Dry Fields, Dirty Water
America’s 20th century experience with water and food perfectly reflected a growing nation and its productive agricultural economy. Citizens agreed on national goals. Legislation was approved. Mammoth public investments were made. The result was that from one end of the country to the other water flowed free and clean from elaborate water works — great western dams, reservoirs, and transport canals, deep Great Plains wells and giant spider-like sprinklers, and from thousands of pumps and miles of pipes.
Water in America’s 20th century was so plentiful, so available, that farmers used what they wanted and most Americans took it for granted.
Click to read the introduction to Choke Point: Index and explore specific cases below.
California Central Valley
Less Snow Means Pumping More Tainted Groundwater
Ogallala Aquifer
A Nation’s Precarious Underground Water Supply
Great Lakes Algae
New Threat to Great Lakes Comes from an Old Source
Water Data
Maps, Graphics, and Tutorials Demonstrate Need for Universal Standards
The World at a Choke Point
A 21ST CENTURY RECKONING
The conflicting demand for water, food, and energy is the defining challenge of our century. Global Choke Point, a collaboration between Circle of Blue and the Wilson Center, explores the peril and promise with frontline reporting, data, and policy expertise.
