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Show lis model setup by the early Utah pioneers ( Wiley, 146). Powell, as head of the United States Geological Study ( USGS), was commissioned by Congress to survey and inventory the water resources of the West. Most key to his exploration was the research of suitable dam sites along the Colorado. Powell's work was a direct precursor to quenching the insatiable desire for western expansion. The Colorado River became, for the West, the American Nile. Though not the largest nor longest river in the American West, its importance is paramount ( Reisner, 120). Without the Colorado River, Las Vegas would not exist. Los Angeles only became a beacon for western expansion after the prospect of tapping the river became a reality. Today the river supplies Los Angeles, San Diego, and Phoenix with more than half of their water needs ( Reisner, 120). In total, the river currently provides water for over 30 million people! Regional Modernism The sprawling western expansion was instep with the post World War II modem era. The newly completed Hoover Dam on the Colorado River had aided in winning the war through power production for shipyards and irrigated food production. Most importantly however, the dam became a symbol of man's control over nature, effectively expanding the limits of human potential. This newfound ideology of power and control pervaded the capitalist developers and settlers of the postwar expansionist movement. The completion of the 242- mile Colorado River Aqueduct turned the western dream into a reality. Los Angeles rose up and spread as a model of suburbia with unbounded growth. As evidenced by Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Phoenix and other western cities, the western land survey grid had extended in all directions. Roads began rising up out of the sand to the horizon and beyond. Nature, as a result, was further subdued and subordinated by human intervention. Ironically, fallout of modem societal expansionism is evident in the Colorado River itself. Today the river is over- taxed, or considered a ' deficit river'. All that reaches the delta in the dried- up Mexican Gulf of California is a " burbling trickle" ( Reisner, 121). Endless bouts with the river's salinity also require costly efforts to maintain its healthy use as a water source. The result of man's idealized limitless ability ushered in with the Hoover Dam has found dried- up manifestation in the Colorado River exploitation. Regional Water Politics The water in the Colorado River is also subject to extreme political ties. It is the " most watched, argued about, measured, and contested water in the United States" ( Villiers, 240). Disputes over the Colorado River have already occurred between Mexico and the United States. More importantly however, these wars continue over the Colorado River between and within western states. California has recently become the focus of the newest dispute, which has long used 20 percent more than its allotment of the Colorado. Though other western states have allowed this in the past, they're increasingly in need of their own allotment. As a result, the Federal Government is threatening to cut the states' water use from the Colorado River on Jan 1 * of 2003 by " an amount equivalent to the annual needs of 1.5 million families" ( Kasindorf, 11 A). The plan is to restrict California to its allocated amount by the year 2016 to secure promised water quantities to the other 6 western states affected - including Utah. Southern California cities are currently scrambling to find a way to tap into the farm water ( which uses 80 percent of the Colorado River water). Without some agreement with the farms, the cutback will require extreme rationing by the already conservation- minded cities. " How the conflict is resolved could have enormous implications for the entire west," which is expected to " add 1 million residents a year for the next three decades" claims Kasindorf ( 11 A). Area Water Politics Utah's water war has been one of fighting for their own 23 percent allotment of the Colorado River Upper Basin, and for the infrastructure to transport the water to the Wasatch Front. The most prominent project attempting to realize these goals is the Central Utah Project ( CUP). The project is designed to divert water from the southern slopes of the Uinta Mountains and from the Colorado River to the Wasatch Front through a system of aqueducts, tunnels and dams ( slcgov. com). Though the project has at times been controversial and has adapted somewhat to political and environmental pressures, there is confidence that its fruition is, to a large degree, inevitable. Area Modernism Although the Wasatch Front had delayed its adoption of the pos World War II western model of unrestrained expansion, the valley did eventually succumb to growth demands. " Suburban flight, government mortgage policy, and highway capacity" have transformed the Wasatch Front into a Los Angeles- like homogenous spread of same- ness ( Katz, 12). Growing suburbia has, according to Joel Garreau, attracted jobs and has created " edge cities" which have decayed the inner city ( Katz, 13). The sprawling representation of the American Dream pervades the valley. An endless patchwork of individual lawns spreads up and down the valley, leap- frogs far into the West, and climbs the unique foothills to the East. It is evident the path of least resistance for growth is the path further and further into nature. As expansion continues, natural life flows are altered by the dominant lifestyle of man. Water drenched sod often replaces native plants, further converting the area into the socially accepted norm of Kentucky blues and greens. One may argue that attaining the American Dream would justify the costs of such growth. Ironically, however, the very pursuit of the American Dream has evidently secured its demise... at least in its original intent. Beyond owning ones own house and parcel of land, the dream was a longing for nature. It was nostalgia for past simplicity. It was a retreat from the dirty, criminal, |