster, analyzing how urbanization and city politics affected the irrigation of water sources in the Los Angeles area. The Water Wars, which began over a hundred years ago, continue to influence water politics in Southern California, creating animosity between urban and rural interests. I hope to focus my proposal on how farmers and ranchers, who had been largely starved of water for their agriculture and animals, responded (both legally and illegally) to the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power’s continued attempts to syphon water from the Owens Valley, particularly in the 1920s. I have found great secondary sources that researched how rural communities mobilized to combat the LADWP officials, both in the courts and in the countryside. I continue to look for primary sources that can both detail how the urbanization of Los Angeles affected the distribution of water to farms and ranches, as well as how LADWP officials justified their expanded allocation of resources. On the whole, I hope to use Los Angeles as a case study of how unsustainable urban development can lead to cities being drains on resources and malignant forces on the environment as well as surrounding communities.

In the late 1800s, Los Angeles created a massive irrigation project in the Owens Valley to provide water to the ever-growing metropolis. The project, under the leadership of civil engineer William Mulholland, was marred by controversy, including shady land dealings and the collapse of the St. Francis Dam in 1928, which resulted in the deaths of roughly 600 people in the Santa Clara River Valley.

Several important historical questions will guide my research:

How did the urbanization of Southern California shape regional politics and the allocation of public resources?
How did the political agendas of Los Angeles politicians influence public construction projects?
How was responsibility allocated for the collapse at the St. Francis Dam?

My research will focus less on the effects and aftermath of the St. Francis Dam collapse and more the politics surrounding its construction as well as the sloppy engineering that led to its demise. I hope to examine sources that shed light on the California Water Wars of the late 19^th and early 20^th century, showing how the allocation of resources became a major political struggle. William Mulholland and his corps of engineers will also receive my scrutiny, as I hope to determine if their construction effort was based on a desire for political gain or public welfare and safety.

For my analysis, I will make use of Los Angeles public records, such as the purchase of land and waterways, irrigation plans and objectives, and the professional reports of engineers engaged in the project, focusing on the St. Francis Dam in Ventura County. As my work specifically follows William Mulholland, I will utilize any and all of his letters, journals, and reports from the 1920s and possibly earlier. Newspaper articles documenting the expansion of the irrigation project and the construction of the dam would also be ideal sources. Lastly, the critics of the Dam (or the irrigation project as a whole) may be able to provide interesting insight on the situation through their personal correspondence, public reports, and newspaper opinions.

Tag: Water Wars

Watering a Wasteland: A Research Update

Mulholland’s Mishap: The St. Francis Dam Collapse of 1928