In some parts of California and Texas, a portion of the water supply is provided to consumers for almost nothing – delivered by a network of dams, reservoirs, and aqueducts that were built decades ago. The Hoover Dam, for example, which created Lake Mead, the largest reservoir in the US, was built in 1936 during the Great Depression as part of the New Deal.
在加州和德克萨斯州的一些地方，部分水以几乎免费的形式供应给消费者——通过几十年前建造的水坝、水库和水渠供水。比如，胡佛大坝（Hoover Dam）创造了美国最大的水库米德湖（Lake Mead），它建于大萧条期间，是罗斯福新政的一部分。即使联邦政府曾经想通过出售米德湖水获得投资回报，大坝的建设成本也早已收回。