Where the Water Goes by David Owen follows David as he explores the Colorado river from start to finish. What he learns along the way about the “law of the river” he shares with the reader. A must for anyone reading this work is David’s web page containing pictures of everything he talks about in the book. The book does not contain any pictures outside of a map in the front.
“Horseshoe Bend” by michelnocture is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0
I believe this book would have been too dry (see what I did there?) with anyone else narrating the story. David Owen weaves a bit of the story of others into the story as well as weaving in his own story and travels into, the history and law of the river.
How we (mostly me in Southern California) get our water consist of a very complex network of laws and crazy rules. It is amazing it works. I learned a lot about all of it and I’m glad I read this book.
the lake today contains only about thirty-eight percent as much water as it did in 1998
David Owen
Genevieve Valentine writes a great review of this book for NPR, that is a great overview and a better review than I have written here.