Water in California - Disputes and Controversies

Disputes and Controversies

The California Water Wars, a struggle between Los Angeles and the Owens Valley for water rights, is one of the most well-known examples of the lengths people will go to in order to secure adequate water supplies. The city of Los Angeles bought 300,000 acres (1,200 km2) of land in the Owens Valley, and thus obtained water rights for a good deal of the water there. The diverting of so much water from the valley transformed it from an agricultural valley into a dust bowl.

The O'Shaughnessy Dam was the subject of controversy when it was reported by the San Francisco Bay Guardian that the city of San Francisco sold roughly 500 megawatts of power to the PG&E, supposedly in violation of the Raker Act, which specifies that because the source of water and power was on public land, no private profit could be gained from the dam. Whether or not the Raker Act is indeed being violated is still a matter of controversy.

The creation of so many dams in California in order to enact a pragmatic water supply program has been met with criticism from some environmentalists, who have decried the negative effects of dams on ecosystems, particularly on migratory fish populations.

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