Eos,Vol. 84, No. 39, 30 September 2003

heroes are the local experts and citizens who book reviews work together to expose misuse of groundwater and improve groundwater water management. The villains provide the most interesting characters. They include developers; short-sighted politi- cians; corporations that make “windfall”profits Water Follies: and perhaps unsustainable has led to major selling bottled spring water; paid experts conflicts over the use of water. (“hydrostitutes”) that use complex models to Groundwater Pumping In Water Follies, Robert Glennon focuses on obfuscate the impacts of water use; and federal the use of water pumped from the ground. His agencies, such as the U.S.Army Corps of Engi- and the Fate of main thesis is that groundwater pumping in neers, whose engineers suffer from the belief America’s Fresh Waters many parts of the United States is excessive, in that they can “control nature.”As an aside, some cases causing catastrophic impacts that Glennon is so passionate in his criticism of ROBERT GLENNON are not widely appreciated. His goals are to the Corps of Engineers that he devotes several Island Press,Washington, D.C.; ISBN increase awareness of these impacts, and illus- pages to the unrelated issue of flood control. 1-55963-223-23; 314 pp.; 2002; $25. trate the inadequacies of our current laws and One example of how Glennon’s advocacy policies for managing groundwater.Glennon PAGE 398 posture leads to over-simplification of an issue presents about a dozen stunning examples of is when he attributes the inability of The Perrier the impacts of excessive groundwater pumping Group of America to site a spring-water bottling throughout the United States.These examples plant in Wisconsin to environmental issues. Water is an essential natural resource.The are generally well researched, providing rich While it may be true that Perrier’s original pro- supply of water at any given location is limited, detail that makes the book both interesting posal would have damaged a prized trout and the limits vary considerably in space.The and informative. stream, implementation of a subsequent pro- unprecedented economic development of the Although Glennon is not an expert in posal would have likely produced a net envi- United States has been based in part on our groundwater hydrology,he does a very good ronmental benefit, as it included restoration ingenuity in providing water to various users, job of explaining basic groundwater principles. of a spring system that had been severely often through the use of elaborate strategies I found his discussion of the issues surrounding degraded by years of agricultural abuse. for storing and transporting it. Many of these blueberry cultivation in Maine to be particu- Defeat of this second proposal probably had water supply activities were subsidized by the larly effective at conveying the scientific, eco- more to do with local hostility to multinational federal government,in recognition of the critical nomic,and political complexities surrounding corporations,such as Perrier,than environmental role of water in economic development. groundwater use in today’s environment.I also considerations. (The Perrier Group of America Water is also essential to ecosystems. So it is enjoyed learning how Americans’ craving for is a subsidiary of the Swiss-based Nestle Cor- not surprising that our use and manipulation perfect french fries has contributed to the poration.) A proposed brewery with comparable of water resources has had severe environmental degradation of one of Minnesota’s most pro- water demand at the second site would have consequences. Many of these impacts were ductive trout streams. Glennon ends the book likely generated much less opposition. obvious from the beginning,such as the damages with a brief but insightful discussion of strate- Of course, Glennon’s advocacy posture and resulting from hydraulic mining in the Sierra gies that states could use to avert further envi- lively prose make Water Follies: Groundwater Nevada Mountains in the latter part of the 19th ronmental degradation. Pumping and the Fate of America’s Fresh century.Others, such as land subsidence due Glennon is most passionate in his mission to Waters a compelling book. Hopefully,it will to pumping, took time to manifest themselves, expose the folly of our present use of ground- succeed in calling attention to the critical often because they were the cumulative effect water.As a result, he often oversimplifies the issues surrounding groundwater use and water of numerous seemingly insignificant actions. issues.The characters in his case studies are use in general in the United States. However,the combination of rising demand for all victims, heroes, or villains.The victims water,increasing societal valuation of ecosys- include the unfortunate Florida homeowners tems, and growing recognition that the water- whose lakes were dried up by the thirsty resi- —KENNETH W. P OTTER, University of Wisconsin, use strategies of the past may be inefficient dents of the expanding Tampa Bay region.The Madison

women face in pursuing scientific careers, engagement in ,and when she Sea Legs especially at sea. became aware of the rules, she decided they KATHLEEN CRANE Kathleen Crane’s explorations of the deep were outdated and not for her.She collected Westview Press, Boulder,Colorado; ISBN sea began in the 1970s,but in some ways,it was some of the first evidence of active hydrother- 0-8133-4004-7; 318 pp.; 2003; $27.50. almost like she’d been cast back to the 1870s. mal venting on the and Gala- It was a good time to be a natural scientist seek- pagos Spreading Center,but the signals were PAGE 398 ing interdisciplinary connections. Vast expanses small and could be dismissed as artifacts of of the sea floor were unexplored. Even the most mixing water masses. Part of the dismissal Forty-foot,storm-swept seas,Spitzbergen polar up-to-date charts revealed regions thousands might have occurred because of her disregard bears roaming vast expanses of Arctic ice,furtive of square kilometers in area devoid of even a for those unwritten rules, and some who dis- exchanges of forbidden manuscripts in Cold single sounding line. Some of the largest missed her work were eager to jump on the War Moscow,the New York city fashion scene, mountain ranges in the world were misplaced hydrothermal bandwagon themselves.The story diving in mini-subs to sea floor hot springs, life by over 100 km. Deep-sea hot springs had not of Crane’s dedicated and sometimes flamboyant with the astronauts, romance and heartbreak, been discovered and were only the subject of search for hydrothermal vents bears some and invading the last bastions of male exclu- speculation,while the extraordinary animals that resemblance to the story of Rosalind Franklin’s sivity: all are present in this fast-moving, non- flourish there were not even imagined.And a search for the secrets of DNA (retold in an fiction account of one woman’s fascinating woman onboard a ship was viewed with con- excellent recent episode of NOVA).In spite of adventures in the world of marine geology cern, ranging from the ludicrous to the territo- these obstacles, she gives credit to those who and oceanography. rial to the superstitious. did believe in her,including her cadre of grad- Sea Legs has three recurrent themes: the Enter the young Kathleen Crane who wants uate student friends—a list of very successful excitement of deep sea exploration,especially to explore deep-sea,mid-ocean ridge volcanoes scientists today—and her graduate and post- at a time when so little was known; the role of in hopes of discovering the first sites of vigor- graduate mentors,Fred Spiess and . the Cold War—both good and bad—in shap- ous hydrothermal venting. She was oblivious The role of the Cold War during this era of ing basic research; and the challenges that of the unwritten rules of competition and exploration was larger than many of us