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24
Chapter 5: Creating Water Companies
Morena Dam also attracted the attention of
the national
magazine
Harper’s Weekly
. In
the issue of January 8, 1898, H. H. Gardiner
raved that it was a new wonder of the world
and would “not only furnish water to the city
of San Diego, but would also ‘reclai
m’ over
100,000 acres of farm or ranch land that are
now absolutely worthless.”
This clai
m was in fact exaggeration. The
water from Morena Reservoir would irrigate only
6,000 acres, not 100,000, when completed.
Furthermore, it held only 5 billion of its
15 billion-gallon capacity until the devastating
“Hatfield flood” of 1916.
14
URBAN & AGRICULTURAL WATER USES
During this ti
me, the city of San Diego was
organizing municipal ownership of its water
supply. In 1901, it formed the Consolidated
Water Company. The new company bought
the entire delivery system of the San Diego
Water Company and that portion of the
Southern California Mountain Water Company’s
delivery system that was within the city. The
financial burden of those investments prevent-
ed the company from buying any new water
supply assets for more than 10 years. In the
meanti
me, the city bought water from the
Flume Company, but when a prolonged
drought hit the county, the Flume Company
could not deliver the promised water. It lost
both credibility and good will, and the city
began buying water wholesale from the
Mountain Water Company.
Just before World War I, the city bought the
Cottonwood and Otay systems from the
Southern California Mountain Water Company
(Upper and Lower Otay,
Morena, Chollas and
the then-incomplete Barrett Dam and Dulzura
Conduit). It was not until 1909, though, that
the city could sell bonds to raise enough cash
to complete the Barrett Dam and Dulzura
Conduit and to undertake the ambitious El
Capitan Dam.
15
Damaged bridge
at Old Town after the 1916 flood
The San Diego Historical
Society