Daily Los Angeles herald., 1884-07-20
TINE WATER QUESTION:.
Opinion OF Prophet Potts on the
Importance and valuo or the
Watsr-what the City Should
Do

ERIToR HERALD see in your paper
Of the 10th, by the proceedings OF the
City Council thatG. J. Griffith has made
proposition to sell 10 the city all the
right that the Los Feliz rancho has to
the water Of the Los Angeles river, and
also learn that the Zanja Committee
has bonded said waters for the sum Of
fifty thousand dollars. This price may
seem high to some, especially when they
are told that few years ago the whole
rancho including water right could have
been bought for fifteen thousand dollars.
When was member of the City
Council, urged that body to buy it for
twenty thousand dollars. the price asked
at that time, but public sentiment was
against 1t and the Council refused to
buy it.
But we must recollect that then the
city claimed all the water of the river,
and undoubtedly had the exclusive right
to it, but since that time the courts have
decided that the rancho has a right to
eight cubic feet of water per second.
This amount Of water if economically
husbanded and distributed is sufficient
it is thought to irrigate eleven thousand
five hundred acres, as it would give one
inch of water for every two acres of
land. This is the amount allowed by
the Messrs. Chaffee Bros, of Ontario,
and they are selling their lands with this
showing as high as $3.50 per acre. Now
1t is to be hoped as Mr.. Sabichi and
WolfskilI have had the good sense and
judgment to bond this water right that
the Council will secure it without delay.
Never mind public sentiment, gentlemen,
public sentiment will bless you. In the
near future this city must have the
control Of the Los Angeles river at any
price. II It does not the time is not far
away when some other town in this
beautiful valley will take the lead, as
water we must have and must have it
every day. 1t would pay this city one
hundred fold almost Immediately to
make one million dollars improvements
in the water systems of Los Angeles.
A few years ago we had about tw. I've
thousand inhabitants, and they were
quarrelling and grumbling all the while
about water. The sales then by the
Zanjero were about $ll00 per month,
never over $1,000, but at that time tho
City Council instituted a system of
water improvements, spent one hundred
and thirty thousand dollars. About
$40, 900 of that money was dead loss.
and now the Zanjero ia taking in about
two thousand dollars per month. The
area OF land that Is irrigated has nearly
doubled, the population of the city has
more than doubled, and the city is
assessing 1000 acres OF land at least $50
per acre more than it could have assessed
it il the above named water improve
ment had not been made. Besides this,
all the other lands and blocks Of land
are worth double what they would have
been. 1t ia q mistaken idea to suppose
that the irrigators are the only ones
that are interested in the water improve
ment.
Everyone is interested in proportion
to the value Of property he owns,
whether it be lands, solid blocks of
buildings, or cash in the banking bust
ness, and all those things are dependent
on the irrigators, and it is only some
shortsighted, narrow minded individual
that can take any other view Of this
matter. Now l will say to the people of
Los Angeles in general and the City
Council in particular, that If they let
this opertunity slip by, that it will not
be long until the city will have to buy
this water If it runs up into millions of
dollars.
]. w. Porrs.
Los Angeles. July 10. 1884.