Los Angeles herald., 1910-09-28
SALE OF SURPLUS
AQUEDUCT WATER
PLANNED BY CITY.
Council Considers Formation of
a District to Distribute
10000 Extra Inches
$4,000 ACRES SURPLUsAGE
Contiguous Lands to Be Enriched
S13,50O,00o Annually at
100000 for System

Formation of water districts to take
over the surplus Of water of the Owens
river from Los Angeles and redis-
tribute it to outside municipal corpo-
rations and agriculturists, was one
of the chief subjects of discussion at
the meeting held in the council cham
Der last night to discuss the distribu-
ton of this surplus. That the interest
in the subject is keen was shown by
the fact that the crowd last night was
FUZZY as large as the one last Thursday
night, and the speakers chosen by the
program committee were piled with
questions from every part of the hall.
Several speakers suggested that
water districts similar to the Chicago
drainage district be formed, to be COM
posed of municipalities and agricul-
tural districts that wanted some of
the water. J. B. Lippincott, assistant
chief engineer Of the aqueduct, sug-
gested Typographical districts and
others dwelt on the necessity of city
and county consolidation. But all
were unanimous on the one point that
the districts to be supplied should be
contiguous to Los Angeles and capable
of absorption into the city by some
form of annexation.
Last night was chiefly devoted to
the discussion of legal questions in
volved in the distribution of the $4,000
inches of surplus water that the city
will have to dispose of In awo years,
when the owens river is brought to
Los Angeles. James A. Anderson, who
has been engaged as attorney by the
city in several of its water cases, and
who was a member of the board of
public works during the early stages
of the Owens river project, was the
first speaker. He confined his remarks
to legal questions.
''The charter clearly defines the pow
ers and limitations of the city in the
disposal of its water" he said. THESE
charter provisions afford ample pro-
lection to the taxpayers, even should
we have such a council as we have
had in the past. No water that the
city owns can be absolutely alienated
except by a vote of two-thirds Of the
people. It is only the surplus water
that can be disposed of without vote,
and the disposal of this water must
first be arranged by the water board
and ratified by an ordinance passed
by the city council. Such an ordinance
would, of course, be subject to the
referendum.
"It has been shown here that other
districts coming into the city would be
exempt from paying a share of the
bonded indebtedness incurred by the
city in securing this water up to the
time of their admission to the citS.
Until we receive some revenue from
the distribution of the surplus water
and the power we will feel the burden
of the extra taxation. other munic-
ipalities who want some of this water
should begin as soon as possible to
make arrangements to bear a portion
of the expense. 1t would appear that
the scheme of bonuses suggested by
Mr.. Mulholland in his report would be
a proper plan for sharing this burden.
For instance, If we should lease water
to Pasadena under the bonus system,
the amount she had paid in bonus
would make up for the amount of tax
alton she would escape If she later be-
came a part of the city. The same is
true If the water should be sold for
irrigation purposes"
In response to a question from Joseph
Simon and others, Mr.. Anderson stated
that he estimated it would be about
twenty-five years, at the present rate
of growth, when Los Angeles would
need all the surplus water.
w. H. MCGEE of Pasadena was the
first to suggest the water district plan.
He considered it would be proper to
form such a district and bond 1t to pur-
chase 25OO or 5000 inches of water, pay
ing the proceeds of the bonds to Los
Angeles and putting a large lump sum
in the city treasury. He wanted to
know how soon the city would want to
call back the water 1t would lease.
Mr.. Mulholland declared that he did
not believe 1t would ever be necessary
to call back any of the surplus water
If care was taken that the water was
not spread out too thinly. The sur
plus water, he said, would supply all
the country contiguous to Los Angeles.
and the same amount of water supplied
an acre built up with home that was
required to irrigate an acre for agri-
cultural purposes.
1t has been estimated that the sur
plus water will irrigate 1885, 900 acres of
land, and J. B. Lippincott dwelt largely
on this fact when he spoke Of some of
the engineering features of the dis
tribution. He declared that he con-
sidered the use of the water for irriga-
tion of vast Importance, estimating
that each of the $4,000 acres so irri-
gated would produce 500 an acre, Civ
ing $13,500,0 900 annually to be distributed
around territory contiguous to Los An
geles. He also stated that if the water
was judiciously put on the land there
never would be any occasion for calling
it back. He said that at a rough esti-
mate he would say it would cost about
50, 900 900 to construct the distributing
system for this 1856, 900 acres and that
districts should be organized that could
bond themselves to meet this expense.
In part he said:
'In determining the areas to be
supplied with water, topographic dis
tricts should be outlined which can be
served to advantage, physically and
by mains and distribut-
ing systems.
"In building a main and distribu-
tion system to a given district the con-
duits should be large enough and the
supply adequate to furnish ample wa
ter to all lands or inhabitants therein.
Manifestly 1t would be unjust to serve
one man with water and subsequently
refuse it to his next door neighbor,
in districts that are either
presently or prospectively destined to
be urban or suburban in character.
"If water is taken at present for
Continued on Page Four)