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Chapter 6: Pueblo Water Rights
development. However, they were pivotal in
the development of
California’s two largest
cities: Los Angeles and San Diego.
In 1870, Los Angeles clai
med that a land-
owner on the former Rancho Los Feliz was
encroaching on the city’s ancient pueblo water
rights that had been granted by the King of
Spain in the Plan of Pitic.
3
The city argued that
it inherited the status of pueblo in the Treaty of
Guadalupe-Hidalgo and therefore could pre-
vent a private landowner from using water from
the Los Angeles River. The rancho had begun
diverting water after the pueblo was founded,
but no one had objected at the ti
me. By
1870, however, Los Angeles wanted to safe-
guard its rights to the river for the future, so it
sued the Vernon Irrigation District that was
supplying the landowner. The city lost two
cases because the courts upheld that the
landowner’s location by the river (riparian rights)
and long-standing use of the water (appropria-
tive rights) could not be denied. Los Angeles
appealed to the state Supreme Court in 1895
and submitted statements about the Plan of
Pitic. The irrigation district did not submit any
materials supporting the exceptions to a
pueblo’s absolute rights, because it was
confident the court would base its opinion on
its undeniable riparian and appropriative rights.
The irrigation district’s assumption was wrong.
The Supreme Court took the city’s assertion of
exclusive pueblo rights at face value and ruled
in the city’s favor.
4
In the 1920s, the city of San Diego based a
case against the Cuyamaca Water Company
on the Los Angeles precedent. The city
argued that because it also had pueblo status,
it could prevent the La Mesa, Lemon Grove
and Spring Valley Irrigation District’s upstream
diversions. The Supreme Court ruled for the
city in 1930, thus allowing the El
Capitan Dam
to go forward.
The city’s ability to increase its
water supply came at a ti
me
when urban areas were starting
to contribute more to the eco-
nomic strength of the state —
and urban populations continued
to grow. Soon, the city would
outgrow even the supply created
by the El
Capitan Dam. By that
ti
me, the city and county were
jointly searching for new supplies
outside the county’s boundaries,
and the new, i
mported water
would benefit both urban
and agricultural users.
People walking on top of dam at El
Capitan dedication, February 1935
The San Diego Historical
Society