What do you think?
Rate this book
A Thirsty Land: The Making of an American Water Crisis
As a changing climate threatens the whole country with deeper droughts and more furious floods that put ever more people and property at risk, Texas has become a bellwether state for water debates. Will there be enough water for everyone? Is there the will to take the steps necessary to defend ourselves against the sea? Is it in the nature of Americans to adapt to nature in flux? The most comprehensive—and comprehensible—book on contemporary water issues, A Thirsty Land delves deep into the challenges faced not just by Texas but by the nation as a whole, as we struggle to find a way to balance the changing forces of nature with our own ever-expanding needs. Part history, part science, part adventure story, and part travelogue, this book puts a human face on the struggle to master that most precious and capricious of resources, water. Seamus McGraw goes to the taproots, talking to farmers, ranchers, businesspeople, and citizen activists, as well as to politicians and government employees. Their stories provide chilling evidence that Texas—and indeed the nation—is not ready for the next devastating drought, the next catastrophic flood. Ultimately, however, A Thirsty Land delivers hope. This deep dive into one of the most vexing challenges facing Texas and the nation offers glimpses of the way forward in the untapped opportunities that water also presents.
285 pages, Hardcover
Published May 9, 2018
12 people are currently reading
213 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
May 21, 2018
When I told my husband I was reading a book about water rights in Texas, he responded sarcastically, "Wow, that must be FASCINATING." The truth is, it really was and forgive me the pun, but it wasn't as dry as I had feared it would be.
First, the author does a wonderful job of taking "the mysterious and occult nature of the water" rights and explaining it clearly and well. Next, he's just a good writer. His sense of humor comes right through in small asides such as, "the aptly named rainy day fund".
Finally, he didn't preach, but simply explained the situation that we Texans are going to find ourselves in by 2070 even if we don't have another drought of record by then. Then he suggests different options that might help.
First, the author does a wonderful job of taking "the mysterious and occult nature of the water" rights and explaining it clearly and well. Next, he's just a good writer. His sense of humor comes right through in small asides such as, "the aptly named rainy day fund".
Finally, he didn't preach, but simply explained the situation that we Texans are going to find ourselves in by 2070 even if we don't have another drought of record by then. Then he suggests different options that might help.
January 23, 2018
Ricefields in the desert
Two plagues are definitely coming. Land will be submerged, creating a billion refugees seeking a place to live. And drinkable water is fast disappearing, as we pollute it and waste it. A Thirsty Land is about this second plague, and how Texas avoids dealing with it.
Like everything Texan, the numbers are overwhelming. While the average water consumption per person in the US is 60-70 gallons per day, in Texas it is 118. The average home in Texas uses 10,000 gallons a month. Lawns and golf courses use nine trillion gallons a year. And Texas expects to add 20 million more Texans to its increasingly parched land in the next 50 years.
It all comes from a non-renewable resource. Texas used to be under water. The land rose, and there is still an ocean under it. That ocean is divided into several aquifers, which Texans have been merrily pumping out for a hundred years. Unfortunately, in far fewer than the next hundred years, Texans will have drained them completely.
There’s a typically Texan saying about water: If I’m pumping it, it’s mine. If you’re pumping it, it’s ours. And if it’s polluted , it’s yours. Texans own everything from the sky over their property to very center of the Earth. They have given themselves the unlimited right to pump the aquifer dry (the Right of Capture), which doesn’t sit well with nearby states desperately rationing pumping rights. In Texas, whoever has the biggest pump wins – everything. When one rancher decided he could pump out the Ogallala aquifer himself, build a pipeline and become his own private water utility, lawsuits stopped him. So he just pumped the water out onto the ground and grew rice. In the desert. It is said that Lance Armstrong uses more water on his lawn than the nearby city of Houston.
The 16 Texas water regions all go their own way, but they all seem to favor damming rivers and creating reservoirs. Not only do these reservoirs force out the native everything, but the water evaporates in the Texas heat. Meanwhile, the lawsuits cost a fortune and prevent any movement. For decades. There is a neat solution – the state could pump the water into the empty aquifers, where it can safely stay for millions of years. But the state is not about to take charge. It seems to believe the market will settle all accounts fairly. Texans themselves are even more removed. Seamus McGraw says they fully expect technology to provide a solution any day now. So they are not changing their lifestyles or moving to greener pastures. They continue to create greener pastures themselves.
The state has simply ignored its role in all this. “We’re the only state that has abdicated a global view of water,” says State Rep Lyle Larson. The water regions do not co-ordinate. Worse, they prevent the transfer of water outside their regions. Rather than legislate, the state prefers to have people sue each other to set precedents. And they do. A Thirsty Land is as much about lawsuits as it is about water. People sue over anything remotely to do with water. But the Right of Capture means the landowners usually get away with anything they try. Supreme Court Justice Craig Enoch ruled: “It has become clear, if it was not before, that it is not regulation that threatens progress, but the lack of it.”
Seamus McGraw reports it all with thinly suppressed amazement. But he shouldn’t be so surprised. His own native Pennsylvania forbids water being used a second time without completely filtering it. So in Pennsylvania, gray water is illegal. It is all just more whistling past the graveyard.
David Wineberg
Two plagues are definitely coming. Land will be submerged, creating a billion refugees seeking a place to live. And drinkable water is fast disappearing, as we pollute it and waste it. A Thirsty Land is about this second plague, and how Texas avoids dealing with it.
Like everything Texan, the numbers are overwhelming. While the average water consumption per person in the US is 60-70 gallons per day, in Texas it is 118. The average home in Texas uses 10,000 gallons a month. Lawns and golf courses use nine trillion gallons a year. And Texas expects to add 20 million more Texans to its increasingly parched land in the next 50 years.
It all comes from a non-renewable resource. Texas used to be under water. The land rose, and there is still an ocean under it. That ocean is divided into several aquifers, which Texans have been merrily pumping out for a hundred years. Unfortunately, in far fewer than the next hundred years, Texans will have drained them completely.
There’s a typically Texan saying about water: If I’m pumping it, it’s mine. If you’re pumping it, it’s ours. And if it’s polluted , it’s yours. Texans own everything from the sky over their property to very center of the Earth. They have given themselves the unlimited right to pump the aquifer dry (the Right of Capture), which doesn’t sit well with nearby states desperately rationing pumping rights. In Texas, whoever has the biggest pump wins – everything. When one rancher decided he could pump out the Ogallala aquifer himself, build a pipeline and become his own private water utility, lawsuits stopped him. So he just pumped the water out onto the ground and grew rice. In the desert. It is said that Lance Armstrong uses more water on his lawn than the nearby city of Houston.
The 16 Texas water regions all go their own way, but they all seem to favor damming rivers and creating reservoirs. Not only do these reservoirs force out the native everything, but the water evaporates in the Texas heat. Meanwhile, the lawsuits cost a fortune and prevent any movement. For decades. There is a neat solution – the state could pump the water into the empty aquifers, where it can safely stay for millions of years. But the state is not about to take charge. It seems to believe the market will settle all accounts fairly. Texans themselves are even more removed. Seamus McGraw says they fully expect technology to provide a solution any day now. So they are not changing their lifestyles or moving to greener pastures. They continue to create greener pastures themselves.
The state has simply ignored its role in all this. “We’re the only state that has abdicated a global view of water,” says State Rep Lyle Larson. The water regions do not co-ordinate. Worse, they prevent the transfer of water outside their regions. Rather than legislate, the state prefers to have people sue each other to set precedents. And they do. A Thirsty Land is as much about lawsuits as it is about water. People sue over anything remotely to do with water. But the Right of Capture means the landowners usually get away with anything they try. Supreme Court Justice Craig Enoch ruled: “It has become clear, if it was not before, that it is not regulation that threatens progress, but the lack of it.”
Seamus McGraw reports it all with thinly suppressed amazement. But he shouldn’t be so surprised. His own native Pennsylvania forbids water being used a second time without completely filtering it. So in Pennsylvania, gray water is illegal. It is all just more whistling past the graveyard.
David Wineberg
February 19, 2023
The legal distinction in Texas that surface water is public property and ground water is private property (if the land is privately owned, which is much of Texas) seems to be causing all kinds of trouble. Working that out may have an outsized impact on whether Texas has enough water for life in 2070.
If Texas is a microcosm of the U.S. on many social, political, cultural, and climate issues, this book teaches and warns a great deal about what can be done to systematically prepare for a looming water crisis.
If Texas is a microcosm of the U.S. on many social, political, cultural, and climate issues, this book teaches and warns a great deal about what can be done to systematically prepare for a looming water crisis.
April 2, 2019
Speaking of a son of the desert (but not Texas, which this book focuses on) this was pretty fascinating. Fresh, drinkable water is something we all think just drops right out of the sky. OK, it does, but not in enough quantities for cities like Dallas and Houston to flush their turds down the toilet with it by the million of gallons and still have enough for golf courses, farming, industry and fracking. This touches on the complex legal questions of water rights when every single shareholder thinks their right is superior to all others. This was a nice gray area book in which the down-sides to water problems are taken seriously. We can built new reservoirs. But what about the people who don't want their land taken by eminent domain and flooded? If we just say "whatever is under your ground is yours" then what about the farmers whose pumps into aquifers are smaller than the ones of massive multinational corporations living next door who sucks up theirs and their neighbors potable water (reminds me of the line "I drink your milkshake!" from the movie There Will Be Blood). Most rivers and aquifers have more water rights distributed than can be accommodated during droughts which get pretty nasty about once a century and have been getting worse. Do we prioritize the urban areas and cut off the farmers or vice versa or let market forces determine prices to cut excess use in droughts? And then what, water for the rich only? Like most good books, this one makes you think but doesn't give easy answers. I guess when the problem gets bad enough, the expensive solutions that are already available will make more economic sense. Of course, waiting til it's a big problem is usually more expensive than preplanning but no one ever got elected on fifty years from now.
May 15, 2018
I just finished listening to Seamus McGraw's A Thirsty Land—on Audible. What a fascinating, complicated epic Western. With water pistol packing judges, catfish urine and he-who-has-the-biggest-pump-wins water rights justice. As a layperson who only drinks the stuff by miracle of faucet, it was easy to follow, absorbing, and deeply concerning. What a world. Too many fires and not enough water to put them out. Great work Seamus McGraw.
Read
January 15, 2020most boring book i’ve ever read, and that’s on periodt
February 18, 2022
A Thirsty Land is about how the state of Texas is dealing with conflict over water rights and usage. Fourteen chapters focus on sample struggles on crucial rivers and over big aquifers by farmers and big cities. These occur primarily in the western portion of the state where annual rainfall averages are below 30 inches, especially during periods of drought which occur almost regularly. The outlook in the future with climate change is for longer, more severe droughts. But Texan culture seems to grant precedence to early owners' right to pump as much water from underground as they need for irrigation or industrial treatments. Some enterprising men have started to pump all they can sell to cities or irrigate, affecting their neighbors. This has create legal challenges for the courts which have had very little legislative direction. It's a visceral fight that no one has the stomach to wage. McGraw predicts that the state is drifting into a calamitous situation. Lots of talk about it but very little action besides lawsuits. San Antonio over the Edwards Aquifer was forced to form a regulatory board by the federal mandate to preserve endangered species found in the Comal and San Marcos springs. It seems to be working so far.
The narrative is well-written, engaging, informative with a little wry humor. It is not quite the summary of our current situation I was looking for, but it reads easily. I learned what the difficulties are and why a rational approach to addressing projected water shortages is not happening. We are a Republican state with rural areas controlling the vote. So it's big money (industry) vs lots of votes.
Seamus McGraw is a writer of two other books on water issues and a farmer-victim of fracking in Pennsylvania. Implies that when life gave him lemons, he is making lemondae. I hope he succeeds.
The narrative is well-written, engaging, informative with a little wry humor. It is not quite the summary of our current situation I was looking for, but it reads easily. I learned what the difficulties are and why a rational approach to addressing projected water shortages is not happening. We are a Republican state with rural areas controlling the vote. So it's big money (industry) vs lots of votes.
Seamus McGraw is a writer of two other books on water issues and a farmer-victim of fracking in Pennsylvania. Implies that when life gave him lemons, he is making lemondae. I hope he succeeds.
July 10, 2018
This wild and fun ride in Texas on a rollercoaster down into rabbit holes and out into rushing rivers, shows just how crazy a tale can be when it covers the complexity of water rights in Texas in times of extreme drought and storm flooding. Seamus McGraw can appeal to every reader: adventure, politics, history, science, big Texas money, ranchers, environmentalists, farmers, engineers, little guy vs big money, urban vs rural. And even romance, if you consider a Texan's love for all things Texan, and Texas is truly just a model for the rest of the USA when it comes to the future challenges of a looming water crisis. If one believes issues have many sides, McGraw respectfully speaks and considers all sides in his story, but he is not shy in stating what he believes to be one of the most pressing issues facing our country.
What seems to delve into intrinsic detail about water rights and fights past and present, ends being a fascinating story which also provides a map to move forward with the challenges.
What seems to delve into intrinsic detail about water rights and fights past and present, ends being a fascinating story which also provides a map to move forward with the challenges.
March 13, 2019
This is a scary sad and shockingly true reality of what could happen to the human race when water becomes scarce. There are many hard realities that are already happening in other countries due to water shortages and one of these days; maybe not in my lifetime but the U.S. could face this issue. All of these directly relates to over population in the world and climate change.
This is a good piece of scientifically-based writing that should be a wake up to everyone! Yes there are some one sided opinions and a little bias, but water issues; having clean water, enough of a supply, etc. is a real problem! I couldn't put this down just because of all these realizations presented in this book. Donald Trump should read a dumbed-down version of this and take notes!
This is a good piece of scientifically-based writing that should be a wake up to everyone! Yes there are some one sided opinions and a little bias, but water issues; having clean water, enough of a supply, etc. is a real problem! I couldn't put this down just because of all these realizations presented in this book. Donald Trump should read a dumbed-down version of this and take notes!
September 16, 2021
Maybe it takes a non-Texan to write objectively about Texas. This book is very nicely written, sprinkled with unexpected humor, while being loaded with good stories supported by documented facts and rich historical perspective. It teaches a lot about how Texas (and its 16 separate regional water planning groups, relatively unimpeded by the state government) has managed water supply and planning up till now. It offers a look into the coming challenges and even some possible paths to a future with enough water for all Texans. The challenges are made clear and there is an easy case for pessimism and the dangers that the next big drought hold, but maybe…
March 30, 2019
Fantastic book on the history and future of water in Texas!
June 21, 2018
The author does an outstanding job of explaining complex issues. He's a great story-teller.
Want to read
June 17, 2018"Absorbing."--Nancy Green.
"Not at all dry."--Laura Jean
"Not at all dry."--Laura Jean
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews