Tim Stroshane: "Drought, Water Law, and the Origins of California's Central Valley Project" - February 23rd

 Time Tested Books 

is pleased to present

Tim Stroshane

reading & discussing his new book

Drought, Water Law and the Origins of 

California's Central Valley Project 

Thursday, February 23rd 7:00 p.m.

Drought, Water Law, and the Origins of California's Central Valley Project describes how water rights were designed as a key part of the state's largest public water system, the Central Valley Project. Along sixty miles of the San Joaquin River, from Gustine to Mendota, four corporate entities called "exchange contractors" retain paramount water rights to the river.

Their rights descend from the days of the Miller & Lux Cattle Company, which amassed an empire of land and water from the 1850s through the 1920s and protected these assets through business deals and prolific litigation. Miller & Lux's dominance of the river relied on what many in the San Joaquin Valley regarded as wasteful irrigation practices and unreasonable water usage.  Economic and political power in California's present water system was born of this monopoly on water control.  Stroshane explains how drought and legal conflict shaped statewide economic development and how the grand bargain of a San Joaquin River water exchange was struck from this monopoly legacy, setting the stage for future water wars.

Tim Stroshane received his MA in city planning from the University of California, Berkeley. An independent scholar who has studied the water, economy, and environment of California since 1980, he has worked professionally in environmental consulting, for the city of Berkeley in housing economics and policy, and most recently with environmental nonprofit organizations focused on California and its Bay-Delta Estuary. He lives in Albany, California.

This event is FREE and everyone is invited.