UNLOCKING A CITY’S PROMISE The controversial history of the Aqueduct

BY KATE SHIRLEY

Since the beginning of the 20th A Key to Growth century, Los Angeles has grown more than any other major first-world The engineer who headed the aqueduct metropolitan region save Tokyo, project was , an thanks in large part to the engineering Irish immigrant who began his career marvel that is the Los Angeles as a ditch tender for the . Stretching 233 miles from City Water Company. He moved up the the Valley in eastern ranks to become the first superintendent to Los Angeles in the south, of the newly-formed Los Angeles Water its completion in 1913 transformed Department in 1902. Mulholland was what was once a dusty town of barely acutely aware of the water shortages in 90,000 people into the flourishing city Los Angeles, and published an annual of four million people it is today. report assessing the water needs of the city. In 1902, the populace was While this enormous project had a consuming over 26 million gallons profound effect on the destiny of Los every day. A water metering system Angeles, it was extremely controversial was introduced in 1903 to regulate among residents of the Owens River consumption, but by then the city’s Valley, a small farming and ranching population had ballooned to almost enclave nestled between the Sierra 200,000, straining the the city’s only Nevada and the White Mountains. source of water, the Los Angeles River. The aqueduct’s construction essentially This usage, plus several years of drought, eliminated the as a led Mulholland to investigate potential viable farming community and had a cources of a more reliable water supply. devastating effect on the ecosystem. While the trade-off was a Along with the need to sustain the severe one with high stakes on both ends, growing population, another powerful the City of Los Angeles has since initiated force behind the project was money. various mitigation efforts to help heal the A group known as the “San Fernando small eastern valley to which it owes so Syndicate,” comprised of wealthy much of its good fortune. railroad barons, land developers and

38 Right of Way MARCH/APRIL 2014 local power players, started buying up system. Eaton pulled strings on reached the L.A. area, it would be stored much of the land in the San Fernando both the state and federal level, and met in the , which Valley at bargain prices. These savvy with advisers to the environmentally– extends 226 square miles and has a total businessmen knew that the lack of water conscious President storage capacity of almost 3.7 million was the only thing holding back the to convince them that the Owens River acre-feet. massive growth potential of the area. would serve a greater good by flowing UNLOCKING Their ability to develop this dusty land from Los Angeles faucets rather than into Even opponents of the project couldn’t into profitable farmland – and eventually Owens Valley orchards and fields. Their argue with its brilliantly simple concept. valuable suburban developments – held efforts proved successful, and the Bureau The water makes its long trip south the potential of untold riches. of Reclamation project was cancelled. The simply by the force of gravity. The system A CITY’S PROMISE land reserved for this project was then is also cost-efficient as the water generates The syndicate used their powerful held in abeyance and not reintroduced electricity along the way. The Los Angeles connections to pave the way for the into the public domain for resale. Department of Water and Power (then aqueduct project to aquire public approval This allowed the Los Angeles Water the Bureau of Water Works and Supply) and financing. It began in 1899, with the Department to buy up the land with no first offered municipal electricity services court decision Los Angeles v. Pomeroy, in competition. in 1917, with a hydroelectric power which Los Angeles won the rights to all plant that received its power from the surface flow water atop the large natural During this time, Eaton travelled to the aqueduct. This plant is still in operation aquifer beneath the San Fernando Valley, Owens Valley to purchase water rights today. despite the fact that it was not within and land options for the city, falsely city limits at the time. The Los Angeles claiming he was there on behalf of the The original plan called for a project Times, whose publisher had important Bureau of Reclamation to help with speed of 16 feet of tunnel dug per day, but financial stakes in the project, then the soon-to-be-cancelled irrigation construction moved more quickly than launched an aggressive public relations project. As if that wasn’t enough, Eaton anticipated, and the project finished campaign to get public support behind proceeded to purchase large parcels of 20 months early. In November 1913, the aqueduct plan. The Times touted the Owens Valley land for himself, with the 30,000 celebrants showed up from all aqueduct as a necessary solution to recent hope that he would cash in when the city water shortages, fomenting fear that the of Los Angeles had to buy his land to city would soon cease to exist without a complete the project. This brazen bid for new water source. This support from the personal financial gain led to a rift with largest paper in the area was a key factor Mulholland that eventually destroyed in convincing Los Angeles voters, who their relationship. overwhelmingly approved a $25 million bond measure to pay for the aqueduct’s Despite the questionable means by construction in 1907. which they were procured, now with the legislation, financing and land rights in Acquiring the Land place, construction of the project could finally begin. Fred Eaton, an engineer and former Los Angeles mayor, first suggested to A Force of Gravity Mulholland that he look outside the city limits to find the water the city so Construction started in 1908, and at desperately needed – specifically in the times the sheer enormity of the project Owens Valley. The Owens River followed made it seem like an impossible feat. a natural course south toward Los The original aqueduct infrastructure Angeles, a direct route to the mountains consisted of 24 miles of open unlined north of the city, where it could be canal, 37 miles of lined open canal, 97 stored and diverted to thirsty urban miles of covered concrete conduit, 43 communities. miles of concrete tunnels, 12 miles of steel siphons and three reservoirs. During Mulholland and Eaton encountered construction, engineers erected 120 miles their first major obstacle with the of railroad track, 170 miles of power newly established Federal Bureau of lines, 240 miles of telephone lines and 500 Reclamation, which had pledged to miles of roads to support the project and initiate a program to help the farmers and move workers and supplies to and from The 233-mile aqueduct winds its way from the ranchers of Owens Valley improve their job sites. The plan was, once the water Owens River Valley in , down to the densely-populated city of Los Angeles.

MARCH/APRIL 2014 Right of Way 39 over the west to see the opening of the last tunnel of the aqueduct. As Mulholland opened the tunnel and the water surged down into the awaiting development of suburban Los Angeles, he uttered perhaps the most famous words in city history as he turned the aqueduct over to the mayor – “There it is. Take it.”

Mitigation Efforts

The population in Los Angeles soon skyrocketed, and the city started pumping more groundwater from beneath the This photo of Owens Lake shows the white deposits at the bottom of the lake, as well as the portions Owens River Valley. Furthermore, soon being mitigated to reduce dust (blue and green areas). after Los Angeles began diverting the water that fed Owens Lake, the lake months later, valley residents occupied went dry and the dust of the lakebed A City Reborn the gates and opened the emergency was exposed to the fierce winds of the spillway - thus diverting the Los Angeles valley. The lakebed area spanned nearly In the San Fernando Valley, the aqueduct water supply back into the scorched bed 100 square miles, and the resulting dust water shifted farming from wheat to of Owens Lake. Mulholland dispatched pollution caused serious damage to the irrigated crops, and farming continued until armed guards to the area, and the conflict area’s air quality. Today, Owens Lake the next phase of development converted eventually subsided. However, as no remains the greatest single source of dust the land use and post-World War II mitigation efforts were put into place, pollution in the . suburbanization took hold in the area. The the problems persisted, and in 1976, advent of three new industries – motion violence erupted again, after Los Angeles As Fred Eaton’s secret land deals and legal pictures, automobiles and aircraft – also announced plans to further increase its maneuverings that laid the groundwork spurred urbanization and population growth groundwater pumping. The Alabama for the aqueduct became public in the valley. World War II production and Gates were bombed yet again, followed by knowledge, a culture of mistrust among the subsequent postwar boom accelerated dynamite launched into the Mulholland valley residents soon arose. In May 1924, this growth, and by 1960, the valley had a Memorial fountain near Los Angeles. tensions boiled over when local farmers population of well over one million. Today, These altercations became know as the dynamited the Alabama Gates, a portion that number has nearly doubled. California Water Wars. of the aqueduct where operators could divert water in case of an overflow. Six And there is no denying the powerful effect Eighty years after the dust storms the L.A. Aqueduct had on developing the began and following 30 years of legal City of Los Angeles. Within 20 years of battles, Los Angeles established a dust completing the project, the city boasted a mitigation project in the Owens Valley. population of 1.2 million people, and grew In July 1998, Los Angeles and the Air from 61 square miles to 400 square miles. Pollution Control District entered into an Today, Los Angeles is the second largest agreement to reverse some of the damage city in the United States, and includes many to Owens Lake. As of 2013, the Los outlying areas that annexed to the city once Angeles Department of Water and Power it became clear that the move would allow (LADWP) has controlled dust at Owens their communities to have better access to Lake primarily by flooding the lakebed reliable, clean water. using excess water from the aqueduct, at a total cost of more than $1 billion. In other While the aqueduct project resulted in portions of the lake, gravel has been used a devastating outcome for the Owens to keep the dust down. In April 2013, River Valley, there is now renewed hope LADWP proposed a new conservation that the region can be healed. Modern plan that would reduce the water used for ethical practices and protective policies these efforts by at least 50 percent. Under have gone a long way toward righting the the new plan, dust will be controlled wrongs of the past. Still, one certainty that through other measures such as tillage, remains is that there is no question as to Crews constructing the aqueduct in 1910. Thousands vegetation, water from groundwater the lasting success of the aqueduct and of workers were involved with the project, thanks sources, as well as the use of additional to high turnover due largely to the harsh living and the tremendous growth it facilitated in working conditions that came with the job. gravel and brine. Southern California. J

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