Nor Any Drop To Drink

Nicholson's Jake Gittes surveys a parched waterway.

The other night, we watched an old movie I'd never seen ~ a real classic, Chinatown, with Jack Nicholson and Faye Dunaway. It is often referenced in conversations about Los Angeles history, and particularly the politics of water, which has always been huge in an urban area with not enough of its own. To this day, you'll see signs all up and down the central valley, like "Congress Created Dust Bowl," damning politicians for taking water from agriculture. This is all particularly apt now, as the state faces a major drought.
   The fact that this area of L.A.'s background is dirty and filled with nasty little secrets we probably will never uncover is the stuff of legend, but the truth is, the movie is only very loosely based on real events (story, with link to free downloadable history tour of the Owens Valley!): http://www.kcet.org/arts/artbound/counties/los-angeles/los-angeles-aqueduct-there-it-is-take-it.html
   And here's another interesting article about the truth behind the movie, which gets a little more into the actual characters, like William Mulholland: http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/04/25/the-water-fight-that-inspired-chinatown/?_php=true&_type=blogs&_r=0