Daniel Hulbert- Super blog 2- The Central Valley Project

Daniel Hulbert

The Contentious origins of the Central Valley

            Since the last Research blog, my questions have begun to focus on the conflict of ownership of the CVP. I wanted to focus on the fight between the state and the federal government over the project. This led me to questions like; Why did the state want to control the CVP? Why was the Federal government not willing to part with control of the Project? In my hunt to answer these questions, I found my argument for my project. The fight for ownership of the CVP was motivated more by economic issues because whoever held the water rights stood to profit either influence or actual money.

            The Visual source that I found was a map that showcases annual precipitation from 1900-1960. This map illustrates a few important things. First, it shows who has the water; Northern California received hundreds of inches of rain while the south barely cracks double-digit rainfall. This illustrates why the project was needed by Southern California and therefore supported by the south. I will use this map to show the demand for water in the central valley and why both the state and federal governments wanted to economically control the water.

“Rogers Pledges Anti-War Position in U.s. Senate.” Los Angeles Sentinel (1934-2005). May 30, 1946.

            This source from the Los Angeles Sentinel was a short newspaper clip about the platform for a California Senator, Will Rodgers JR. In the excerpt, he talks about how he will fight and secure a “Citizen-Controlled Central Valley Project”. His promise is to secure the CVP for the state of California where it can then be controlled by state legislation. This sentiment was very popular because the CVP had certain restrictions on who could obtain the water from the project. Those restrictions are what rallied the people to support state control of the CVP.

 

Lee, Lawrence B. “California Water Politics: Opposition to the CVP, 1944-1980.” Agricultural History 54, no. 3 (1980): 402–23.

This source by Lawrence B. Lee is a recount of all of the political debates and fights surrounding the CVP. It highlights the battle for state control of the CVP but also some of the battles between the CVP and large groups like PG&E and farmers associations. This article is one of my foundational pieces for why control of water rights was an economic battle. It supplies my argument with the weapons that were used to fight the political battle for the CVP and allows me to show how economics impacted the environment around the CVP. An excerpt, “the Central Valley Project is, . . . a narrative of the conflict between economic interests”.

Roos, Robert W. De. The Thirsty Land: The Story of the Central Valley Project. Beard Books, 2000.

This book, originally published in 1948, is a look at the CVP in general but has very important insights into the motivations of the State and the Bureau of reclamation. It also has a lot of insight into the other major groups involved like the Army Corps of Engineers. This book also discusses the very important Reclamation laws that governed how the water and power were to be used from the CVP. These many insights help me argue the economic motivations for both sides while also highlighting the importance of water rights to each group.

Montgomery, Mary, and Marion Clawson. History of Legislation and Policy Formation of the Central Valley Project. U.S. Department of Agriculture, Bureau of Agricultural Economics, 1946.

This is a very exciting book that highlights almost every aspect of the creation of the CVP. It discusses all of the Legislation and planning that took place before the building, how the state wanted federal support, and even how the state tried to retake control of the project. This source goes deep into Water rights and how the state sold the rights to the Bureau of Reclamation. I can use this source in many ways because of the large amount of information it provides. This book will be very important for tying the economic motivations of these groups back to the environmental side of my argument.

Comments

  1. Antonios TheodosisMarch 2, 2021 at 4:02 PM

    Hi Daniel, your project seems to be one that has developed nicely over the course of the last few weeks. I am also relieved to see that I wasn't the only one that was still trying to hone in on my argument last week, but am glad to see that you were able to finally do so. Overall your sources are interesting and diverse. I particularly like the newspaper entries you provided, but also appreciate the map you provided as well. It will help give the reader some visual aid to see where the areas are geographically. The newspapers will also provide us nice insight as to what the thought process and goings on at the time were. All in all, I look forward to seeing the final product in a couple of weeks. Keep it going!

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