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Book Review
| Fuel for Growth: Water and Arizona's Urban Environment. By Douglas E. Kupel. Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 2003. xxiv + 294 pp. Illustrations, maps, bibliography, index. $39.95.
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| Anyone familiar with the history of water in the American West knows the too-simple interpretive dichotomy of that history, wherein western water development was either the province of elites who exercised tight control, or water systems arose democratically. The debate is admittedly over-simplified here, but the histories have nonetheless typically centered on California. With this volume, Douglas Kupel adds the Arizona perspective to the discussion and, in doing so, argues that in Arizona, water development was the result of the demands and preferences of the people. In particular, Kupel focuses on municipalities and argues convincingly that to understand water control and development in general requires looking at urban water development specifically. |
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Fuel for Growth begins with Arizona geography and Native American systems and then proceeds to the story of municipal water systems. Kupel uses the rest of the book to move chronologically from the nineteenth century to the present with the history of water, and eventually sewer system development in Arizona's three principal cities of Phoenix, Tucson, and Flagstaff. Throughout the book, Kupel argues that the control and development of water resources was a part, albeit an important part, of the development of Arizona in general. Thus, he argues for "a more balanced approach [that] places water within the context of other development forces" (p. 223). Significantly, this story includes the role of Native American tribes, as well as the federal government. |
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To support his thesis, Kupel points to the experiences of the three cities and the state as officials sought new sources of water, distribution systems, and technical solutions. Through the examination, Kupel cites examples of citizens making decisions through the ballot box, the electoral process, the courtrooms, and by protesting. Over and over, officials, engineers, and businesses proposed actions that residents rejected, challenged, and changed. For example, the elimination of the Orme and the Cliff Dams from the Central Arizona Project (CAP) was the result of grassroots campaigning, as was the ultimate disposition of Tucson's CAP water. |
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Undoubtedly, Kupel's contribution to the field will be an important part of any future consideration, and it deserves a place in members' libraries. Nonetheless, he leaves agriculture largely unexamined except for the results of absorbing farmlands into cities. Additionally, the contention that water is just another fuel for growth denies the overriding importance of its scarcity and, consequently, its central position in the debate he has taken up. That noted, Fuel For Growth constitutes an important addition to the field, and the in-depth look at the municipalities provides ample support for his conclusion that "in the end, it was not aridity that controlled our response to the ecology of the West, but our culture" (p. 223). |
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Finally, Kupel deserves credit for the very readable and approachable book he has written. Anyone with an interest in the topic will find this book easy to read and follow. At the same time, the book provides much to consider and integrate into the environmental history of the West. |
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Bob Irvine is a managing consultant with Public Affairs Research Consultants in Independence and Weston, Oregon, as well as a resource faculty member at Eastern Oregon University in La Grande, Oregon. |
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