History: 60 years of providing a safe and reliable water supply to the San
Diego region.
Key Milestones
in the Water Authority's History 
The history of the San Diego region revolves around a never-ending search for a safe, reliable water supply.
Today, the San Diego County Water Authority works with its 24 member
agencies to carry out this responsibility. This role links the Water Authority
with the Spanish missionaries and soldiers who arrived in the area in 1769,
swiftly realized the local water supply was small and erratic, and began "developing
water" (as water industry officials call it).
The Spaniards constructed a dam across the San Diego River and linked the resulting
reservoir with the Mission San Diego de Alcala via a six-mile aqueduct.
"Old Mission Dam was the first irrigation and domestic water system ever built by Europeans in the Far West," writes historian Kevin Starr in Material Dreams: Southern California Through the 1920s.
 Mission
Dam, which still exists in Mission Trails Regional Park, was only the first
water development project in San Diego County. Development accelerated greatly
in the second half of the 19th century. Private companies erected six major
dams on local rivers between 1887 and 1897. All six stand today, providing water
for residents.
"By the end of the last century, San Diego County could accurately be described as one of the major focal points of dam construction in the world, and by 1923 every major drainage system in the county included at least one reservoir," writes geographer Philip Pryde in his book San Diego: An Introduction to the Region.
Despite some temporary shortages, this system of local reservoirs provided sufficient water for the county until World War II, when a vastly expanded military presence practically doubled the population in six years.
 Enter
the San Diego County Water Authority, which was organized June 9, 1944 as a
public agency to administer the region's Colorado River water rights. Water
from the river first arrived locally -- in the new San Vicente Reservoir --
in November 1947.
Since then, the Water Authority has met its mission of providing San Diego
County with a safe, reliable and cost-effective supply of imported water.
The Water Authority wholesales imported water to its member agencies, which
in turn deliver the water to individual homes and businesses throughout the
county. The county's 2.7 million residents typically rely on imported water
for 90 percent of their total supply in a typical year.
When the Water Authority first began operations, it was concerned solely with
securing a reliable imported water supply and then delivering it to the San
Diego region. The agency did this by working with the Navy and federal Bureau
of Reclamation to construct the first two pipelines linking San Diego County
and the Colorado River Aqueduct, which is owned and operated by the Metropolitan
Water District of Southern California.
 After
the second pipeline was completed in 1952, the Water Authority itself installed
three more pipelines, leaving the region with five large-diameter pipelines
that extend north-south throughout the county. These pipes are kept filled with
water from the Colorado and from Northern California, via the State Water Project.
But the Water Authority has never been a simple "pass-through" agency that
buys water from Metropolitan and sells it to its member agencies. By virtue
of its origin, the agency always has been active on the state and federal levels
as well.
For example, the Navy had planned to construct Pipeline 1 to ensure it would have enough water for its local installations. But after World War II ended, the project was canceled to save money.
Representatives of the Water Authority and other water agencies joined with
local Navy officials to urge a reversal of the decision. Congress finally agreed
and voted to build the pipeline (with costs to be repaid by the Water Authority
and the Metropolitan).
A similar struggle was necessary to get Pipeline 2 constructed in 1952.
Water Authority officials such as Board Chairman Fred A. Heilbron and General
Counsel William H. Jennings, joined by Water Authority and Metropolitan Director
Harry Griffen, also were part of the statewide effort to gain approval of the
Burns-Porter Act authorizing the State Water Project. The State Legislature
approved the act in 1959; California voters authorized funding a year later.
The State Water Project today transports water from Northern California rivers
to urban residents and farmers throughout central and southern California, including
San Diego County.
The Water Authority also led the battle for the peripheral canal in 1982. The
canal, which would have delivered water around the Sacramento-San Joaquin River
Delta directly to State Water Project pumps, was defeated by the voters statewide
but received 73 percent of San Diego County's votes.
Water Authority officials currently work in Sacramento and Washington, D.C.,
in many areas. The Water Authority promotes legislation facilitating water conservation
and reclamation programs. It joins with other urban water agencies to support
legislation that will allow California farmers to voluntarily sell their water
to meet the needs of thirsty cities and industry.
 Much
of the agency's attention is devoted to issues surrounding the Sacramento-San
Joaquin River Delta, an environmentally significant area that also is a water
source for San Diego County and much of the rest of California. The Water Authority
is encouraging legislation that will meet both environmental and water supply
needs in the optimal fashion.
Unlike their predecessors of 50 years ago, current Water Authority officials
also are involved with development of local water resources. The agency works
with its member agencies to expand programs that reclaim and reuse wastewater
and allow maximum use of groundwater sources.
Water conservation also plays a
major role in the Water Authority's efforts. The agency promotes installation
of water-tight plumbing fixtures in homes and businesses, informs the public
about low-water-use landscaping and, in general, encourages water-wise behavior
as a way of life for county residents.
This is not to say the Water Authority has forgotten its roots as an agency
that builds and maintains pipelines and, in general, moves the water to where
it is needed. Through its Capital Improvement Program,
the Water Authority is constructing pipelines -- and improving existing facilities
-- throughout the county.
The program, which is designed to meet the regional water infrastructure needs
into the next century, will allow the Water Authority to import more water into
the county and transport it locally as efficiently as possible.
In addition, through its Emergency Water Storage
Project, the Water Authority built the 318-feet Olivenhain Dam and Reservoir
as part of an overall effort to ensure the county has sufficient water to endure
a prolonged, emergency interruption of its imported water supply without severe
economic damage. Potential expansion of existing reservoirs is under study as
well.
The Olivenhain Dam and Reservoir is the Water Authority's first. It is part
of the historic thread that runs back to old Mission Dam as part of the ongoing
effort to meet local water needs.
| 
