Introducing ‘Reflections On Water’
A concerned photographer’s weekly thoughts about water usage in drought-hit California
Californians are acutely aware of the state’s desperate drought. For many — such as farmers, agricultural laborers, environmentalists and rural residents — it is a daily concern. For urban and suburban users, the severity of drought has crept up on their previously insulated circumstances. Water rationing, restrictions on water-intensive landscaping and pictures of dry reservoirs reveal the seriousness of the situation.
Last time the water outlook was anywhere near this bad, it collided with my life, and the repercussions are still playing out. The severe drought of 2009 caught my attention just as I was finishing J-school in San Francisco. I skipped graduation while photographing farm worker protests in Fresno County.
Over the past six years, I’ve followed the issue and made photographic trips whenever possible. I continue to do so. Context is often lacking in the public discussion about California’s water future. And often, constituents are fearfully defending the resources and rights already in their possession.
“Take a deep breath, put down the arguments we all had in the past and come together as Californians,” said Chuck Bonham, Director of the California Department of Fish and Wildlife. “This is not about picking between delta smelt and long fin smelt and chinook salmon, and it’s not about picking between fish and farms or people and the environment.”
California needs collaborative, innovative solutions with as little political influence as possible. Solutions are as much about attitude as they are practical measures. Unfortunately, all sides seem to “picking up” their arguments.
Over the coming weeks, I’ll be featuring an image from my archive, describe some landscapes and some people wrapped up in the Golden State’s water issues and impart my own observations. I hope this informal series which I’m calling “Reflections On Water” adds a little context to the water talk.
Without further ado, part one: Wasting Water.
#1 Wasting Water
As much as 8,200 cubic feet per second spills over the lip of the Yuba River’s Englebright Dam during heavy winter and spring storms. The photograph (top) was made in 2010, but the scene it depicts should be common of all calendar years. That is to say that Northern California should be able to rely on a decent snow pack, consistent melt, and water filling its storage facilities.
Overflow spill-off is not the problem currently on people’s minds. Furthermore, California’s reservoirs are in reasonably good shape and are operating at close to storage capacity. In these times of drought, however, you will hear arguments about how much water is being “wasted.” By wasted, people mean allowing water to return to the environment and the ocean. The people who argue for less “waste” don’t understand that river flow is crucial for healthy habitats and species. They argue that we cannot afford to let rivers flow to the sea and that we should construct more dams in order to save more for the lean times, like now.
This reasoning is simplistic and dangerous. Let me explain why.
Even if we wanted to build dams, not many suitable sites remain. From the 1950s to the 1970s, and even stretching into the ‘80s, America went on a dam-building spree. California was a hot spot. One need only read the history of — and battles against — proposed damns on the Tuolumne River flowing from Yosemite National Park to understand how easy it was for engineers and power companies to lodge plans and advance the process, virtually without opposition. Arguments for dam removal are convincing in other states and, in my opinion, aren’t totally off the table in California just because of the drought.
Dams won’t save us. A healthy and stocked water table will.
Dams drastically alter the landscape, displace people and wreak unpredictable havoc on the environment. Water stored in a dam sits out in the blazing sun, evaporating, all summer. It develops molds and scums. The amount of time and energy that currently goes into mitigating these effects should be enough to convince us to avoid dams.
Nature has a storage system. Humans call it underground storage, or the water table, or aquifers. Allowing more land in the central valley and neighboring watersheds to flood in the wet months might be a good way to store water for the future, without nasty dams. But finding that land would not be easy.
This is an edited version of an article originally published at weylandphoto.blogspot.com.
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