By Russ Wege

For Gazette Opinion

The fires in California have caused unprecedented destruction and dozens of deaths.

In order to understand what happened, we need to briefly review how the problem developed.

Life depends on water.

Only 1 percent of all water on the planet is “fresh water,” not rendered unusable from salts or frozen in glaciers.

The southwestern part of the country is a desert, subject to extensive long (sometimes exceeding 50 years) droughts. Prior to European contact, people moved when water resources diminished.

Nineteenth century Los Angeles was a small city with a limited water resource. About the turn of the 20th century, Los Angeles began to seek water outside of the small water basin. City leaders bought up water rights in the Owens River basin 250 miles north of the city.

As the city grew, based on irrigated agriculture, the federal government planned and constructed a huge water supply project that accelerated growth, along with additional water resource........

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