BOOK REVIEW by www.watermagazine.com

Water Follies
Groundwater Pumping and the Fate of America's Fresh Waters

This books exposes the little known truth about the more than 28 trillion gallons of water taken each year from underground aquifers in the Americas. "... this excessive pumping of our aquifers has created an environmental catastrophe known to only a few scientists, a handful of water management experts, and those unfortunate enough to have suffered the direct consequences...." The writer's introduction to the book consists of a sharp attack on a Perrier proposal to take spring water, and market it as bottled water. This sets the tone for the rest of the book's casestudies which take readers on a selected historic water tour of the United States. The book was written by: Robert Glennon.

The writer's introduction is the best text to use here, in this review: "...in Perrier's relentless quest, we see only the tip of the iceberg of excessive groundwater pumping. The remainder of the book (ie the bulk of all of its chapters - ed.) aims to shed light on the impact of groundwater pumping on the environment in the USA.... groundwater is used to accommodate popoulation growth; to irrigate blueberries, and grow potatoes....; to mine gold and coal; and to support tourism in national parks and forests..." The book does this by telling stories. And again I revert to the writer's words: "... the stories range from the tragic to the tragicomic. Writing about water use, policy, management, and law demands both a sense of irony and a sense of humour....." At the end of the day, the book is about water follies. "... these water follies unmask human foibles, including greed, stubbornness and, especially, the unlimited human capacity to ignore reality..."

I briefly summarise the headings and contents of the first few chapters, and list the rest:

• The Worth of Water in the USA - a brief overview of USA water geography, and intro to water appropriation methods. Introduction to dams as a method of combating aridity;
• Human Reliance on Groundwater - after a look at what the Egyptians and Arabs did in the past few thousand years, this chapter looks at the character of groundwater - its qualities and attractions - and begins to unpick how groundwater use and policy kicked off in the USA. For example it explains there is little distinction in law between groundwater and surface water. It introduces the effect of ground subsidence.;
• How Does a River go Dry? (The Santa Cruz in Tucson) - this sad example is used to describe the hydrologic cycle and its importance in the formation and maintenance of a river. It shows the underground hydrology of what happened through excess groundwater pumping, and how that affected the river above;
• A River at Risk (The Upper San Pedro River in Arizona) - this is a story of bad science and good science. It is also a story about how groundwater pumping can affect riparian character of a river bed, and the species that rely on that land for habitat;
• Tampa Bay's Avarice (Cypress Groves, Wetlands, Springs, and Lakes in Florida) - this is not a happy story. Again the loss of environment and forest, but also the effects of development including the discharge of saline rich effluent from desalination plant into the local environment. Engineers ignoring the facts seem to have contributed richly to this disaster;
• The Tourist's Mirage (San Antonio's River Walk, the Edwards Aquifer, and Endangered Species) - the problem goes back over a hundred years when Spanish settlers diverted most of the river's headwaters into irrigation ditches. The principle of water 'capture'. One groundwater pumping example is described as "... like trying to sell the sleeves out of his vest...";
• Suburban Development and Watershed Initiatives (Massachusett's Ipswich River Basin);
• A Game of Inches for Endangered Chinook Salmon (California Cosumnes River, the Army Corps of Engineers, and Sacramento Sprawl);
• Wild Blueberries and Atlantic Salmon (Down East Maine);
• Size Does Count, at Least for French Fries (Minnesota's Straight River);
• The Black Mesa Coal Slurry Pipeline (The Hopi Reservation in Arizona);
• Is Gold or Water more Precious? (Mining in Nevada);
• All's Fair in Love and Water;
• The Tragedy of Law and the Commons;

The book is completed by an Appendix (Organisations committed to protecting the environment from groundwater pumping), Glossary, List of Acronyms, Bibliography, Acknowledgements, Index. The softback book runs to 310 pages.

The chapters are sparsely illustrated with useful maps, hydrologic diagrams, and photos. It is the text which sparkles, because at the end of the day, most of the issue raised by the book relate to the unreliability of mankind to make rational decisions about water. So it is about words, not pictures.

The book is long on problems and short on solutions. Inevitable probably, because society is only slowly coming to grips with an acceptance that it is is largely to blame for the problems in our natural environment. Reluctance to recognise global warming phenomena, and to accept responsibility, and to come up with rational alternative policies that protect and ensure future sustainability of our air, is another example. So it is with groundwater. The book is timely and useful. It is necessary to point out how silly some of the proposed and implemented fixes have been. Even though the examples chosen by the author may not be in my backyard (here in New Zealand) there is a resonance of relevance about them. For me it is useful to be constantly reminded of that extraordinary ability of the cleverest lawyers, scientists and engineers to be unable to see what is blindingly obvious in front of them.

The book is part of a passionate struggle for sense rather than nonsense in the management of groundwater resources. I recommend it to activists, policy makers, engineers, and environmentalists interested in water policy, and wanting to make the world a better place to live.

Water Follies was published in 2004 by Island Press.
The isbn is 1-55963-400-6 (soft cover).
To contact Island Press.
Email - troeder@islandpress.org, and website: www.islandpress.org

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