[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. ____________________