lol unprecedented? The entire country of LA would not exist without the early-LA government buying up water rights in the eastern sierras to pipe to LA, and then telling the local farmers there they were shit outta luck the first time drought hit.

If anyone is interested in Western US water rights - Cadillac Desert by Marc Reisner is a great book. I usually recommend at least the first quarter of it, as it gets pretty dry and repetitive in the second half. But the first couple chapters talk about the first expedition down the Colorado River and early water rights, which was super interesting. Second half of the book mostly goes over large water projects like dams and aquaducts.

Do you live in a major US city? Police 1000% frequently sepenia businesses for CCTV footage, and are increasingly getting standing access to existing cameras. And to a lesser degree I believe they are installing their own cameras, but I have hit my limit of finding sources for someone else’s comment while taking a shit.