Groundwater Contamination.in the United States, by V. Pyle, R. Patrick, and r Quarles, 1983, 315.pp., $14.95 from: University of Pennsylvania Press 3933 Walnut Street Philadelphia, PA 19104 As much a_s 50 percent of the population of the U.S. depends upon groundwater for its primary source of drinking water. Can a nation afford to take lightly the contaminatipn of s_uch an important resource? Currently there is no federal program aimed specifically at the problem of groundwater contamination. What protection our aquifers do receive is only indirect, and with federal environmental enforcement waning, any definitive future action will have to come from state and local levels. In the first half of this book, th'e authors present basic information on groundwater hydrology, and exhaustively document . the severity of groundwater contamination and the historic lack-of interest and , understanding .of the threat that these contaminants pose. The remaining half is dedicated to the methods of monitoring, minimizing, ~leaning up and preventing contamination of subsurface water supplies. Also included is a review of public health problems related to contaminated drinking water, including information on their sources, the effectiveness ofremedial action, and projections of the . effects of future occurrences. Concepts and data are presented in ry.umerous clear diagrams, tables, and graphs. In all, a highly_readable and thorough presentation of a wide-ranging topic. -Jim Stevens Jim Stevens is a civil and agricultural consulting engineer who works in th e fi elds of water treatment and waste water treatment. A Handbook of Gravity-Flow Water Systems, by Thomas D. Jordan, Jr., 1984, 224 pp., $4.95 from: Intermediate Technology Publications 9 King Street London WC.ZE 8HN UNITED KINGDOM valves, reservoirs, filters and hydraulic rams as well as extensive appendices - which detail useful specifications, constants and even tool lists. Because of its flexible emphasis on fundamentals this book can be put to good use as an aid to designing and building anything from a village water supply to a domestic greywater reclamation system. -Clay D~nnis Clay Dennis has a degree.in Mechanical Engineering from.Cornell and is presently a student at the Atkinson Graduate School of Mani1gement at Willamette University. , , A River No More: The Colorado River and the West, by Philip Fradkin, 1984, 360 pp., $10.95 from: The University of Arizona Press 1615 East Speedway Tucson, AZ 85719 This-book is written in a very personal an_d readable style, while making clear some very complex historical issues about water and its use in the arid west. Mr. Fradkin, over a period of years, travelled extensively in the_Colorado River Basin; attempting, with mixed success,.to travel from the headwaters of the Colorado to where it supposedly flows into the Gulf of California.-(In actuality the Colorado River no longer f}ows into the Gulf of California because its waters are all used up.) Where and.how those waters are used are the subject of this book. . To discuss water use in the West is also to discuss culture arid politics. For instance, the dominant culture feels that resources (including water) exist to serve man, and are wasted when they don't. Another basic premise is that water and other things extracted from the land should be free. Water should be delivered to the place where people live, rather than people choosing to live where there is wat.er. Thus·a large pop~l_ation has developed in inhabitable desert areas in southern California and southern Arizona. When I travelled throughout the Co.lorado'River Basin, I saw many things I did not understand at the time. The , inexplicable structures I saw in spectacularly beautiful desert country exist to - serve metropolitan areas far away. I saw A complete handbook for.anyone inter- coal burning power plants cast a pall of ested in putting gravity to work moving smog over country whose air should have water. Though written from the perspec- been pristine. I learned from Mr. Fradkin tive of a developing country, this book is that these c,oal-fired plants were built also a great technical aid in buildin·g low'- instead of a hydroelectric dam within the cost water systems anywhere. Packed Grand Canyon, and that southern Caliwith charts, graphs and qiagrams, this . fornia is the main recipient of the power. straightforward manual covers everything An uneasy compromise, it seems to me., from basic methods of measuring flow Glen Canyon Darn (and Lake Powell and head in streams to materials and behind it) is another·rnan-rnade structure techniques for constructing simple whose presence in the desert I found reservoirs.H has sections covering -offensive, and I learned that it, too, was a ~urveying, hydraulic theory, pipes, compromise site., chosen over a site in March/April 198~ RAIN Page 15 Dinosaur National Park. Much of the modern conservation movement seems to.have begun with th.e issues surrounding the building of Glen Canyon Dam. Mr. Fradkin makes the point that there is simply not enough water to go around, _ and there is limited awareness of this fact. The squabbles, major and minor, over what little there is he carefully · documents in a cool-headed and engaging way. He has moved well beyond the simple ~:mtrage I have felt. What he does not address, and what our society and o~r grandchildren (especiq.lly in the arid west) will have to face is a change in . culture and attitude (and even eating ' habits) to use.less water, and to use what water we have i'n different ways. -Susan Applegate Once A R.iver: Bird Life and Habitat Changes on the Middle Gila, by Amadeo Rea, 1983, 286 pp.., $24.50 from: ·The University of Arizona Press 1615 East Speedway Tucson, AZ 85719 If I were a bird watcher and lived in Arizona the bulk of this book would thrill me-it is a listing by species of birds who have lived or live now along the Gila River, on the Pima Indian reservation, in southern Arizona. The information on each species is thorough, and includes a history and an analysis of the Pimian words for the birds. However, I'm not a bira watcher and I don't live in Arizona. This book interests me for other reasons. The Gila River, for the last half of its length, doesn't exist anymore~ that is, it is only a dry streambed. There is no more wat_erflowing across the surface of th~ land, an_d thi.s is a very re.cent dev:elopment. Mr. Rea has gone to primary historical sources to tell us how the land used to be and why it is now so changed. He.has ' lived with and spoken extensively with the people, the Pima Indians, who have lived in the area for centuries and have watched the changes. The main point of this book is how profoundly these environmental changes have affected the bird life. The documentation and attention to minute detail are very important. What has happened to the Gila River is in no way an isolated incident. So much of man's alteration of the environment goes unnoticed and unrecorded-we forget much too quickly how the land used to be. Mr. Rea's careful documentation helps us remember · and un~erstand. -Susan Applegate Su san Applegate, our graphic designer, is also a r~ckh ound with a long-standing interest in natural history. She lived in th f Colorado Basin for three . _years.
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