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A short history of Metropolitan Water District

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on October 11, 2008 at 8:03 am

From the O.C. Register:

Met is a spiritual descendent, if not a direct one, of William Mulholland and E.F. Scattergood, two turn-of-the-century empire builders who developed Los Angeles’ water and power. Mulholland was chief engineer for the Los Angeles Bureau of Water Works and Supply and Scattergood was his counterpart at the Bureau of Power and Light.

Around 1920, after Mulholland’s department built the Los Angeles Aqueduct, providing enough water for not just LA but most of the Los Angeles basin, Scattergood’s agency began pushing for more hydroelectric power. Los Angeles applied to build a hydroelectric power plant at the future site of Hoover Dam – but voters defeated a bond that would have paid for it.

Then, suddenly, Mulholland started saying there wasn’t enough water. “Mulholland basically did a 180 degree turn,” said UC Berkeley economist and Aguanomics.com blogger David Zetland, who wrote his doctoral dissertation on Met this year. “A year before he said we had enough water, which was still true in 1923.”

Zetland’s dissertation and the 1956 dissertation of a UCLA economics student named Jerome Milliman theorize that Mulholland changed his tune in order to shore up support for construction of the Hoover Dam.

Either way, Mulholland’s words were enough to garner public support for building the Colorado River Aqueduct, a massive project that could only be powered by something like the Hoover Dam. Los Angeles gained additional support and funding by proposing a new, regional agency that would control the aqueduct.

Read more of this historical retrospective on the Metropolitan Water District from the O.C. Register by clicking here.

October 11, 2008 · Filed Under Water History

Comments

One Response to “A short history of Metropolitan Water District”

David Coffin on October 11th, 2008 10:34 am

I think this is the first time I’ve heard of the Metropolitan Water District being refered to as MET.

Employees call it that internally because it’s a simple pronounceable nickname but its more formally known on the outside and in print as MWD.

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