The geography of development and water in the American West

Abstract

This paper offers an overview of the geography of demographics, development, land use and water in the American West, providing a geographic context to the Water Project Synthesis Papers. It touches lightly on topics to be elaborated in other papers and delves more deeply into a few key interactions among regional development, water and associated resources, especially changes in agricultural and urban land uses, and water needs in recreation and species protection. The current facts of Western development speak to a building tension among resource uses. The region is gaining population faster than any other part of the country, with growing rural and urban land uses, including irrigated agriculture, energy extraction, and sprawling residential and commercial development. This volatile mix is further leavened by increased demands for recreational and environmental uses of both land and water. Instead of the West’s scarce water guiding or limiting land development, development (for both traditional uses like irrigation and the region’s burgeoning urbanization) drives water use. This is illustrated by water development plans of the fastest-growing cities in the U.S., like Las Vegas and the Denver metro-area, which have successfully provided water to their rapidly growing populations and have stratagems in place to meet foreseeable future needs. The optimism evinced in such plans is supported by the simple fact that the vast majority of water use in the West is in agriculture, and cities plan to acquire some of this water as needed, at prices that, in the past, have enticed farmers to sell. Still, and surprisingly, irrigated land is not declining as much as conventional wisdom suggests, has even increased in most western states in recent years (according to some data), and is expected to hold its ground. Just how sustainable is this pattern of regional development and its demands on water? Record population growth now accompanies record amounts of natural gas and coal production. Sub-divisions squeeze out farms and ranches, which themselves reduced natural grasslands, predators, and streamflows. Growing human population adds to recreational demands, while the effort to preserve bio-diversity places it own demands on water and related habitat. Experienced observers of the West are alarmed, and their prescriptions for regional development are hopeful but may be tough medicine for a development-minded system. Larry MacDonnell (1999) lays out the needed shift in western water development: The task occupying our attention for the past 150 years---establishing human control over water resources to meet human needs---is now largely complete. The primary task ahead is to integrate changing human water needs and interests and to restore and maintain ecological functionality of water-dependent natural systems. (p. 286). A tall order, indeed, for a region perpetually focused on creating the next boom.