Uwe H. Martin

Fine Art, 2016

Dry West - Moonscapes

The Wheeler Ridge Pumping Plant lifts water 233 feet from the California Aqueduct. The
California Aqueduct is a system of canals, tunnels, and pipelines that moves water originating in the Sierra Nevada Mountains and valleys of Northern and Central California from the San Joachim-Sacramento River Delta to arid Southern California. — Dry West Hydrological Society Anthropocene climate change Water Rights

Irrigation facility at an orange plantation near the Friant-Kern Canal. Pumps for underground drip irrigation apply the water directly to the roots of plants. This irrigation method saves a lot of water and increases crop yields. But saving water is only partly a solution for the multi-year drought. As no excess water seeps into the soil groundwater can’t replenish. Despite the multi-year drought new almond orchards are continually planted in California. Almond trees and other permanent crops, like the citrus plantations that stretch on the edge of the foothills of the Sierra Nevada, can’t be fallowed during a drought year and need year round irrigation. This leads to demand hardening and reduced flexibility in the system. But due to the high value of farmland in the Central Valley – around 30,000 Dollars per acre – farmers are required to plant highly profitable crops. — Dry West Hydrological Society Anthropocene climate change Water Rights

The Central Arizona Project (CAP) is the most expensive aqueduct system ever constructed in the United States. As the largest single resource of renewable water supplies in the State of Arizona, CAP lifts Colorado River water more than 2,900 vertical feet and carries it from Lake Havasu 336 miles east to supply farms and cities in the desert such as Phoenix and Tucson. — Dry West Hydrological Society Anthropocene climate change Water Rights

The Salton Sea is the Colorado River’s final destination in the Anthropocene. It was formed by accident in 1905 when the Colorado River busted through poorly built irrigation headworks and flooded the Salton Sink for two years. In the 1940s, 50s and 60s California’s largest lake became known as the Salton Riviera and attracted more visitors than the Yosemite National Park. Today the Salton Sea has become a decaying, dystopian mess. It smells like rotten eggs, when fertilizer runoff and summer heat once again push an algae bloom, that turns parts of the lake into a dead zone, killing thousands of fish. Being sustained only by the balance between agricultural runoff from Imperial Valley farms and evaporation, the lake increasingly shrinks due to on-farm water conservation efforts and a deal that transfers about 300,000 acre-feed to San Diego and the Coachella Valley. Till the end of 2017 the Imperial Irrigation District compensates for a portion of this water loss. When this mitigation is stoped, the Salton Sea will dry out even faster, exposing dry lakeshore and the toxic dust of pesticide residues of over one hundred years of agriculture that are concentrated in the dry lake floor. — Dry West Hydrological Society Anthropocene climate change Water Rights

About 500 Imperial Valley landowners control the water rights to 3.1 million acre-feet a year from the Colorado River - about ten times the allotment for the whole state of Nevada. Delivered through a complex system of canals and pipelines the water transforms a dry, barren desert into half a million acres of some of the world’s most productive farmland. During the winter, much of the nation’s lettuce, broccoli, and fresh product is grown here. — Dry West Hydrological Society Anthropocene climate change Water Rights

In the end the mighty Colorado river runs in a concrete bed to the Salton Sink. The All American Canal is the highest-capacity irrigation canal in the world and supplies the Imperial Valley with 3.1 Million Acre Feed of annual water allocation. From the main canal the water flows by gravity north to irrigate half a million acres of desert soils that consist of very fertile, alluvial deposits from the Colorado River flood plain. — Dry West Hydrological Society Anthropocene climate change Water Rights

Gates regulate saline drainage water from fields in the Imperial Valley near the Salton Sea. With every acre-foot of water that arrives through the All American Canal, one ton of salt is carried into the area. To guaranty the productivity of the farmland, farmers have to keep that salt from remaining in the soil. Subsurface tile drainage systems flush the salt out of the fields and the runoff ends up in the Salton Sea, a body of water more saline than the ocean. — Dry West Hydrological Society Anthropocene climate change Water Rights

Pipes for a water intake pump sit on dry land at the Lake Mead National Recreation Area. After 16 years of drought and heavy overuse of Colorado River water, Lake Mead, the largest reservoir in the United States, has seen its surface elevation drop below 1,075 feet (327m) above sea level. With only 37% of capacity it is at the lowest level since the construction of the Hoover Dam in the 1930s and close to a level one emergency state which would cut water delivery to Nevada and Arizona. According to the Bureau of Reclamation there is a 64 percent chance that Lake Mead will fall below 1,025ft by 2019, which would trigger an emergency federal response. If it drops to 900ft (274m) it will be considered “deadpool,” meaning that water is no longer passing through the turbines. — Dry West Hydrological Society Anthropocene climate change Water Rights

Projektbeschrieb

"Gentlemen, you are piling up a heritage of conflict and litigation over water rights, for there is not sufficient water to supply the land." John Wesley Powell remarked in 1883. The great explorer believed that the arid West was not suitable for agricultural development, except for about 2% of the lands that were near water sources. Since then the American West has turned into a hydrological society. Rivers run in concrete beds, across mountains and deserts and up towards money. But even where the eye sees a wild river or natural lake, chances are that nature is nothing more than an illusion in the artificial landscapes of the Anthropocene.

My series Moonscape is part of Dry West, an artistic exploration of the hydrological societies of the American West. While the other parts of Dry West take the form of multichannel video and photo installations, the Moonscapes are best experienced by way of large prints.

Publikationsinformationen

Titel der Arbeit: Dry West - Moonscapes
Galerie: Coalmine
Ort: Winterthur