Beyond Chinatown: The Metropolitan Water District, Growth, and the Environment in Southern California

by Steven P. Erie, Harold Brackman (Contributor)

As urban growth outstrips water supplies, how can the global challenge of providing "liquid gold" be met? Mixing history and policy analysis, Steven Erie tells the compelling story of the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California (MWD)―one of the world's largest and most important public water agencies―and its role in building the world's 8th largest economy in a semi-desert. No tawdry tale of secret backroom conspiracies―as depicted in the famed film noir Chinatown ―this fresh telling concerns an unheralded regional institution, its entrepreneurial public leadership, and pioneering policymaking. Using untapped primary sources, the author re-examines this great regional experiment from its obscure 1920s-era origins, through the Colorado River Aqueduct and State Water Projects, to today's daunting mission of drought management, water quality, environmental stewardship, and post-9/11 supply security. A key focus is MWD's navigation of recent epic water San Diego's combative quest for water independence from MWD and L.A.; lingering conflicts over the Colorado River and northern California's fragile Bay-Delta ecosystem; and the myriad challenges posed by water markets, privatization, and water transfers. Facing unprecedented challenges, MWD is devising innovative formulas to sustain this improbable desert civilization. Beyond Chinatown concludes by considering MWD's Integrated Resources Plan as a global model for water-resources planning and management, water supply diversification and reliability, affordability, and environmental sustainability. Chinatown 's seductive mythologies have obscured MWD's authentic, instructive history and lessons. Praise for Steve Erie's previous book, Globalizing "This book is a must-read for anyone interested in the politics of Western cities, the politics of urban development, and especially the future politics of cities that are likely to be contenders in the increasingly competitive arena of global trade. . . . Erie's analysis will forever direct us to look first at certain public agencies to begin to understand larger patterns of economic growth in any metropolitan area."― Journal of Urban Affairs "[A] fascinating history of the Los Angeles region's great assets and the forces that drove their development. . . . One hundred years ago, it was improbable that the Los Angeles region would become the 10th largest economy in the world. In Globalizing L.A. , Erie explains how that happened and then, fingers crossed, offers lessons on how California's largest and most diverse city and region can keep playing a leading role."― Los Angeles Times "Referencing an impressive body of recent academic research, Erie argues that world-class seaport and airport facilities confer substantial economic advantages and more facilitating links between local businesses and the global economy."― The Sacramento Bee "Erie has built a potent political-economy of urban development that recognizes the crucial role of the public sector in mediating globalizing processes . . . and this is a valuable lesson for academics, dockworkers, community developers, and environmental activists alike."― Economic Geography

Genres: Nonfiction, Environment

384 pages, Paperback

First published April 17, 2006

Reviews

[Annie · Rating 3 out of 5]

a little too "stop thinking about political economy" to be totally trustable as a text. dark to read something in 2006 that says over the next twenty years climate change will be a negligible pressure on water supplies compared to other pressures

[James · Rating 4 out of 5]

Erie argued that the 1974 movie Chinatown, which depicted in a crime noir setting the Los Angeles based Metropolitan Water District as a corrupt water gobbling entity that would strip the landscape of its water to feed LA, unfairly hurt the MWD’s reputation, when it has in fact strived hard to bring regional water consumption stability. He seeks to explore the more complicated issues involved in water politics of the MWD.

Chapter one looks at the historic overview of LA and water, how a booming megatropolis was able to boom in an arid landscape. Chapter two looks at the overall history, as MWD developed a regional agenda, annexing other water authorities in Southern California to become the sole coordinator of water. Chapter four moves to the intersystem rivalry, as San Diego is the biggest customer of MWD and accuses LA of unfairly exploiting San Diego. Chapter five looks at challenges to the MWD regional authority, as fights over access to Colorado river water and the plan to restore the fragile Northern California Bay Delta-System. Chapter six examines the tensions between using water as a public good versus water as a marketable commodity. Chapter seven explores the overall lack of plans for future water use in California and how the MWD is one of the few planning sources. Finally, chapter eight explores how the future will look like.

Key Themes and Concepts

-Erie argues that the MWD has been a positive good that has strived to provide balance in water use, against the grain of criticism of MWD as being LA centric, which Erie answers by saying that LA is huge and will add more and more in the future.

-Chinatown has tended to be the be-all end-all view of the MWD.

[Camille · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is perhaps the less cynical, more hopeful, and more pro-government view of the story set forth in Reisner's Cadillac Desert. Accepting that water resources are finite while Southern California's growth is unidirectional and relatively incapable of disruption, Erie attempts to identify and celebrate water planning, pricing, and management within the powerful Metropolitan Water District.

Among social justice advocates, there's often a split over how advocates understand and interface with government (broadly) and with different layers/levels (e.g., local, state, federal) of government. Erie has placed an awful lot of faith in the good intentions of the Metropolitan Water District, perhaps ignoring some of the seedy and recent historical mismanagement, lawsuits, and battles for equity within Los Angeles and within the State. Nevertheless, the book offers an interesting—and perhaps more moderate—perspective on managing limited resources in the face of continuous (and seemingly inevitable) population growth.