Large-scale water development in the United States: TVA and the California State Water Project
Neil S. Grigg
Abstract
Assessments of large-scale water resources projects in two regions of the United States provide lessons about long-term outcomes. In the humid East, the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) serves multiple objectives and is the largest public power enterprise in the nation. In the West, California’s State Water Project serves nearly 27 million people and some 750,000 acres of farmland with extensive infrastructure. Assessing the outcomes of such large-scale projects requires integrated analysis and involves different value propositions. The major lessons are about government actions in river basin and public power systems development and their impacts on agriculture, urban development, and a vulnerable and changing delta ecosystem.