75 Years of Colorado River Water: A Historic Investment

by Gary Toebben

This June marks the 75th anniversary of water flowing 240 miles west from the Colorado River to Southern California through a system of tunnels, pumps and aqueducts that remains an engineering marvel. The Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, which the state Legislature created in 1928 to advance this mission, is celebrating this milestone with a series of events that will pay testament to the visionary leaders whose investments in a modern water system now benefits 19 million Southern Californians.

What happened 75 years ago marked the beginning of water regionalism in Southern California and changed the history of our state. Los Angeles envisioned the need for an additional water supply to support prosperity, but connecting to the Colorado River was beyond the City’s financial capability. The solution was for the urbanizing counties of L.A. and Orange to come together and tax themselves to build this project.

And so in 1928, the Metropolitan Water District was born to carry out this task. The price tag to construct the Colorado River Aqueduct was $220 million, which was about 10 percent of the value of the entire economy of L.A. and Orange counties at that time. The public vote in 1931 to borrow the money and pay it off via property taxes came in the throes of massive unemployment during the Great Depression. Yet voters overwhelmingly said yes.

Colorado River water is among the most affordable we consume today because the original debt has long been paid off. Colorado River water, plus that from Northern California via the State Water Project, has provided Southern California with sufficient water to sustain tremendous growth and build the reserves that Metropolitan tapped to endure our current drought.

Water management isn’t for the shortsighted or the penny pinchers. Water management is about one generation making the right investments for future generations. We are fortunate that Southland voters in the Great Depression courageously made this investment that enabled the flow of Colorado River water to our region in 1941.

Today, there is a vision for another generation of water investments, a diversified portfolio that includes recycling, conservation and desalination. The modernization of the State Water Project in the Bay-Area Delta is part of this plan. During the past 75 years, we have embraced a regional approach to water management that has served us well. It is time to embrace that tradition once more.

And that's The Business Perspective.