Where the Water Goes: Review

 "Where the Water Goes: Life and Death Along the Colorado River" by David Owen is a book that opens the readers eyes to many of the issues that affect the western United States.  The premise of this book is to travel the length of the Colorado River from its headwaters in the mountains all the way to its dried up delta in Mexico. David Owen is a columnist for the New Yorker and his ability to tell a story makes this book almost read like a novel and not like a conservation guide.  In a way that is one of the best things that could happen to a book of this type as water law is about as exciting to read about as it is to watch paint dry. 

As stated above, the book starts at the snow pack of the Rocky Mountains.  We see canals that drive the water across a continental divide and into a different river basin, see reservoirs and canals to sustain urban growth, dams and power stations to support agriculture, and eventually the issues with a river that travels many miles in mineral rich river beds and the effects of salination from the rivers journey.  Every chapter had a place of interest, except the last chapter, and some stories about the people and water uses that Owen encountered there.  These subtopics of each chapter made the book feel like an adventure story, almost as if you are following one droplet of water from falling as snow in the mountains to growing lettuce in Baja California, Mexico. 

Some of the most interesting facts that I learned from this book is that Las Vegas doesn't use as much water as one would imagine a city in the middle of the high desert would, in fact they return more water then they take out. I also learned how bad the salt situation is as the river gets ready to cross to Mexico and the way that lawyers in USA have created a bad deal for farmers in Mexico.  My biggest take away from reading this book is that there are a lot of smart people trying to make sure that the river can continue to help sustain the growth of California, Arizona, and Colorado but we really have no idea what is to be done.  

This book made me walk away thinking about all the ways that I am wasteful in my life.  I do not need to run the dishwasher every evening, I do not need to take a 10 minute shower, I do not need to water my lawn every day (once I have a lawn that is).  I also put the book down and thought about all the pollution that we are putting in our waterways.  I consider myself environmentally aware but not an environmentalist by any means, but I have a strong desire to stop using any single use plastic at all.  I also almost don't want to wear cotton because of the strain it puts on the water tables but then I'm not sure what I would wear.  Maybe we should all go back to wearing animal skins and furs..... who knows what is the right answer there. 

Overall I give this book a 4 out of 5.  There were parts where the story seemed to diverge from the topic at large a bit too much, though enjoyable it did not add to the story, and the final chapter had a completely different voice from the rest of the book.  I did enjoy it and would highly recommend it to any who wish to learn more about the way water is used or figure out if there is a way to preserve what little fresh water we actually have in the world.