Vision in the Desert: Carl Hayden and Hydropolitics in the American Southwest

Rating:
Summary: Politics of Water Resource Management
Review: August brings extensive expertise concerning the history of water and hydroelectric power development in the Southwestern United States. The story of water politics in the American southwest is instructive for the governments of both the United States and Canada.

Management of North America's water resource is poised to become the defining issue in Canadian-American relations in the twenty first century. Certainly, that issue will dominate trade negotiations and will precipitate fallout for the movement of other major commodities of Canadian goods into American markets.

In Arizona, water rights was topical as a political concern before the turn of the century to 1900. Central to the issue was Carl Hayden who was elected in 1911 and served in the U.S. Congress for the next 57 years; as a Democratic member of the House of Representatives until 1927 and then as a Senator from 1927 to 1969.

August reveals in this engagingly-written biography that Hayden knew from 1914 that his political future would be tied to water resource development; a thought documented as a young politician in letters to his parents. Hayden's personal papers disclose his legendary kindness in all relationships and perhaps part of the secret to his long political career.

In constructing the history, August draws out the competing interests of upper basin states with those downstream of the Colorado River, bringing in the early interest expressed by Los Angeles for electricity and water. What was involved was large scale manipulation of water in an extremely arid environment.

The protracted negotiations resulted in CAP -- the Central Arizona Project -- which put Colorado River water to thirsty agricultural areas and provided for the unimpeded development of Phoenix and Tucson by protecting them from water shortages. The bill was signed into law September 30, 1968 by President Johnson. The cost of implementation, US$1.3 billion, was the most expensive single Congressional authorization in history. Hayden considered the accomplishment the most significant contribution of his career.

The book is extensively researched and animated through interviews with Barry Goldwater and others prominent in the issue. The author has also drawn fom Johnson's presidential papers, court cases, and six decades of the Congressional Record. Some flavor of the thrust and parry of political debate has been drawn from accounts in dozens of newspapers and journals. That all of these sources have been assembled in one volume is a valuable gift to future scholars.

Evoking transportation images to bracket Hayden's working life, August reminds us that "He began his public career riding a horse and buggy to his office and ended it voting for funds that ultimately enabled him to watch people walk on the moon." No doubt, those astronauts were looking for water!

Contention over management of North American water resources has bracketed both the beginning and end of this century and will carry on well into the next. The World Bank warns us that the wars of the next century will be about water. August's prediction: "In the future, the use of water will underlie every public policy decision made in the American West."

Rating:
Summary: Politics of Water Resource Management
Review: August brings extensive expertise concerning the history of water and hydroelectric power development in the Southwestern United States. The story of water politics in the American southwest is instructive for the governments of both the United States and Canada.

Management of North America's water resource is poised to become the defining issue in Canadian-American relations in the twenty first century. Certainly, that issue will dominate trade negotiations and will precipitate fallout for the movement of other major commodities of Canadian goods into American markets.

In Arizona, water rights was topical as a political concern before the turn of the century to 1900. Central to the issue was Carl Hayden who was elected in 1911 and served in the U.S. Congress for the next 57 years; as a Democratic member of the House of Representatives until 1927 and then as a Senator from 1927 to 1969.

August reveals in this engagingly-written biography that Hayden knew from 1914 that his political future would be tied to water resource development; a thought documented as a young politician in letters to his parents. Hayden's personal papers disclose his legendary kindness in all relationships and perhaps part of the secret to his long political career.

In constructing the history, August draws out the competing interests of upper basin states with those downstream of the Colorado River, bringing in the early interest expressed by Los Angeles for electricity and water. What was involved was large scale manipulation of water in an extremely arid environment.

The protracted negotiations resulted in CAP -- the Central Arizona Project -- which put Colorado River water to thirsty agricultural areas and provided for the unimpeded development of Phoenix and Tucson by protecting them from water shortages. The bill was signed into law September 30, 1968 by President Johnson. The cost of implementation, US$1.3 billion, was the most expensive single Congressional authorization in history. Hayden considered the accomplishment the most significant contribution of his career.

The book is extensively researched and animated through interviews with Barry Goldwater and others prominent in the issue. The author has also drawn fom Johnson's presidential papers, court cases, and six decades of the Congressional Record. Some flavor of the thrust and parry of political debate has been drawn from accounts in dozens of newspapers and journals. That all of these sources have been assembled in one volume is a valuable gift to future scholars.

Evoking transportation images to bracket Hayden's working life, August reminds us that "He began his public career riding a horse and buggy to his office and ended it voting for funds that ultimately enabled him to watch people walk on the moon." No doubt, those astronauts were looking for water!

Contention over management of North American water resources has bracketed both the beginning and end of this century and will carry on well into the next. The World Bank warns us that the wars of the next century will be about water. August's prediction: "In the future, the use of water will underlie every public policy decision made in the American West."

Rating:
Summary: A miracle it was!
Review: Author Jack August tells an engrossing tale of the politics of water in the American southwest which is virtually the same as the past, present, and future of this region. Arizonan Carl Hayden became the Arizona's first congressman (when Arizona only had one congressman) upon statehood in 1912 and moved to the the U.S. Senate in 1927 where he remained until retiring in 1969. In today's era of sound bites and short attention spans, Hayden labored for decades, leading the way to first establish federal control over western water management (so the resources of the federal government would build the needed dams and other projects needed to tame and manage the area's rivers), then parceling out the rights to the water between the various states and other jurisdictions through legislation, compacts and court decisions, and finally, after it was established by the U.S. Supreme Court in "California vs Arizona" that Arizona did have rights to Colorado River water, getting the authorization and funding for the Central Arizona Project which today brings water from the Colorado River near Parker, AZ to the mushrooming metro areas of Phoenix and Tucson. August writes a technically detailed book. Its not a fast read, but I found it indispensible to understanding the past and probably future of this state which over 5.5 million people now call home.

Rating:
Summary: A miracle it was!
Review: Author Jack August tells an engrossing tale of the politics of water in the American southwest which is virtually the same as the past, present, and future of this region. Arizonan Carl Hayden became the Arizona's first congressman (when Arizona only had one congressman) upon statehood in 1912 and moved to the the U.S. Senate in 1927 where he remained until retiring in 1969. In today's era of sound bites and short attention spans, Hayden labored for decades, leading the way to first establish federal control over western water management (so the resources of the federal government would build the needed dams and other projects needed to tame and manage the area's rivers), then parceling out the rights to the water between the various states and other jurisdictions through legislation, compacts and court decisions, and finally, after it was established by the U.S. Supreme Court in "California vs Arizona" that Arizona did have rights to Colorado River water, getting the authorization and funding for the Central Arizona Project which today brings water from the Colorado River near Parker, AZ to the mushrooming metro areas of Phoenix and Tucson. August writes a technically detailed book. Its not a fast read, but I found it indispensible to understanding the past and probably future of this state which over 5.5 million people now call home.