Summer Reading: Thirst for Growth
<br>Anyone who has seen the movie <i>Chinatown</i> has some idea how much
ethical misconduct went into the ongoing battles over water in
California. Those who want to get down to the nitty gritty of it
will enjoy Robert Gottlieb and Margaret Fitzsimmon's <a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=led17FVPnr0C&q" target="”_blank”"><i>Thirst
for Growth: Water Agencies as Hidden Government in California</i></a>
(Univ. of Arizona Press, 1991).<br>
<br>
The most important words in the title are "growth" and "hidden." It
was the desire for growth that brought development-oriented business
people into the government work of determining where and how water would be
delivered. And it was the lack of transparency that allowed them to
do this. Conflicts of interest required a lack of transparency to
bring the desired benefits.<br>
<br>
Growth-oriented policies are hard to stop, especially when they are
hidden and, therefore, not publicly debated. Growth becomes an
assumption rather than a policy. The only limit was money (and now
environmental concerns), but when the money comes in the form of
subsidies, often through taxes, it is hard for the public to see,
even when it is footing the bill.<br>
<br>
One way local interests managed to get around local opposition was
to work at the state and federal levels, seeking state and federal
subsidies and the reconciliation of competing claims by state and
federal agencies. On p. 3 the authors wrote:<ul>
Federal intervention neither centralized policy decisions nor
established the priority of the national agenda; the choices that
framed the activities and set the purpose of water development
remained locally rooted. ... At the heart of the vast nexus stood
the local water agency. This relationship between local and federal
agency was later duplicated between local and state agency...</ul>
Besides local governments and water agencies, other local and
regional organizations seeking growth became involved in the
process, including chambers of commerce, the Committee of 25, the
Central City Association, and the California Business Roundtable. In
fact, the Metropolitan Water District (MWD) was formed on the basis of a
report by a committee of the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce, whose
representatives dominated the MWD board for many years.<br>
<br>
This would seem reasonable if Los Angeles needed Colorado River
water, but it did not. It was a totally surplus source of water,
intended to create a regional boom that would benefit Los Angeles
businesses at the expense of city residents who would not benefit
nearly as much, if at all.<br>
<br>
For example, one developer established a local water district to
supply his developments. This water district and others created a water
users association, which annexed to the MWD to supplement
groundwater sources, which were at present more than sufficient. The
developer became the association's representative to the MWD and,
eventually, chair of the MWD, all the time pushing for unimpeded
growth.<br>
<br>
The MWD became much more than a water district. It became a huge
construction agency and a powerful lobbyist for developers and other
commercial interests. Policy was oriented totally toward the
growth of infrastructure, and never toward the management of water demand or effects on the environment.<br>
<br>
For those interested in the
details of how commercial interests can influence and manipulate
government policies and bodies at the local and regional, as well as state and
federal, levels, <i>Thirst for Growth</i> is a must read.<br>
<br>
This story is also told in Norris Hundley, Jr.'s <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Great-Thirst-Californians-Water--History/dp/05202…; target="”_blank”"><i>The
Great Thirst</i></a> (2001) and Steven P. Erie's <a href="www.amazon.com/Beyond-Chinatown-Metropolitan-Environment-California/dp/…; target="”_blank”"><i>Beyond </i>Chinatown<i>: The Metropolitan Water
District, Growth, and the Environment in Southern California</i></a>
(2006)<br>
<br>
Robert Wechsler<br>
Director of Research-Retired, City Ethics<br>
<br>
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