Water Shock

The Day Southern California Went Dry

What happens when evil people, true believers, natural disasters, and failed water policy meet? Metahydro’s water expert Charlie Reagan does battle with all of them in this forward-looking novel about what could really happen to Southern California in just a few short years. It’s a bleak future that doesn’t have to come true if you understand how it could become real history. Water has always shaped history in North America, often the result of greed and large egos that have temporarily altered our ecosystem. Bad public water policy—from resistance, to recycling water, to what we pay for it— could plunge the whole region into a fight over national borders. The shock can be so sudden, San Diego could return to being the arid desert it once was, and you could find yourself crossing the border into Utah from Mexico along with millions of others seeking water. “Mr. Burgess’ well-researched book crafts a prophetic and frightening tale of how quickly the fragile infrastructure supplying water to the arid American west can be wiped away.” – Peter DeMarco, Founder and Technical Director of the Plumbing Efficiency Research Coalition