Excerpt
Excerpt from Chapter 33 of The Man Who Made it Rain
Today’s business had been simple. Find some money to pay for the water he’d already found but couldn’t afford. So far the financial commitments were starting to mount up. He had a deal with the Los Angeles Metropolitan Water Authority for enough water to last Marin County the entire summer, but he had no commitment from his board or anyone else to raise water rates, again, or any other local source of money to pay for the water. He had ordered coupling for six miles of piping from Texas, deliverable via airfreight, without mentioning his lack of signing authority. He had agreed to pay for connection of pipelines in the East Bay, and he also needed to put out a contract to actually build the pipeline. He had no money to pay for any of this, and he’d had no real authority to make these decisions but, flying by the seat of his pants, there was really no time to hold a board meeting, and he had the nagging feeling that if he did, then things would become far more complex.
So far, the board had been quite supportive of all his decisions, but were laying low in the background, as befits all good politicians, watching which way the wind blew. If Diet pulled off his coup—finding water for Marin, thereby stopping the county from drifting away like dust in the wind—he would get the credit and glory. If he got caught short somewhere along the line, as in being unable to build the pipeline or find the money to pay for it, it would be his own neck on the line. He could kiss his career goodbye, and he knew it.
Today’s trip to Sacramento, for instance, had been a failure. His overtures to state politicians had produced no action, and certainly no commitments of any financial support. Reading between the lines, the word was that Marin was a very rich county, and if it refused to join the state water supply system, then it was damn well on its own and could pay for its own pipeline. Lining up a deal with L.A. Met had been the state’s main contribution to Marin’s drought crisis; now Diet was on his own and he knew it.
It was somewhere around Davis that the tension and the overwork and the long hours and the endless meetings and the frustration and the anxiety rose up from his subconscious, where they had lain like dank weeds for weeks, silently growing in the dark places of his mind, and burst forth into his consciousness. Mentally, he started a checklist of things yet to do and meetings yet to call, and underneath the 18-hour days was the silent horror that he had committed himself to a course of action wherein a certain amount of luck would be necessary to come out on the positive side of the ledger, and counting on luck is not usually a component of any engineer’s thought process.
Toting up his worries, Diet began to sweat. It was a warm day, but not warm enough to raise a sweat. He wound down the window an inch and got a blast of air. Finding he still couldn’t breathe, he wound the window back up but he still couldn’t get a full breath. He loosened his collar, putting his tie in his pocket, but by now his attention wasn’t on the road but on his chest.
“I can’t believe it,” he said out loud, to no one, “I can’t breathe.”
On the right, a sign indicated an exit to the outskirts of Vacaville. Struggling hard to maintain his composure, Diet pulled over to the exit and drove slowly along the off-ramp to the first place he could safely stop. Parking the car on the side of the road, he opened the driver’s door and staggered out. Leaning against the side of the car, he wondered if he was having a heart attack. His chest was so tight he couldn’t get a breath, and he felt quite light-headed.
“My god,” he thought. “Am I going to bite the dust right here, in the dirt on an off-ramp to Vacaville? That’s not the way I planned to check out.”
Behind him the traffic roared and growled on I-80. A dirty haze filtered up from the freeway and the air reeked of gasoline. The sky was a pale robin’s egg blue, with a smattering of clouds drifting in from the Pacific, light gray in tone but getting darker to the west.
“I wonder if it’s going to rain?” he thought, as he blacked out.
Reviews
This book is a cautionary tale that reminds us that with vision, creativity and cooperation, we can make the impossible work.
—John Burton, former State Senator and Congressman
For those of us in the Bay Area and specifically the citizens of Marin County, this book brings back memories of a bad time but with a positive ending. For those unfamiliar with the “great Marin drought of the seventies” this story builds with each chapter, causing the reader to “keep turning pages” to find out what happens. This being a true story proves once again that truth more often than not holds the reader better than any fiction – the drought could happen in anyone’s community and probably will, sooner than later.
—Franklin J. Argardy, Ph.D. Forensic Management Associates, Inc.
We are now clearly witnessing the effects of global warming. In California, snow is falling at higher elevations and melting faster, and the sea level is on the rise. While chronicling extraordinary measures taken by one Northern California community in response to a very serious drought in the mid-70’s, The Man Who Made it Rain, poses some serious questions. It also makes a clear case that each of us has a responsibility to take part in the solution. Entire new approaches are needed to better manage our most precious resources. This book is not only very relevant and entertaining, it is also an urgent wake up call.
—Grant Davis, Executive Director of The Bay Institute, an advocacy organization dedicated to restoring the San Francisco Bay-Delta watershed. He serves on the Department of Water Resources' California Water Plan Advisory Committee, and is currently Vice Chair of the Bay Area Water Forum.
As a resident of Marin County and a forecaster of the weather for a local TV station during the Great California Drought of 1976-77, I was especially intrigued by The Man Who Made it Rain. Michael McCarthy weaves history, science and lively anecdotes into an absorbing chronicle of one of the worse droughts in California’s recorded history.
—Joel Bartlett, ABC News
In this exciting novel, readers get an insider’s glimpse into the true experiences of Diet Stroeh, a water engineer and enterprise manager as he dealt with a genuine water crisis in Northern California. Author Michael McCarthy creates an urgent story, illuminating what surely is the critical issue of our times. Weaving fact with fiction, he chronicles the real-life drama of Stroeh the water leader, who is usually relegated to public obscurity, unless and until there is a drought or shortage crisis. This story of personal and professional challenge will make readers appreciate their next drink of water.
—Jerome B. Gilbert, National and International Water Expert
As I read The Man Who Made it Rain, I kept thinking about a man who demonstrated by example, that it is possible for one person to make a difference. Diet Stroeh’s vision, determination, self-confidence and credibility, mobilized the likes of politicians Barbara Boxer, Gary Giacomini, Bill Filante, John Burton and Jimmy Carter to help the people of Marin County in what was a true emergency. It is a wonderful book full of “colorful characters.” What a story!
— Mary Jane Burke, Marin County Superintendent of Schools
