User:ARKashuba/be bold

Text Book Chapter 3 Response
Just by looking at the title of this chapter it is clear that the authors do not agree with the water allocation laws in California, or other states, and after reading the chapter I agree. There does seem to be change over the years which I believe is good; however, the changes seem to be small when they should be getting more drastic. Something that struck me as odd is how much of a hands-off approach governments took to water management. The chapter states that in CA the county recorder has no authority to verify claims or monitor diversions and in CO the commissioners could not determine priority or resolve issues. At this point it seems like just the bare minimum was being done to manage water, and it was centered around the people using it and demand rather than the resource itself and its availability. In Wyoming we first see concern for others, in the "detrimental to the public's welfare" clause, though I still wonder the accuracy with how they determined those limits. Something that confused me while reading that chapter is the difference between owning water and owning the rights to use it, as it mentioned the rights cannot be taken without compensation. For example would one be also to sublease their right, or sell part of it?

Even when the SWRB came to be, its power was limited. I find it interesting that most of its power came about due to concerns over pollution. Again we see CALFED, another short-lasting, superficial organization with no teeth.

Something in CA's history that stands out and still sometimes happens today is the habit of making exceptions for money makers--mining is the example from the chapter.