Dam Nation - Dispatches from the Grey Water Guerilla Underground - Workshop/book release (5/24)

Dam Nation combines environmental victories in the sustainable-use movement with hands-on, participatory options for country and city dwellers. Not just a "how to" but a "why to," the book begins with the story of dams in the American West--a story in which millions of acres of perfect farmland were flooded in order to irrigate the marginal land that, due to the same natural process that destroyed several ancient Native American civilizations, would turn the area into the Dust Bowl. Cleo Woelfle-Erskine and Laura Allen, both restoration activists and educators, demand a different approach for American watersheds and taxpayers. Through their own experiments with alternative water systems and thousands of hours of interviews with innovators from around the world, they create a comprehensive plan for re-using household water, constructing miniature wetlands, and improving our communities' physical and political healths.
"The politics of water - as this brilliant anthology makes clear - are the politics of human survival. Read this, and believe me, you'll never flush with the same equanimity again."—Mike Davis
"Water has joined oil as the key political liquids of our epoch, and this book will join Amita Baviskar's In the Belly of the River as a powerful weapon in the struggle of commoners everywhere against the neoliberal makeover of our world and its waters."—Iain Boal

Edited by the coauthors of the notorious zine The Guerrilla Graywater Girls Guide to Water, this collection of original essays, drawings, and photographs is part radical history of water and part DIY guide to disengaging one's home, school, or workplace from the wasteful water grid. The pieces are arranged in three sections: "Water Wars" focuses on the history and politics of dams and water infrastructure; "The Water Grid" chronicles the rise of energy-intensive, polluting sewage treatment plants, and points out alternative systems; and "Watershed" examines the often destructive relationship between human settlements and nature, but finds hope in the experiences of those involved in watershed restoration.