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Chapter 7: Colorado River
Water
With the City and the County both having
rights under the federal
water delivery contract
and both wanting access to i
mported water,
distribution of that water would eventually
require a change in structure: the creation of
a county water authority to i
mport water to
the region.
THE WAR YEARS: THE NAVY
INFLUENCES WATER SUPPLIES
The need for a county water authority to
distribute i
mported water still seemed far off in
1940. With a population of 290,000 and the
new El
Capitan Reservoir, the city thought it
had enough water. In addition, there was still
no aqueduct for receiving the i
mported water.
That sense of contentment changed when the
Japanese bombed Pearl
Harbor and the
United States entered World War II.
San Diego became a hub of
Naval activity,
with military and construction workers flocking
to the area. The city’s population nearly dou-
bled in two years, to 500,000. Water use
also doubled, but luckily the rainy years before
the war left the reservoirs bri
mming. Still, it
was clear that the city
—
and the Navy
—
would soon need the water from the Colorado
River. An aqueduct for bringing water to San
Diego became a top priority.
The Navy was willing to help build an
aqueduct and let the city pay it back later.
The Navy thought the fastest way to get
Colorado River water to San Diego was to
build a pipeline from Metropolitan’s Colorado
River Aqueduct, which had already started
delivering water to Los Angeles. San Diego
saw its hope for a diversion from the All-
American Canal in jeopardy, and the city
worried that the Navy’s plan called for an
aqueduct that was only half the capacity
the city would eventually need. The city
reasoned that adding just another foot to
the planned six-foot-diameter pipe would
increase capacity by 50 percent but add
only 4 percent to the cost.
5
The Navy,
however, needed a fast solution to an
i
mmediate problem and was not in the
business of promoting the city’s long-term
interests. President Roosevelt settled the
issue in an executive order, directing the
Navy to build a six-foot-diameter pipeline from
Metropolitan’s aqueduct
—
rather than one
from the All-American Canal. San Diego
would get neither the additional capacity nor
independence from Metropolitan.
As these negotiations progressed, then State
Senator Ed Fletcher introduced a bill in 1943
for the formation of the San Diego County
Reinforcing steel for the cut and cover section of the first
San Diego Aqueduct, April 1947