Mulholland Falls

By Michael Falcone

Daily Bruin Senior Staff

Early on weekday mornings, someone walking around UCLA might
notice something peculiar: grounds keepers with long pressurized
hoses spraying water ““ not onto plants, but on cement.

According to UCLA Facilities Management Grounds Supervisor Rich
Ohara, watering the grounds with power washers is one of the most
effective ways to keep dirt and dust down to a minimum and
it’s also environmentally sound. Unlike regular hoses, which
use 12 to 14 gallons of water per minute, the power washers use
only two gallons and can clean five times the area, Ohara said.

“We try not to wash down very often,” he said.
“We do it mostly for health and safety reasons. “

But Ohara recalled that during the early 1990s, when California
was experiencing a major drought, washing down sidewalks along with
any watering after 10 a.m. was strictly forbidden.

The state’s susceptibility to frequent drought has shaped
the attitudes many Californians have about water use. Everywhere
“conservation” is the operative word, and Los Angeles
is no exception.

Peeling away the layers of glitz and glamour ““ the
Hollywood movie studios and the Beverly Hills mansions that
personify Los Angeles ““ leaves land that is essentially an
arid desert.

The green grass and palm trees that line L.A. streets today are
a fairly recent addition ““ and their growth is possible
largely because of the vision of one man.

Early in the 20th century, the first superintendent of the newly
de-privatized L.A. water system, William Mulholland, realized that
it was time to look for alternative sources of water for the
rapidly growing city.

Though water conservation was advocated by Mulholland and others
who saw how quickly the city’s population was increasing, the
residents of Los Angeles were unresponsive. At the time, the only
source of water for the city’s inhabitants was the Los
Angeles river, and it was quickly being depleted.

But more than 200 miles northeast of the city in the expansive
Owens Valley, water was plentiful. Runoff from the Sierra Nevada
Mountains supplied the Owens River with a robust flow of water, and
that water made the valley an ideal area for growing crops and
raising livestock.

Mulholland, along with former L.A. Mayor Fred Eaton, decided to
tap the resources of the Owens River and divert water to Los
Angeles via an aqueduct.

Through clever land acquisitions, Eaton began buying up key
parcels of land in the San Fernando Valley ““ land which the
city of Los Angeles would later have to buy from Eaton and use for
the construction of the aqueduct.

Between 1908 and 1913, hundreds of workers constructed the
233-mile aqueduct, which carries water from the Owens River through
the Mojave Desert to the San Fernando reservoir.

In November 1913, in front of a crowd of tens of thousands of
Angelinos, the first few drops of water poured out of the aqueduct
into the reservoir. According to historical accounts, Mulholland
responded to the event by saying, “There it is, take
it.”

It was advice that the residents of Los Angeles followed without
reservation even as the once lush Owens Valley began to dry up.

Farmers and ranchers who used to thrive in the Owens Valley
watched helplessly as water was systematically diverted from their
land to the burgeoning metropolis. Up against the political and
economic power of Los Angeles, residents of the valley decided to
reclaim their water rights by force. They repeatedly tried to take
control of the aqueduct gates and dynamite the pipeline.

But in 1927, in an attempt to protect his engineering
masterpiece, Mulholland led a well-armed force of L.A. police
officers into the valley and was largely successful in quelling the
insurgent residents there.

In 1928, the St. Francis Dam ““ an integral part of the
aqueduct system built two years earlier ““ ruptured, and sent
a 120-foot wall of water careening toward the Pacific Ocean,
decimating all of the natural resources in its path, and killing
nearly 500 people. Mulholland’s reputation was ruined and he
was devastated. He accepted total responsibility for the
disaster.

Years later, tests confirmed that geologic instability actually
caused the dam break, not an error by Mulholland.

Though the history of Los Angeles’ water system is now best
known from its silver screen incarnation in the 1974 movie
“Chinatown,” starring Jack Nicholson and Faye Dunaway,
Mulholland’s legacy has left a permanent mark on Los Angeles,
the Owens Valley and Mono Lake, which has been partially drained
since the L.A. aqueduct was extended to tap its water.

The aqueduct extension was completed in 1941 and diverted water
from the streams that feed Mono Lake, which is about 70 miles north
of the Owens Valley. As a result, the lake level fell nearly 50
vertical feet, threatening the local ecosystem.

In 1976, a group of student environmentalists led by David
Gaines recognized the problem and formed the Mono Lake Committee to
try to restore the lake to its original level and ecological
conditions. Years of lobbying by the committee, which now has
offices at both ends of the aqueduct, prompted Sacramento lawmakers
to pass regulatory legislation to protect Mono Lake.

Mono Lake Committee education director Bartshé Miller said
that the lake level, which is still more than 30 feet lower than it
was in 1941, will never return to its previous height. But many
side effects of the water diversion, like increased lake salinity
and the elimination of bird habitats, have been significantly
ameliorated.

Miller also said that with less water being diverted from the
Mono Basin, lake levels will continue to rise and the ecosystem
will improve.

“Currently the diversions are 15-20 percent of what they
used to be,” Miller said. “And water recycling will
directly benefit Mono Lake.”

The Mono Lake Committee was the lead organization which asked
the L.A. Department of Water and Power to investigate new water
recycling projects aimed at decreasing the city’s dependence
on lake water.

L.A. city leaders are currently debating a proposal to convert
sewage water to drinking water. The East Valley water project, an
L.A. DWP reclamation plan, is ready to begin this summer, but the
treated waste water would not enter the drinking water supply for
another five years.

Though the plan has been in the works for five years, several
prominent L.A. politicians, including City Councilman Joel Wachs
(2nd district) and State Senator Richard Alarcón (D-San
Fernando Valley) are beginning to question the project. Both are
calling for more information about the possible health risks of
drinking treated sewage water.

Ohara said UCLA has been trying to bring in reclaimed water for
the past seven years, but has been unable due to the high costs
involved. He emphasized that reclaimed water would be just as safe
as what comes out of the taps now and said its use is not new to
other parts of the country.

“People don’t realize that the water you get in
Louisiana has gone through five people by the time you drink
it,” Ohara said.

The link between Los Angeles, its people and its water supply
has been strong since the first drops trickled into the city from
sources in the North, and as the city’s growth continues, the
debate about its water is likely to continue.

Miller and others at the Mono Lake Committee who are still
dealing with the effects of the decisions made by L.A. city
planners early in the 20th century said that the water recycling
proposals show that the city is attempting to balance the needs of
its residents with the needs of the environment.

“Water has a public trust value in the environment for
scenic and ecological purposes, not just for drinking
purposes,” Miller said.

MAJOR AQUEDUCT SYSTEMS SERVING SOUTHERN
CALIFORNIA

SOURCE: UCLA

Two-thirds of Los Angeles’ water supply comes from
sources in the north via a system of aqueducts. The 233-mile Owens
River Aqueduct was completed in 1913, and was considered a major
engineering accomplishment at the time. Note: Figures
before the year 2000 are for actual enrollment rather than
Statements of intent to register. Original Graphic by JACOB
LIAO/Daily Bruin Web Adaptation by ROBERT LIU/Daily Bruin Senior
Staff