EL CENTRO – Imperial Valley settler Edgar Powell once observed that this desert has been dismissed as "the land that God forgot."
"It is not true," Powell declared. "It is the land that man, in the building of Southern California, forgot."
Jan. 2, 2003 Dampened hopes: Now that a sweeping water pact involving California and six other states has collapsed, the inevitable question arises: What now?
Dec. 8, 2002 Imperial decision: John Wesley Powell, the famed one-armed explorer of the Colorado River, once said that "land as mere land is of no value. What is really valuable is the water privilege."
About the series
This is an occasional series exploring how the proposed water transfer between Imperial and San Diego counties could affect the water future for all of Southern California.