Talking Through Water: Experts, Environmentalists, and Their Publics, 1944 to 1977

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dc.contributor.advisorMcPherson, Kathryn M.
dc.contributor.authorDyck, Karen Angela
dc.date.accessioned2023-12-08T14:50:11Z
dc.date.available2023-12-08T14:50:11Z
dc.date.issued2023-12-08
dc.date.updated2023-12-08T14:50:10Z
dc.degree.disciplineHistory
dc.degree.levelDoctoral
dc.degree.namePhD - Doctor of Philosophy
dc.description.abstractIn response to the repeated droughts of the early twentieth century in northeastern North Dakota, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation planned a large-scale diversion project called the Garrison Diversion Unit (GDU). The GDU, a multipurpose engineering project, received its first approval in 1944 promising to redirect water from the North Dakota segment of the Missouri River through a system of dams, reservoirs, and canals for the purpose of irrigation, hydroelectricity, industrial and municipal water supply, expansion of recreation areas, and enhancement of fish and wildlife areas. The engineers who planned the GDU failed to consider the environmental impacts or international political implications of the diversion of the project’s irrigation return flows from one watershed to another and across the border into Canada. Although the project itself remains unfinished to this day, the GDU debates that raged between 1940 and 1977 provide invaluable insights into the professionalization of environmental experts, international water diplomacy, and the role of the public in the realization of mega water projects. From the GDU’s inception, various groups and individuals have contested this project. This dissertation examines how knowledge of water, technology, and public policy was mobilized in various sites of debate during a critical period in the development of environmental policy in America. I analyzed three sites of the debate: the promotion of the project by its leading engineering figurehead, the scientific and environmental organizations and committees that debated the environmental impacts of the project, and the international commission that engaged local users for the first time to determine the project’s future. I found that economic, social, political, and cultural arguments and language, rather than scientific evidence, shaped the dialogue, allowing both experts and non-experts to engage in the debate using various types of knowledge. This dissertation argues that the GDU, the reports it generated, and the talk surrounding it did not only describe the physical engineering edifices being proposed; they also and perhaps more importantly, revealed the GDU as an envirotechnical system that provided experts and non-experts alike with opportunities to communicate, translate, and challenge one another’s ideas about technology and the environment.
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/10315/41785
dc.languageother
dc.rightsAuthor owns copyright, except where explicitly noted. Please contact the author directly with licensing requests.
dc.subjectEnvironmental science
dc.subjectHistory
dc.subjectRhetoric
dc.subject.keywordsAmerican history
dc.subject.keywordsApplication of science to public decision making
dc.subject.keywordsBorder waters
dc.subject.keywordsBoundary Waters Treaty
dc.subject.keywordsCanadian history
dc.subject.keywordsCold War history
dc.subject.keywordsCouncil for Environmental Quality
dc.subject.keywordsDevelopment of environmental policy
dc.subject.keywordsDevelopment of public policy
dc.subject.keywordsDiscourse Analysis
dc.subject.keywordsDoubt mongering
dc.subject.keywordsEcological contamination of international waters
dc.subject.keywordsEnvironmental activism
dc.subject.keywordsEnvironmental consciousness
dc.subject.keywordsEnvirotech history
dc.subject.keywordsEnvironmental history
dc.subject.keywordsEnvironmental Impact Statement
dc.subject.keywordsEnvironmental policy development
dc.subject.keywordsEnvironmental pollution governance
dc.subject.keywordsEvolution of transboundary environmental law and governance
dc.subject.keywordsGarrison Diversion history
dc.subject.keywordsGarrison Diversion Unit
dc.subject.keywordsFact uncertainty
dc.subject.keywordsFort Berthold Reservation
dc.subject.keywordsHistory of American west
dc.subject.keywordsHuman ecology history
dc.subject.keywordsHydroelectricity
dc.subject.keywordsImplementation of National Environmental Policy Act
dc.subject.keywordsInteractions of society and technology and the environment
dc.subject.keywordsInternational Garrison Diversion Study Board
dc.subject.keywordsInternational geopolitics
dc.subject.keywordsInternational Joint Commission history
dc.subject.keywordsInternational rivers
dc.subject.keywordsInternational water conflict
dc.subject.keywordsInternational water governance
dc.subject.keywordsInternational water rights
dc.subject.keywordsIrrigation projects
dc.subject.keywordsIrrigation return flows and international waters
dc.subject.keywordsLake Sakakawea
dc.subject.keywordsMcClusky Canal
dc.subject.keywordsManitoba Environmental Council
dc.subject.keywordsManitoba history
dc.subject.keywordsMega water projects
dc.subject.keywordsMilo Hoisveen
dc.subject.keywordsMissouri River Watershed
dc.subject.keywordsModernization of American agricultural industry
dc.subject.keywordsMultipurpose water management projects
dc.subject.keywordsMunicipal water supply
dc.subject.keywordsNational Audubon Society
dc.subject.keywordsNational Environmental Policy Act
dc.subject.keywordsNorth Dakota history
dc.subject.keywordsNorth Dakota State Water Commission
dc.subject.keywordsNorth Dakota State Water Engineer
dc.subject.keywordsPick Sloan Missouri River Basin
dc.subject.keywordsPolicy makers and stakeholders
dc.subject.keywordsProfessionalization of environmental experts
dc.subject.keywordsPublic consultation
dc.subject.keywordsPublic hearings
dc.subject.keywordsQuestioning our experts
dc.subject.keywordsRed River Watershed
dc.subject.keywordsRhetoric analysis
dc.subject.keywordsRelationship between science and policy
dc.subject.keywordsRise of environmental expertise
dc.subject.keywordsRise of environmental science
dc.subject.keywordsRise of scientific expertise
dc.subject.keywordsRiver engineering
dc.subject.keywordsRole of public testimony
dc.subject.keywordsScience and technology studies
dc.subject.keywordsScientific debates
dc.subject.keywordsScientific expertise
dc.subject.keywordsScientific knowledge
dc.subject.keywordsScientific uncertainty
dc.subject.keywordsSelling authority
dc.subject.keywordsSouris River Basin
dc.subject.keywordsTechnocrat
dc.subject.keywordsTechnology
dc.subject.keywordsTechnology to control the environment
dc.subject.keywordsThe Institute of Ecology
dc.subject.keywordsTrust in expertise
dc.subject.keywordsTwentieth century
dc.subject.keywordsU.S. Bureau of Reclamation
dc.subject.keywordsU.S. Army Corps of Engineers
dc.subject.keywordsU.S. Fish and Wildlife Services
dc.subject.keywordsWater resource management
dc.subject.keywordsWildlife conservation
dc.titleTalking Through Water: Experts, Environmentalists, and Their Publics, 1944 to 1977
dc.typeElectronic Thesis or Dissertation

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