ABSTRACT
The Klamath Basin, a watershed spanning southern Oregon and northern California, received international attention when in the drought summer of 2001, the Bureau of Reclamation halted irrigation deliveries of water to protect endangered fish that had been listed under the Endangered Species Act. This decision fueled heated controversy and intense conflict between land owners, tribal members, and the federal government. The Deschutes Basin, just south of the Klamath, contains a remarkably similar range of conflicting interests groups and endangered aquatic species. But the history of water management in the Deschutes has been quite different from the Klamath, and has so far managed to avoid such eruptions between water users. This chapter illustrates how water politics are motivated not simply by economic incentives and/or political structures, but by the force of collective public feelings. I illustrate how it was the mobilization of affect, primarily in the form of collective fear that arose in the wake of the Klamath crisis, which motivated Deschutes stakeholders to adopt new water management strategies. Considering affect in the realm of water thus helps us to broaden our understanding of power and political action with respect to contemporary water politics.
