Abraham Hoffman

The greatest good for the greatest amount of people is the running theme in this Abraham Hoffman book concerning the controversy over water rights between Los Angeles and the Owens Valley region. A battle begun in 1905 that continues to present day, when the largest city in the most populous American state appeared to take advantage of an almost unknown community. The public arena seized on this David and Goliath story, and emotions spilled over into newspapers, courtrooms and ballot boxes. Many generations have lived with some understanding of this major Southern California event, yet almost no one understood what really happened. Most of the major characters have been vilified or under appreciated, abounded in the public’s misinformed opinions. Hoffman felt the need to begin with the primary sources that had been previously ignored by historians, apologists and conspiracy theorists and explain what went wrong and why. The author also felt it was important to write from the perspective of the moment allowing events to unfold as they happened. While many other books have been written on this subject, Hoffman felt that most have viewed it as a war between Los Angeles and Owens Valley, completely ignoring the federal government’s actions. The author’s thesis is that actions taken by President Roosevelt and federal agencies allowed the controversy over water rights to escalate and become the watershed moment it became. This utilitarianism view of greatest good was prevalent in the progressive Roosevelt administration, and according to Hoffman, the shortsighted vision of what was in the best interests for Owens Valley was ignored.
Los Angeles was a growing town in the semiarid region of Southern California using its inadequate river to service 100,000 people; a cheap supply of water was needed if L.A. were to continue its expansion. The first battle the city had to win was to gain control of the privately owned Los Angeles City Water Company which had a lease on the utilities, after much bargaining and a voter approved bond measure, L.A. took over, promising itself it would never again allow someone else to own its water. William Mulholland, chief engineer for the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (DWP), engineers J.B. Lippincott and Fred Eaton understood the urgency to find more water for the city. After surveying several areas, the most viable site, Owens Valley became the forerunner, located 200 miles and many mountain passes north of L.A. Quietly acquiring land and water rights, Fred Eaton purchased up farmland along the river, with the intention of selling at a profit most of the deeds to the L.A. water district.
In 1902 the federal government passed the National Reclamation Act an ambiguous law directed at any person who could prove they needed funds to irrigate their land. This Act with its indistinct wording directly muddied negotiations between the Federal government, Owens Valley and L.A. Chief engineer, Frederick Newell was appointed to head the Reclamation Service, a division under the U.S. Geological Survey. The aforementioned Lippincott, became the supervising engineer under Newell, and was allowed to continue with his private practice, a decision that haunted Newell later when cries of conflict of interest surfaced. The mission of the DWP was now to secure the money needed to fund building a 200-mile aqueduct connecting up with Owens Valley. An aggressive voter campaign was unleashed, Mulholland in his straightforward style was quoted as saying, “If Los Angeles doesn’t get this water, she won’t need it.” The bond measure asking for one and a half million dollars passed overwhelmingly and Owens Valley water was on the way to secure water and electricity to the city of L.A.
The greatest man made civic project outside the Panama Canal was now funded and land purchased, it only remained to start construction, and residents eagerly followed its completion through newspapers, magazines and lectures. Using modern and historic building methods, the aqueduct was tunneled through mountains and gravity-flow was used for the most part, but special siphons were needed to bring water up some mountains. Thousands of laborers were located to live in camps near the worksite, Mulholland devised a bonus system for early completion of tunnels to inspire friendly competition as well as insure deadlines were met. Land speculators aggressively sold thousands of home lots in the San Fernando Valley area building towns out of farmland and unused open spaces. Sherman Oaks, Tarzana, Canoga Park, Van Nuys and Reseda are all cities born from the aqueduct. In the public eye, two conflicting viewpoints concerning the project endured; one, that the aqueduct was the greatest achievement in Southern California’s history since the railroad. And two, that the water project was invented in order for businessmen to sell land and tax L.A. residents. These opinions proved to be divisive to the community and loomed over future problems. On November 5th, 1913 Mulholland presided over the opening of the water gates, and with tears in his eyes he stated simply, “There it is. Take it.”
By the early 1920’s a growing Los Angeles began to look for more water. In the DMP’s eyes the Colorado River and Mono Lake were next, yet the controversy over the treatment of Owens Valley was far from settled. Unhappy with settlements and federal government promises by the Reclamation Service to regain water rights and encourage tourism, residents of Owens Valley began to fight against the DMP. The aqueduct became a target for demolition along its 200-mile route; many residents were involved though no one was ever prosecuted for the espionage. Negotiations begun between the DMP and the Owens Valley Irrigation District, unhappy with the results of their meetings, over a hundred people took over and turned off the water to the city. Magazines called it “California’s Little Civil War,” after much bad press, and imprisonment by two Owens Valley leaders for embellishment the battle faded.
Victory over Owens Valley was short lived, as a few months later in March 1928, 400 people were killed and millions of dollars of damage, when the Saint Francis Dam collapsed in the early morning hours. In the later investigation Mulholland took full responsibility for human error. The verdict arrived at, “The construction and operation of a great dam should never be left to the sole judgment of one man, no matter how eminent.” With enormous controversy over environmental concerns in Mono Lake, society changed its focus. No more was unrestrained growth without consequences considered the norm, finally in 1977 the citizens of L.A. faced “government-mandated water rationing.”… (mehr)