Something to Read Shore side

This short article examines the three focus areas of HydroFathom: Watersheds, Aquifers and Infrastructure.  The document briefly summarizes each of the areas and explains the interconnections of these cornerstones of the human water supply system.

                   The Water Chain

               Read a PDF Copy Here

People often ask why we don't pump water from the Mississippi west to the desert.  In this letter to the editor of the Desert Sun in Palm Springs, our founder, Todd York, give a quick assessment of the challenges.  Read the whole Desert Sun series, but start here.

                      Probably Not

Water in the west requires pumping and the total energy required just drinks massive amounts of fossil-fuel power.  Consequently, much of the water in the state is carbon negative.  This page from the Public Policy Institute of California explores the power needs of California water.

                      Water Energy Data

The Chinese employed water wheels and even water chains beginning in the 1st century.  Explore their tech here:

                     Water Wheel, Wikipedia                   

Most know Ms. Carson through her seminal piece, A Silent Spring.  This book wows the reader with her astounding knowledge of the worlds' oceans.  Although, HydroFathom focuses on freshwater, sections of this book brilliantly explain the ocean's overarching influence on dry land.  This books serve as one cornerstone driving HydraFathom to explore the natural world and share what we find with others.

The author, journalist, environmentalist and Presidential Medal of Freedom winner, Marjory Stoneman Douglas, wrote this book as part of the Rivers of America Series commissioned by book publisher Farrar and Rinehart.  Her single contribution to this series likely saved the Everglades from extinction and cemented her as a premier defender of Florida's environment.  

This book about the early development of infrastructure to control water in the American west serves almost as a Rosetta Stone that in 2024 still provides Hydrofathom a blueprint to explore our home-state California water.  The subtitle clarifies,  The American West and Its Disappearing Water.  The reader explores a maze of gargantuan projects and government bureaucracies that truly opened the west to settlement. Learn about Floyd Dominy, one of the most obscure powerful people in U.S. history.

This book tells about a secret empire built in the San Joaquin Valley in California.  A powerful but private person helps shape the water and agriculture police of the United States and California.  Who? Well, that's part of the secret.  Check it out.

Pumped Dry - USA Today Production Examining Vanishing Groundwater

Pumped Dry Ogallala - A critical U.S. Agricultural Aquifer Shrinks

Teton Dam Collapse - A infrastructure failure tale told from a unique phone company perspective

Cadillac Desert - Focus on the Colorado River with inspiration from the book