PUB00109

• Year: 1995
• Title: Califormia Water
• CWCB Section: Interstate & Federal
• Author: Arthur L. Littlewort
• Description: History, overview, and explanation of water rights and legislation of California
• Publications - Doc Type: Historical

Fernando, Callegnas Municipal Water District, Central
Basin Municipal Water District, Chino Basin Municipal
Water District, Coastal Municipal Water District,
Eastern Municipal Water District, Foothill Municipal
Water District, Las Virgenes Municipal Water District,
Municipal Water District of Orange County, San Diego
County Water Authority, Three Valleys Municipal Water
District, Upper San Gabriel Valley Municipal Water
District, West Basin Municipal Water District, and
Western Municipal Water District of Riverside County.20
The purpose of the district was to supply the area within its
original boundaries with supplemental water and to provide a means
of supplying water to surrounding areas that might later choose to
join MWD. The first major activity of MWD was to construct the
Colorado River Aqueduct. The 242-mile-Iong aqueduct was com-
pleted in 1939, and water deliveries began in 1941. The aqueduct
extends from the Colorado River near Parker, Arizona, to Lake
Matthews near Riverside.
At the time the aqueduct was built, MWD could barely give the
water away.21 Each of MWD's member agencies was offered free
use of the water for 60 days. Ten agencies tried, and after the trial
period five canceled their orders. Today, however, MWD is the
most important water supplier in Southern California. About one-
third of Southern California's water needs are still met by local
sources, but it has been the imported supplies from the Owens
Valley, the Delta, and the Colorado River that have helped to gener-
ate an economy and metropolitan population that are among the
largest in the world.

Lining Metropolitan Water
District canal to San Diego

Today, about one-third of Southern Cali-
fornia's water needs are still met from
local sources, the balance coming from
the Owens Valley. the Colorado River. and
the Delta through the State Water Project.

11Ie Colorado Desert Area
In 1860, Dr. O. M. Wozencraft and Ebenezer Hadley, the county
surveyor for San Diego County, designed a project to irrigate and col-
onize three million acres in the Imperial Valley, a project involving
diversion of water from the Colorado River through the Alamo River
and Mexico. Although the California legislature approved the project,
Congress rejected it.22 The Colorado River Irrigation Company was
formed in 1892 but failed to secure financing, and, in 1896, the
California Development Company was fonned. Using the method of
Wozencraft and Hadley, the California Development Company made

20 First Annual Report, pages 1-2, 26.
21 Aqueduct. No.2. 1991, Metropolitan Water District Publication, page 15.
22 First Annual Report, page 27.

Chapter 1 A Srief History 15