My Research poster is about the Central Valley Project. The Central Valley Project today serves as an important source of water today for agricultural production in California's Central Valley, as the name would suggest. This water project in conjunction with the State Water Project provides water for most of Southern California. Along with providing water the project also provides flood protection for the Sacramento and San Joquin Rivers as well as ensuring water quality. This project began in 1933 but has origins that can be tied further back in State History. In the early twenties, California pushed the plan forward to create what is essentially the Central Valley Project or CVP for short, but as the Great Depression was in full swing this project failed to secure funding. The next step in this story is what I am particularly interested in. The state then turned to the Federal Government for help in building the project. The Federal Bureau of Reclamation was what the Federal Government would use to build this project. I am particularly interested in this development because it creates a lot of questions about things like; Who owns the water? Can the state make regulations for a federal project? How did locals respond to having their local water damed and taken?
This is a series of images that I found that shows the construction of Friant Dam one of the early dams that were built by the Central Valley Project. It is Located between Freno and Madera Counties.
This Map shows where some of the major canals, rivers, and lakes are located that transport and supply the water to southern California.
For my study, I have found five great sources on the origins and issues the project created. My first source comes from A report titled Report to the legislature of 1931 on State Water plan, 1931 which is a gold mine of information on the process California did before handing the project off the state government. It provides information on just about everything from individual water rights to how state and federal cooperation should work. This source created by the Division of Water Resources will be fundamental to my research.
Another Source I found was a Journal Article titled Central Valley Project: Issues and Legislation this article provides a comprehensive look at how the state deals with water rights for both individuals and the state. This article helped explain what exactly water rights meant in California and who actually has the right to the water. This is important to know as the state sells the rights to the water to the Bureau of Reclamation.
The third source I am working with is about the initial construction and geological surveys that were conducted by the State and Bureau of Reclamation. This article provides insight into how the project functions as well as how it impacted the hydrology of the central valley.
My fourth source is an Article titled Administering the CVP by Arthur A. Mass. This is a very important article for my paper as this source covers the many political issues the CVP created, such as State vs Federal power, Acreage usage, Water rights, and many more. This article is fundamental to my research as it highlights the political struggles that began during construction and lasted to this day.
My final source is by Edward Hyatt titled The Central Valley Project of California. This source provides a look at the vision that the CVP had very early in its creation. It provides a missing context for why the project is the way it is. It showcases how the project functions in reality and the many water issues it wants to solve.
My plan for the coming weeks for my research project is fairly simple. I want to narrow in on my topic just a little more. I want to find a particular story in the CVP's origin. So my main focus will be to find this story and flush it out to go along with the background information I have collected. Then with this story I will be able to showcase my research on the CVP.
The Central valley project seems like it has a lot of good potential, but I feel that you need to create a better argument. So far from the blogpost you have a good understanding of the “story’ of the project. You make some good questions about “who owns the water?” and other questions dealing with the government. Looking into water rights would be a interesting path for this project and look at some court cases similar to how Hundley in the week 6 readings did.
ReplyDeleteYou seem to be finding good individuals and have provided some good sources for your project. I too have found a report similar to your report from 1931. I have found these reports to be very helpful to sort of explain the background of my topic well and provide examples to argue with. You made the point that this report also deals with water rights and that is a path I suggest you follow. The rest of your sources also mention water rights and I think you should try to compare perspectives of water rights between the state and private parties. Maybe see how water rights were fought in courts and argue if the project was beneficial.
The environmental aspect is fairly clear for this project because you picked one specific topic that had a great impact on water usage in the central valley. Also you need to make sure your paper discusses the history of the project and try not to venture off to more current examples and topics. For further research I highly suggest looking at the Water Resources Collections and Archives at UCR (https://library.ucr.edu/collections/water-resources-collections-archives). They provide a lot of useful online sources that have helped me.
While the amount of context provided here shows an obvious knowledge of the topic in question, I feel that the argument is a bit nebulous. This needs to be focused down, and there are several options presented here. Among these is answering the question of whether the Federal or State government controls the water, the devastation wrought by so drastically reshaping the water system, or the changes the project heaped upon locals. Of course, I’m sure there are also many other engaging questions/arguments one could propose. One of these questions is enough to base a detailed presentation upon, and all link up to the history of the land.
ReplyDeleteAll of the sources cited seem quite relevant and could answer any of the suggested questions listed above. The hydrological surveys are of particular interest if it is decided to focus upon the environmental impact of the Central Valley Project.
While there is an obvious environmental angle, the angle itself will depend upon further refinement of the argument. For example, if focusing on federal versus state control, this aspect would focus more on land rights/usage. If focused more on the environmental devastation, it would be more along the lines of the physical impact of the project on the environment. All in all there is a lot to work with here, and it simply needs to be decided what direction this material will be used to heads toward.
This is a very interesting topic to research, it does benefit everyone since we all live in California and have lived through a drought. The knowledge on the topic is very obvious and the historical aspect is there , the time period is during the Great Depression, as well as the purpose of it. California pushed the plan for it so that is also a major historical aspect of this. The environmental perspective and idea is very obvious but it also goes into the category of control and who has the overall say. The questions you had brought up are completely valid, the question I personally think is going to be really important to your research is " Who owns water", this raises the concern because like we had learned this week one of the articles and pieces we had read said that the public had control over the water. That could be something you would like to look into that would be able to help with the backstory of the history of water. Who had control, yes California had pushed the idea for it but how did this effect the environment ?
ReplyDeleteGoodluck on your Research!
Hi Daniel, I think that there are multiple things that you can look at beyond the dam itself to get a full picture of the environmental impact of the CVP. You have a lot of great resources about the science and politics of the project, so it might help to look at the people involved. Local newspapers might give you insight into what the residents of the area thought of the project. Was there opposition to it being built? Was anyone displaced because of the construction? Was local agriculture adversely affected? You can even go further back and research indigenous use of water and how it changed over time. Was there any sacred land that was destroyed for materials like concrete? Here's an article I found that discusses 40 years of opposition to the project https://www.jstor.org/stable/3742832?seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents
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