This dissertation explores environmental settler colonialism and the creation of water policy in early Nevada. Much of the history of the Comstock Lode is centered in Virginia City with a focus upon silver mining and the engineering that made it all possible. Yet without water, …
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Urban development in the United States during the 20th century often occurred without fully considering the environmental and social implications of water management practices. These unchecked impacts create legacy problems that manifest both in the built environment and the ove…
Over the past few decades, nearshore rockfishes (Sebastes spp.) have experienced increased pressure from multiple fisheries throughout the Gulf of Alaska. The unique life history traits of rockfishes pose a host of challenges that make them difficult to monitor and vulnerable to…
Development has been occurring within New Jersey along the Raritan River floodplain for centuries resulting in numerous fatalities and expensive property damage. In the last century, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) has been the leading task force to combat flooding with…
This dissertation argues that since the mid-19th century, the transformation of São Paulo from provincial commercial town into megalopolis depended on remaking its relationship with water supply and the ways water flowed in and out of the urban sphere. Whereas previously the reg…
Access to clean drinking water is a basic human right, yet hundreds of millions of people around the planet are unfortunately forced to drink contaminated waters. Arsenic contaminated drinking water is responsible for the largest global mass poisoning in history in India and Ban…
Freshwater is an important commodity for society and for various flora and fauna that inhabit them. Smaller tributaries and subwatersheds contribute to downstream water quality and are crucial components in impairment remediation. Targeting upstream Mississippi River Alluvial Pl…
Zebra mussels (Dreissena polymorpha) are native to Europe and were first reported in North America in the late 1980s at Lake St. Clair in Michigan. They negatively impact ecosystems, recreation, and facilities that use surface water such as public water supply plants, power gene…
This thesis examines the recent emergence of “vulnerability to climate change” as a framework for development in rural Guyana. More specifically, I study experts’ use of the term “vulnerability” throughout the implementation of four recent water infrastructure projects on Indige…
This dissertation presents an in-depth study of one of the most controversial endangered species in United States history, and advances a theoretical framework for understanding the emergence of environmental problems in contemporary society. The delta smelt is a tiny fish found…
The White Clay Creek watershed in southeastern Pennsylvania and northern Delaware plays a vital role as an important drinking water source for communities in the watershed and as habitat for wildlife. As a critical link in the Delaware Estuary system it provides economic benefit…
Unlike most states west of the 100th meridian, California has, until recently, never enacted a comprehensive set of regulations to govern consumptive use of groundwater resources, even though groundwater provides between 40 percent and 60 percent of the water used by residents, …
Seasonal and ephemeral surface water resources are essential to human consumptive uses and the nourishment of aquatic habitats, but they are increasingly threatened by climate-change related impacts. Western North America, for example, has already experienced significant decline…
Silver carp (Hypophthalmichthys molitrix) is an invasive species to the United States that is capable of spawning multiple times within a single reproductive season. In 2016, an abundance of age-0 silver carp, with size-structure indicative of multiple hatch dates, were captured…
Movement and dispersal of migratory fish species is an important life history characteristic that can be impeded by navigation dams. Although habitat fragmentation may be detrimental to native fish species, it can act as an effective and economical barrier for controlling the sp…
The United States and the world have recently been challenged with the disparate effects of COVID-19 and the continual killings of unarmed Black men and women across the nation. A history of anti-black racism has led to systemic structures of inequity that thread throughout inst…
This project examines how indigenous agrarian communities in Mexico’s Central Highlands used both legal and extralegal strategies to maintain their access to water while facing increasing environmental changes and competition from private landholders, cities, and other indigenou…
New Mexico’s Gila River is the last major free-flowing Southwestern river network that provides an array of resources, or ecosystem services (ES), throughout the riverine ecosystem. For decades, the unique landscape surrounding the river has been the focus of various conservatio…
Making Water Pure: A History of Water Softening from Potash to Tide, is a history of water softening in the United States from 1860 through 1970. Water’s materiality, specifically its tendency to dissolve geological features, consistently interfered with labor processes, especia…