[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 147 (2001), Part 8]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages 10898-10899]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



     HOW THE IMPERIAL IRRIGATION DISTRICT SAVED THE IMPERIAL VALLEY

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. DUNCAN HUNTER

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, June 14, 2001

  Mr. HUNTER. Mr. Speaker, June 20, 2001, marks the 100-year 
anniversary of water coming to the Imperial Valley. For my colleagues 
who are not familiar with the desert portion of my district, it lies in 
the southeast corner of California, along the U.S. international border 
with Mexico. Fertile land, and the hardworking farmers of the Imperial 
Valley, are responsible for many of the fruits and vegetables that our 
country enjoys throughout the year.
  As with any desert region, having water is of paramount concerns and 
the creation of the Imperial Irrigation District (IID) was an 
instrumental part of allowing the Imperial Valley to survive. I wanted 
to take this time to recognize their efforts and accomplishments.
  Pioneers began to settle in the Imperial Valley in the 1890s. At that 
time, the California Development Company (CDC) was responsible for 
making water available to the new settlers. Men such as Charles 
Rockwood, Perry Paulin, and Anthony Heber obtained the financial 
backing necessary to conjoin the waters of the Colorado River with the 
Colorado Desert. Their plan was to construct a

[[Page 10899]]

headworks on the river just below Yuma, Arizona, that would connect to 
a 54-mile-long canal. Water would be delivered by force of gravity to 
its destination in what was variously called the ``New River Country'', 
or the ``Imperial Settlement'' and finally, the ``Imperial Valley.''
  It was not until 1900, when George Chaffey became associated with the 
CDC, that work began in earnest on the canal-building project that 
started at Pilot Knob, extended into and out of Mexico, and eventually 
found its way to Cameron Lake, later to become known as Calexico, 
California.
  Chaffey struck a deal with Rockwood and the other officers of the 
corporation to finish the necessary infrastructure and divert water 
from the Colorado River to the Imperial Valley in five years. Chaffey 
finished his work ahead of schedule and within two years the first 
water was being delivered to the fledging community of Imperial on June 
20, 1901.
  With the means to deliver water from the Colorado now in place on 
both sides of the border, the settlers of Imperial County were ready to 
welcome easier times. Unfortunately, the flood years of 1905-1907 
created a difficult situation when the swollen Colorado River suddenly 
changed course, sweeping away the original headworks at Hanlon Heading 
and sending its entire flow not to the Gulf of Mexico, but to the 
Imperial Valley. A disaster for CDC resulted.
  Only the intervention of the Southern Pacific Railroad, which had its 
own investment to protect in the Valley's continued reclamation and 
settlement, staved off the inevitable collapse of the CDC, and with it 
the hopes and dreams of several thousand new settlers. The dilemma 
facing the railroad was whether or not to abandon its existing lines in 
the Imperial and Mexicali Valleys, which were now under water, and 
build new ones, or to throw its considerable resources into stopping 
the break, saving both valleys.
  Southern Pacific Railroad executives opted for the latter choice, 
spending a total of $6 million over the next two years to close the 
break. As the company's largest stockholder, the railroad was forced to 
assume day-to-day management of the CDC during the midst of the flood 
years. To the approximately 3,000 settlers who had come to the Imperial 
Valley this meant that the company responsible for bringing water to 
their burgeoning communities and distributing it to the mutual water 
companies and their farms was no more.
  Southern Pacific Railroad, however, was reluctant to be in the 
Imperial Valley irrigation and land business and made the decision to 
cut its losses before it acquired any new ones. A group of disgruntled 
local investors had the same idea and called for the dissolution of the 
CDC and the sale of its remaining assets.
  It was against this backdrop of natural and man-made disasters that 
the first settlers of the Imperial Valley took a series of affirmative 
steps to ensure the future of their community. The first step was a 
vote in August, 1907, designating El Centro, with its 41 registered 
voters, as the county seat over Imperial, the Valley's oldest and most 
populous community with 500 registered voters and one-third of the 
total electorate. There were five towns in the Valley then: Imperial, 
Calexico, Brawley, Holtville and El Centro, the first three having been 
developed by a syndicate of Los Angeles investors and the latter two by 
Mr. W.F. Holt, who underwrote much of the Valley's early growth and 
development.
  The Imperial Valley was now its own county and El Centro its 
geographic and governmental center. The first Board of Supervisors was 
elected on that same August day in 1907, as was the very first district 
attorney, Mr. Phil Swing, and the county's first sheriff, Mr. Mobley 
Meadows. Duly constituted as an official body by the state, the young 
county was ready to begin addressing its most pressing concern: What to 
do about the water situation, so closely tied to the future of the 
Imperial Valley?
  For a time, the federal government appeared to offer a solution. 
Responding to pressure from the Southern California delegation, 
Congress appropriated $1 million in 1910 to construct new gates and 
levees near the site of the former break. An unexpected surge in the 
river, however, washed away eight months of work and killed one of the 
workers.
  Despite opposition from the mutual water companies, county officials 
began to circulate the idea of forming an irrigation district that 
would be owned by the people through the California Irrigation District 
Act. The legal analysis was furnished by Mr. Phil Swing, the newly-
elected and politically astute D.A., who would later serve in Congress. 
He became the motivating force behind the Boulder Canyon Project.
  Swing argued that private ownership had been tried and failed, the 
federal government could not be counted on to fill the void left by the 
railroad and the mutual water companies could not be trusted to 
represent the people's best interests. According to Swing, what the 
Imperial Valley needed was an irrigation system owned by the people it 
was meant to serve, a public agency with municipal powers similar to a 
city, but one that was also autonomous from county government. The call 
for local control had immediate appeal in an Imperial Valley still 
recovering from the flood years and captured the populist mood of the 
voters. An election was held on July 14, 1911, and the vote in favor of 
establishing the Imperial Irrigation District (IID) was passed 1,304-
360.
  Members of the IID's first board included Mr. Porter Ferguson, a 
Holtville farmer; Mr. Fritz Kloke, a farmer and banker in the Calexico 
area; Mr. W.O. Hamilton, an El Centro farmer and merchant; Mr. H.L. 
Peck, an Imperial farmer and merchant; and Mr. Earl Pound of Brawley, a 
farmer and real estate broker. At its first meeting on July 25, 1911, 
Porter Ferguson was named president of the board, and members were 
asked to contribute $150 toward the good of the cause, with the $750 
going to help defray ongoing expenses.
  Their cause was self-determination, which most people believed could 
only be realized through the eventual purchase of the water 
distribution system already in place, including the 52 miles of canals 
owned and operated by the Compania de Terrenos y Aguas de la Baja 
California, a Mexican subsidiary of the CDC. Both companies and their 
assets were tied up in the courts, but the ITD intended to acquire 
these properties out of receivership. In the meantime, it would have to 
generate the capital needed to implement its ambitious acquisition 
plan.
  By 1912, with the Mexican Revolution going on just across the border 
in Mexicali, an opportunity was presented for an open discussion 
regarding the need for an ``All American Canal,'' the first recorded 
reference to the massive project that would be completed, along with 
Hoover Dam, some 30 years later.
  At the same time, the IID was negotiating directly with the railroad 
and with the American and Mexican receivers in an effort to purchase 
the assets of the CDC, which it did in 1915 for the price of $3 
million. A bond issue for $3.5 million was passed later that year and 
condemnation of the defunct company was initiated by the IID. Both 
actions were popular with the people, if not with the mutual water 
companies, but individual board members did not enjoy the same level of 
support among water users, mainly due to water shortages on the river.
  Finally, the entire board of directors resigned as a body and the 
County Board of Supervisors had to appoint five new IID directors, 
naming Mr. Leroy Holt as president in 1916. It was this Holt-led board, 
serving during those first tumultuous years of 1912-1916, that 
skillfully pursued the acquisition of the CDC's existing waterworks and 
placed it in the hands of the people. The IID purchased the last of the 
``mutuals'' in 1922. It was during this period that the East Highline 
was built, along with the Westside Main Canal and other important 
features of the canal network that are still in service today.
  The IID's first four years in existence were a chronology of great 
accomplishments, coupled with competitive politics. Its real 
achievement, however, was delivering to the people of the Imperial 
Valley some measure of certainty in the future and, with it, a reason 
for optimism. With the flood years and the period of receivership 
behind it, the IID, on behalf of the people, picked up where the CDC 
left off. There was only one difference, the IID never stopped.
  Thank you Imperial Irrigation District for your years of dedicated 
service, for saving the Imperial Valley and for all that you continue 
to do for the citizens of Imperial County.

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