Birth of L.A.’s Water Lifeline

By Carol Bidwell, Los Angeles Daily News

It was 94 years ago this week that the first water flowed from the Owens Valley into the San Fernando Valley, bringing water to parched Southern California.

The 233-mile-long Los Angeles Aqueduct was the realization of a vision by former Los Angeles Mayor Fred Eaton and William Mulholland, chief engineer for the city’s Water Department.

The trickle of water that soon became a gush just north of where Sylmar is today turned this part of the state from a land of farms, dependent on annual rainfall, to a land of homes and cities.

"There it is. Take it," Mulholland said tersely to city officials on Nov. 5, 1913, as he unfurled the Stars and Stripes as a signal to release the water. And with an estimated 30,000 people watching, the water began to flow.

The new water system was seen as the solution to the chronic water problem for region, which had to rely on rain – stored in reservoirs and in natural underground aquifers, accessed by wells.

In early 1904, Eaton had taken Mulholland and a bottle of whiskey on a buggy ride to the Owens Valley, where he explained his vision of a giant aqueduct that would allow Los Angeles – whose development was hemmed in by its lack of ability to supply water – to grow.

Mulholland was immediately on board and championed passage of a $23 million bond issue to finance the aqueduct’s construction. He, Eaton and other powerbrokers in Los Angeles also began buying up land in the San Fernando

Valley, anticipating a boom once an adequate source of water was assured.

City residents voted nearly 11-to-1 to approve the water bond in the largest vote ever in the city for a special election, said Catherine Mulholland, engineer Mulholland’s granddaughter, in her 2000 book "William Mulholland and the Rise of Los Angeles."

Work on the aqueduct began in late 1908, with 5,000 workers laboring five years to complete the $23 million pipeline.

A week after the grand unveiling, Mullholland announced that the first delivery to city water mains had been completed. The system, he said, could deliver 40 million gallons a day.

It was the true beginning of the boom in growth for Southern California – one that benefited Eaton and other powerbrokers who’d bought up land in the Valley.

"Obviously, (Mulholland) did something right," said Steve Levin, project director for the nonprofit research group Center for Governmental Studies. "(Los Angeles) is a huge, thriving city. It has water flowing all the time. He was very instrumental in improving water conditions in Southern California."

After World War II, Los Angeles began the Mono Basin Project to provide even more water, tapping four of Mono Lake’s seven tributaries and building Crowley Lake and Grant Lake.

But because the capacity of the aqueduct was limited, the city was unable to take its full allotment of water from the Mono Basin. So in 1970, a second, 137-mile concrete conduit was built from Haiwee Reservoir in southern Inyo County to Los Angeles.

Years of arguments and lawsuits over water rights followed, and much of the fighting has been renewed in recent years as Southern California finds itself in the middle of another drought.

Complicating the lack of recent rainfall is a court ruling this summer that limits use of pumps sucking water from the Sacramento Delta. The pumps had been pumping so hard and fast that they were also sucking in – and killing – a small fish called the delta smelt. Find a way to pump water from the delta without killing the fish, a judge ordered, and the state shut down its pumps for nine days.

Since then, the pumps have been started again, but pump at a slower rate – and the amount of water shipped south has dwindled by an estimated 30 percent. The Metropolitan Water District, which delivers water to much of Southern California, has warned that mandatory rationing could become necessary for the first time since 1991. Long Beach has already limited the use of water for lawns and to wash driveways, and for patrons in restaurants. Other cities, including Los Angeles, are considering similar measures.

In Sacramento, dueling bond issues have been suggested, along with severe conservation measures. But politicians agree on one thing: There is enough water for the current population – but not the future.

Statewide, the population is projected to soar from its current 35 million to 60 million by 2050, according to Mark Cromer, a senior fellow for Californians for Population Stabilization.

In the six Southern California counties, a total of 700,000 new homes are planned in the next seven years.

Randy Fiorini, president of the Association of California Water Agencies, says the state relies on water conveyed through the delta for two-thirds of its water supply.

"But the delta is broken, and it is literally one big storm or one big earthquake away from disaster. That would leave Southern California without a major water supply source, with very real consequences for the economy, environment and the lifestyle that we all take for granted. The delta sounds far away, but it matters as much as anything in your backyard."

Sen. Dianne Feinstein is also pushing for increased attention to water facilities to keep supplies flowing.

"The delta is a critical water resource for all of California," she said at a summit in August.

With 25 million people depending on delta water, and the probability of an earthquake over 6.7-magnitude very likely in the next 30 years, "there are all indications that the delta could collapse, the water would be gone, there would be no water for drinking, there would be no water for agriculture, there would be no water for fish, marsh, ecosystems."

And Southern California would be right back where it started before Mulholland turned the tap on 94 years ago.

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