Extensive damming has given rise to thousands of square miles of irrigated farmland, an extensive hydroelectric power grid, and highway systems that run across hundreds of miles of desert and otherwise inhabited regions that link the region’s burgeoning urban centers. This arid empire came at a tremendous environmental and monetary cost…
— ‘John Wesley Powell and the Arid Empire of the American West,’ by Kevin Burkman, 2014
The 100th meridian — 100 degrees west of Greenwich — is one of the the imaginative lines of longitude conceived by English geographers to numerically define locations on Planet Earth. You could also say the 100th meridian divides the Continental US roughly in two equal halves: the more humid, muggy East, and the more arid, parched West. East of the meridian, rainfall averages more than 20 inches per year. To the West, less than 20 inches.
And as writer Kevin Burkman notes in a 2014 essay, the 100th meridian also marks a slow geographical ascent — heading west from the Great Plains, at about 2,000 feet elevation, and rising gradually to the mile-high Colorado Plateau, and the nearly-three-mile-high Fourteeners of the Rocky Mountains. Mostly high, and dry.
There are, of course, exceptions to the general Western patterns of desert and drought. The Pacific Coast from Northern California to Seattle is generally known for abundant rainfall. But for the most part, the American West is pretty darned dry, and has been that way — according to recent scientific studies — for as long as mankind has struggled to survive here. (Some archaeologists believe that the so-called Clovis People hunted in what is now New Mexico — 13,000 years ago.)
The struggle continues, as we wrap up the first quarter of the 21st century — a struggle to determine how the arid West will manage its limited water resources in the face of seemingly relentless population growth. And one of the lynchpins of current Western water policy is the massive reservoir created by the Glenn Canyon Dam: Lake Powell.
Named for John Wesley Powell.
Powell was one of the first American scholars to lead academic expeditions across the 100th meridian and into this arid wilderness, beginning in 1867 with a successful scientific trip to Colorado. Subsequent expeditions in 1869 and 1871 explored the Colorado River and Green River; photographs taken during those excursions provided the very first glimpse of the Grand Canyon for nearly every American who viewed them.
In 1878, Powell published his Report on the Lands of the Arid Region of the United States, constructed upon a simple premise: the West could never support the dense populations seen in the eastern US, nor large-scale agriculture. Powell estimated that no more than 3% of the territory between the 100th meridian and the coastal mountain ranges along the Pacific could support agricultural development. He envisioned a region guided by smaller, democratic communities who would control their local destinies — and their own local (and precious) water resources.
From John Wesley Powell and the Arid Empire of the American West, by Kevin Burkman:
“In 1881, Powell became the second director of the United States Geological Survey (USGS) a position he held until 1894. Under his leadership, the USGS would become the largest scientific organization in the world. During these twelve years, Powell spearheaded the federal government’s scientific triad of topographic, geologic, and hydrologic surveys. However, his tenure as USGS director would prove to be tumultuous.”
At first, Powell’s call for guidelines to shape development in the West fell mostly on deaf ears. Then a series of droughts in the late 1880s brought new focus to the West’s land-use issues, and in 1888, “Congress finally gave him the chance to prepare an irrigation survey of all public domain lands in the West. For the first time, he could put his proposals into action…”
Among Powell’s recommendations for the settlement of the Great American West, according to Mr. Burkman:
- That land would be withheld from development until they were surveyed, thwarting developers and speculators who sought to gain access to the most irrigable lands;
- That collection and distribution of data regarding the economic potential of surveyed sections would undercut land speculators;
- That investment in new land development would come from local sources, particularly in labor and financing;
- That forested land would remain under the absolute control of the government, but managed by local communities, precluding industrial forestry and logging.
Despite Powell’s best intentions, he ignited a firestorm of opposition… “For most of five years, Powell combated his opponents, facing one Congressional inquiry after another. Western policy makers and the public believed that Powell was purposely delaying the findings, while on the floors of Congress, a battle raged between science and public policy. It became clear that scientific logic would not stand in the way of development in the West…”
By 1890, Powell’s budget for his survey of water resources had been drastically reduced. “Frustrated, Powell resigned his position at the USGS in 1894 and died in 1902, without ever seeing his development plans for the West come to fruition.”
As the 20th century dawned, the federal government dived head-first into the water business. The Newlands Reclamation Act of 1902 led to the creation of the United States Reclamation Service, soon to be renamed US States Bureau of Reclamation. The Bureau was charged with selling semi-arid public lands and using the revenues to build dams and irrigation projects. Newly irrigated tracts were then sold, and the revenues were used to support additional irrigation projects. Between 1902 and 1994, dams were erected on nearly every major river in the West, and the Bureau became the nation’s largest wholesale water supplier, operating 338 reservoirs with a total storage capacity of 140 million acre-feet. One out of five Western farmers currently get their irrigation water from the Bureau; that amounts to 10 million acres of farmland, producing 60 percent of the nation’s vegetables and 25 percent of its fruit.
Between 1988 and 1994, the US Bureau of Reclamation underwent a major reorganization as construction on authorized projects drew to an end. The Bureau made this claim: “The arid West essentially has been reclaimed. The major rivers have been harnessed and facilities are in place or are being completed to meet the most pressing current water demands and those of the immediate future.” Emphasis shifted from construction to operation and maintenance of existing facilities. In redirecting its programs and responsibilities, the Bureau of Reclamation substantially reduced its staff levels and budgets, but remains a significant federal agency in the West.
Ironically, one of the largest federal dams on the once-mighty Colorado River has produced a controversial reservoir named for one of the foremost critics of federal control in the West. Lake Powell.
Yes, the major rivers have been harnessed. But it appears that the trouble is just beginning…