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Chapter 5: Creating Water Companies
By 1926, the city needed more water, and it
wanted to buy the San Dieguito water system.
Spreckels wrote in his newspaper that buying
this system would solve San Diego’s water
supply problems. Fletcher opposed that plan,
however. He urged the people of the Irrigation
Districts to “free” themselves of “city domina-
tion and act for themselves.” Eventually, an
entirely different company, the San Diego
County Water Company, bought the system.
17
The San Diego County Water Company
was formed to develop Lake Henshaw in
the San Luis Rey watershed — with Fletcher
as a director. Built in 1922, Lake Henshaw
supplied water to Escondido Mutual
Water
Company and Vista Irrigation District, with little
left over for the city of San Diego. The Lake
Henshaw system was acquired by the Vista
Irrigation District in 1946.
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The city of San Diego still needed more
water and was clai
ming water rights to the
San Diego River. The city filed for a dam site
on the river. Fletcher proposed a dam site
he owned at
Mission Gorge. This ti
me,
Spreckels used his newspaper to turn
public opinion against Fletcher’s proposal
and lobbied instead for a dam farther north
at El
Capitan, a site that Fletcher’s Cuyamaca
Water Company also owned.
1869 Kimball Brothers Water Company
Supplied by the Sweetwater Reservoir on the
Sweetwater River. Sold water to irrigators.
1873 San Diego Water Company
First water company in the city of San Diego.
Sold water from the San Diego River to the city’s urban and domestic use.
1886 San Diego Flume Company
Formed by Theodore Van Dyke and others to sell
water
i
mpounded in the Cuyamaca Mountains to the city of San Diego. Bought by Edward Fletcher and
James Murray in 1910 and renamed Cuyamaca Water Company.
1894 Southern California Mountain Water Company
Formed by Adolph B. Spreckels and
E. S. Babcock, uniting several small
water companies into the largest irrigation system in U.S. at
the ti
me. Later promoted urban water use.
1901 Consolidated Water Company
Formed by city of San Diego, as the first municipally
owned water system. Bought water from San Diego Flume Company and Southern California
Mountain Water Company.
1910 Cuyamaca Water Company
Formed after Edward Fletcher and James Murray bought
the San Diego Flume Company. Promoted the use of
water for irrigation. Assets purchased by
La Mesa, Lemon Grove and Spring Valley Irrigation District, which became an operating district in
1926. Renamed Helix Irrigation District when it annexed El
Cajon Valley in 1956 under Harry
Griffen’s direction. Renamed Helix Water District in 1973, as the former agricultural area became
totally urban.
1918 San Dieguito Mutual
Water Company
Built Hodges Dam and Reservoir.
1920 San Diego County Water Company
Formed to build Lake Henshaw and Henshaw Dam.
1944
San Diego County Water Authority
Formed as a public agency to develop, i
mport and
distribute water that originated outside of the county.
MAJOR WATER PROVIDERS IN SAN DIEGO COUNTY