Basic HTML Version
44
Chapter 8:
Water From the North
WHAT GOES AROUND…
Back in 1848, the U.S. gained control of
San Diego County and replaced the Spanish
concept of communal rights to water with the
principle of individual, private ownership. Now,
about a hundred years later, water agencies
were revisiting the discarded Spanish concept
as they began to deliver water to places that
did not have it and had not been using it.
In San Diego County, the Water Authority
had initially been formed as a way to distribute
supplemental
water to agencies with existing
water supplies. Much of the county lacked
local
water resources, though, so the Water
Authority now took on the role of creating a
supply for new areas. One voice adamantly
opposed such a commitment: Arthur
Marston,
a board member of the Water Authority and an
i
mportant
merchant of the day. He believed
that future demands upon the supply would
greatly exceed what the Water Authority could
deliver, creating a dangerous situation for
the county.
3
Meanwhile, the members of the Metropolitan
Water District were in the same frame of
mind
as the Water Authority. They passed the
Laguna Declaration at a meeting in Laguna
Beach in the early 1950s, establishing
Metropolitan as a regional
water i
mporter
California aqueducts
OREGON
Lake
Oroville
Colorado
River
MEXICO
NEVADA
ARIZONIA
Santa Barbara
Los Angeles
San Diego
Sacramento
Owens
River
San Bernardino
Riverside
Feather
River
California
Aqueduct
Los Angeles
Aqueduct
Colorado River
Aqueduct
Lake
Skinner
Lake
Perris
Lake
Matthews
San Diego
Aqueducts
responsible for providing water to the district it
served. Originally,
Metropolitan supplemented
local supplies with Colorado River water, but it
opened the door to the future by defining its
mission: "When and as additional
water
resources are required to meet increasing
needs … , the Metropolitan Water District of
Southern California will be prepared to deliver
such supplies."
4
That short statement enabled
the development of
lands throughout the district
regardless of the availability of
adequate local
water supplies.
William Jennings commented,
“Now, this was a very pious
declaration, but of course, it was
another matter to i
mplement it.”
5
In saying that, he referred to
some of the problems that
would follow. Where would
they find more water for more
people? From the north, it
was hoped.
THE STATE REDISTRIBUTES WATER
On a statewide level, the new commitment to
redistribute water to places of need came to
life in the State Water Project. It would capture
water from several
Northern California rivers,
funnel it south through the Sacramento/
PACIFIC OCEAN
San Francisco
The
Delta