The best Water Quality & Treatment books: Reddit reviews

From 3.5 billion Reddit comments

When the Rivers Run Dry - The Defining Crisis of the Twenty-First Century

I had to read this over one summer in college as a prerequisite prior to arriving to school--one of those assignments that ensures all arriving students have a common academic experience they can discuss during their orientation sessions and classes.

Back then, I wryly thought "this is a damned dry read for a book warning us about water issues", but son of a bitch if it isn't playing out as the years go on.

I highly recommend you read Where the Water Goes by David Owen. It follows the flow of the Colorado from the Rocky Mountains all the way to the sea and talks about the users of the water.

In short, Las Vegas is one of the more efficient users of water in the southwest and nearly all the water we take from Lake Mead makes it back there. Additionally, Las Vegas is able to pull water from Lake Mead even if nothing is flowing down from Hoover Dam. In short,the drought is going to have much more of an impact on Arizona and California farmers than residential areas, and given the already relatively low water usage by Vegas, it will be one of the least effected cities.

All ya'll should read 'Cadillac Desert'.

​

Also I was annoyed by the one farmer that complained about ground water restrictions taking acres out of production. How many acres will go out of production when it becomes too expensive (if not impossible at any price) to pump out ground water?

I suggest reading the book Cadillac Desert about the Southwest and how its tricky relationship its water came to be.

Long story short. US government knew there was a lot of land, a somewhat inhospitable climate, and an unpredictable snow-fed river in the American southwest. During the depression and through WWII they began building dams all over the Southwest with the aim that none of the Colorado's water "go to waste". The Colorado valley was supposed to become a modern cradle of civilization, and all of it was made possible by securing its water. It is one of the reasons Arizona is more than three times New Mexico in population---New Mexico does not have nearly the same water resources---and why Los Angeles became powerful and influential...but only in the 2nd half of the 20th century. The massive damming operations elsewhere in California have helped the State produce the majority of fruits and vegetable in the US.

So it was never a matter of 'muh free land'. It was land with untapped potential. It was very valuable land when the right technology was introduced to it.

Sorry to hear that you did not pass, but hopefully this experience helps you out the next time. I do agree, there's VERY little practice for qualitative problems or ways to prepare for them. I did find that the PPI Practice Problems booklet had a fair bit of practice but still not a ton. https://www.amazon.com/Environmental-Practice-Exams-Wane-Schneiter/dp/1591265746

Good luck for the next round! Give yourself a break before getting back at it.

I used this for practice questions: https://www.amazon.com/Environmental-Practice-Exams-Wane-Schneiter/dp/1591265746

I also used the Lindeberg review books. I found them helpful in providing background on topics I wasn’t familiar with: https://www.amazon.com/PE-Environmental-Review-Michael-Lindeburg/dp/1591265754/ref=pd_aw_fbt_img_sccl_2/135-9088028-9577154?pd_rd_w=Dp2Ip&content-id=amzn1.sym.f353d175-26fc-4776-8298-842dab47b290&pf_rd_p=f353d175-26fc-4776-8298-842dab47b29...

Very true. While this isn't an argument to avoid water saving measures at the municipal level, the primary changes need to come from ag. And the ag related solutions aren't as simple as us city-dwellers would like to think.

Two good books I recommend on the topic:

Cadillac Desert

Where the water goes

Yea, push aside agriculture's senior rights to water, risking our own water supply. You can't bring prior appropriation in front of a judge, without the whole system being pulled apart.

The badgering responses betray your innocent views on the topic. I too was like that, however when something challenged my view, instead of "derailing harder", I perused better information on the topic. I recommend this book, it was truly eye opening.

As for a formal response to your rudeness.

It must be hard to see the forest, with your head up your ass. Try reading more.

Cadillac DESERT, BY MARC REISNER

https://www.amazon.com/Cadillac-Desert-American-Disappearing-Revised/dp/0140178244

The book Cadillac Desert predicted all of this.

It was written in 1986...

https://www.amazon.com/Cadillac-Desert-American-Disappearing-Revised/dp/0140178244/ref=mp_s_a_1_2?crid=1SE43DQTEC0UJ&keywords=cadillac+desert&qid=1656798500&sprefix=cadillac+desert%2Caps%2C92&sr=8-2

This is a great book to understand some basics, even if mostly talking about the Colorado River. https://www.amazon.com/Where-Water-Goes-Death-Colorado/dp/1594633770

It is also very interesting.

You should also understand how water is managed in the West and in CO, which is very, very different than almost anywhere else in the world. look for information on "Prior appropriation doctrine".

The true price of an acre-foot of water includes the cost of capture, storage, and transportation. For more than a century taxpayers have been paying for dams that solely benefit large farmers. More often than not, the true cost of collecting each acre-foot of water (cost of dam construction, operations, pumping) exceeds the price paid by farmers 10-1.

This is an incredibly well-documented phenomena in the west.

There's a legal difference between "groundwater" and "surface water". The boundary between the two is...fuzzy.

Surface water is regulated strongly, and is responsible for a lot of fun legal fights all across the west (Recommend the book Cadillac Desert if you want to learn more), but groundwater is much less regulated. If you're a hydrologist, all groundwater was surface water at one time, but if you're a farmer or a lawyer then the difference has a bit more nuance.

There's a very good book which describes what has happened to the Colorado and while it's several years old at this point, most of its predictions for the future of the river are clearly coming to pass. It's called Cadillac Desert

The Fluoride Deception should be required reading in school, just like Silent Spring is/was.

This book is a well-documented history of how fluoride became part of our daily lives as well as its alleged benefits and potential side effects. Regardless of how you feel about it, you should at least be informed.

If you’re interested in the politics and history of water in the western U.S. read Cadillac Desert; it’s a really entertaining book!

https://www.amazon.com/Cadillac-Desert-American-Disappearing-Revised/dp/0140178244

If you’re interested in the politics and history of water in the western U.S. read Cadillac Desert; it’s a really entertaining book!

https://www.amazon.com/Cadillac-Desert-American-Disappearing-Revised/dp/0140178244

For the time being, the water crisis hasn’t hit residential customers. Farmers are most effected right now which eventually translates to higher food prices. However, if we continue to grow without implementing water conservation measures we’re very likely to see water shutoffs in the next decade. Read this book, it’s actually as entertaining as it is educational!

https://www.amazon.com/Cadillac-Desert-American-Disappearing-Revised-ebook/dp/B001RTKIUA

Another good book about the water in the west is Cadillac Desert, by Marc Reisner.

Here is a documentary called Cadillac Desert that I encourage others to watch. It is based on Marc Reisner's book Cadillac Desert.

​

>The story of the American West is the story of a relentless quest
for a precious resource: water. It is a tale of rivers diverted and
dammed, of political corruption and intrigue, of billion-dollar battles
over water rights, of ecological and economic disaster. In his landmark
book, Cadillac Desert, Marc Reisner writes of the earliest
settlers, lured by the promise of paradise, and of the ruthless tactics
employed by Los Angeles politicians and business interests to ensure the
city's growth. He documents the bitter rivalry between two government
giants, the Bureau of Reclamation and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers,
in the competition to transform the West. Based on more than a decade of
research, Cadillac Desert is a stunning expose and a dramatic, intriguing history of the creation of an Eden--an Eden that may only be a mirage.This
edition includes a new postscript by Lawrie Mott, a former staff
scientist at the Natural Resources Defense Council, that updates Western
water issues over the last two decades, including the long-term impact
of climate change and how the region can prepare for the future.

Cadilac Desert is a great read if you don't want to listen to somebody who sounds like she's bored with the subject she's reading.

I had the same concerns as you until about a week ago. I’ve been studying from this book for about a week and I already feel much better about navigating the reference book. The problems have been updated for the CBT such that all the solutions use equations from the reference book. I may be able to sell you a copy below market rate after May 21st (my exam date) - let me know if interested.

There are plenty of people whose careers (mine included) that revolve entirely around western water law, supply, growth, etc. It is pretty cool stuff.

Cadillac Desert is a good book to start learning about some of these issues.

Cadillac Desert (Marc Reisner): https://www.amazon.com/dp/B001RTKIUA/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1

Available on FindLaw (http://lp.findlaw.com/):

Hadacheck v. Sebastian, 239 U.S. 394 (1915)

Village of Euclid v. Ambler Realty Co., 272 U.S. 365 (1926)

Berman v. Parker, 348 U.S. 26, 75 S. Ct. 98 (1954)

City of Eastlake v. Forest City Enterprises, Inc., 426 U.S. 668 (1976)

St. Bartholomew's Church v. City of New York, 914 F.2d 348 (2nd Cir. 1990)

Pennsylvania Coal Co. V. Mahon, 260 U.S. 393 (1922)

Penn Central Transportation Co. v. City of New York, 438 U.S. 104 (1978)

Loretto v. Teleprompter Manhattan CATV Corp., 458 U.S. 419 (1982)

San Diego Gas & Electric v. City of San Diego, 450 U.S. 621 (1981)

First English Evangelical Lutheran Church of Glendale v. County of Los Angeles, 107 S. Ct. 2378 (1987)

Nollan v. California Coastal Com'n., 107 S. Ct. 3141 (1987)

Lucas v. South Carolina Coastal Council, 112 S. Ct. 2886 (1992)

Dolan v. City of Tigard, 114 S. Ct. 2309 (1994)

Lingle v. Chevron, 544 U.S. 528 (2005)

Kelo v. City of New London, 545 U.S. 469, 125 S. Ct. 2655 (2005)

Read the book, The Fluoride Deception (https://www.amazon.com/Fluoride-Deception-Christopher-Bryson/dp/1583227008). It's extremely well researched and written. I can't recommend it enough if you really want to know the history of why fluoride is in your water supply.

Thanks, I'll read the book mentioned in the article. A good starter/companion reader for those interested in water history out here is Cadillac Desert: The American West and Its Disappearing Water. It's older, but it's been revised over the years and is a great place to start.

https://www.amazon.com/Cadillac-Desert-American-Disappearing-Revised/dp/0140178244

The Fluoride Deception relatively cheap book and tons of great info but mostly on the history of fluoride in America.

From http://www.informationliberation.com/?id=14949:

>The story begins in 1924, when Interessen Gemeinschaft Farben (I.G. Farben), a German chemical manufacturing company, began receiving loans from American bankers, gradually leading to the creation of the huge I.G. Farben cartel. In 1928 Henry Ford and American Standard Oil Company (The Rockefellers) merged their assets with I.G. Farben, and by the early thirties, there were more than a hundred American corporations which had subsidiaries and co-operative understandings in Germany. The I.G. Farben assets in America were controlled by a holding Company, American I.G. Farben, which listed on it’s board of directors: Edsel Ford, President of the Ford Motor Company, Chas. E. Mitchell, President of Rockerfeller’s National City Bank of New York, Walter Teagle, President of Standard Oil New York, Paul Warburg, Chairman of the federal reserve and brother of Max Warburg, financier of Germany’s War effort, Herman Metz, a director of the Bank of Manhattan, controlled by the Warburgs, and a number of other members, three of which were tried and convicted as German war criminals for their crimes against humanity. In 1939 under the Alted agreement, the American Aluminum Company (ALCOA), then the worlds largest producer of sodium fluoride, and the Dow Chemical Company transferred its technology to Germany. Colgate, Kellogg, Dupont and many other companies eventually signed cartel agreements with I.G. Farben, creating a powerful lobby group accurately dubbed "the fluoride mafia"(Stephen 1995).

Writing: job applications (71 of them since spring). Haven't forgotten about "Six" and "Five," still making slow progress on them--and I'm even sticking to the next couple of chapters so I can actually post them someday!

Reading: environmental and political things. Holy shit, you guys, Cadillac Desert.

Have you ever read Cadillac Desert? It's worth a look if you're interested in the history of water rights in Southern California. I'm not looking to get into an argument, but you're greatly understating the amount of work that has gone into diverting streams for the benefit of California farmers in semi-desert regions.

I'm also a water resource professional!

Do you think our new-age 'yuppie' diets are actually doing more harm than good for the planet?

Also, I have nothing to gain by doing this, but I highly recommend Cadillac Desert by Marc Reisner. Fantastic book about how California ended up like it is today.