Carrying Water Through a Desert: The Story of the Los Angeles Aqueduct

"Burt A. Heinly...has been connected with the development of the Los Angeles aqueduct almost from the inception of that great work...served as secretary of chief engineer William Mulhulland." LA Times, March 30, 1919
"Burt A. Heinly...associated with chief engineer William Mulholland of the aqueduct...has written articles descriptive of the aqueduct work for a number of magazines." -LA Times, March 14, 1910
"Heinly, secretary to the chief engineer of the Los Angeles project...describes the great undertaking in a simple but thrilling manner." -Salina Daily Union, Jan. 19, 1910

Controversial from the start, as water diversions to Los Angeles eliminated the Owens Valley as a viable farming community, how did the private secretary of the chief engineer defend the construction of the Los Angeles aqueduct?
In 1910, Burt A. Heinly (1882-1959) private secretary of chief engineer William Mulholland would publish a short 35-page work on the construction of the aqueduct, titled "Carrying Water Through a Desert: The Story of the Los Angeles Aqueduct."

In introducing his work, Heinly writes:

"At the northern outpost of the Mojave's sands a river, after gathering the drainage of the snow-clad Sierra for more than 150 miles, flows into an alkaline sink and wastes its fatness in evaporation from the sun's heat....It is the plan of Los Angeles to carry the waters of this river and its tributary streams 250 miles southward across the Mojave Desert, beneath the Coast Range, and into the San Fernando Valley, where the precious fluid will be used to quench a city's thirst, to irrigate thousands of acres-of rich soil now non-productive for want of moisture, to develop electrical energy to light her buildings and her streets, and furnish power for manufacturing industry on a scale new to the Pacific Coast."

The aqueduct project began in 1905 when the voters of Los Angeles approved a US$1.5 million bond for the 'purchase of lands and water and the inauguration of work on the aqueduct'. On June 12, 1907, a second bond was passed with a budget of $24.5 million to fund construction.

Construction began in 1908 and was divided into eleven divisions. The city acquired three limestone quarries, two Tufa quarries and it constructed and operated a cement plant in Monolith, California which could produce 1,200 barrels of Portland cement per day. Regrinding mills were also built and operated by the city at the tufa quarries. To move 14 million ton-miles of freight, the city contracted with Southern Pacific to build a 118 mile long rail system from the Monolith mills to Olancha.

The number of men who were on the payroll the first year was 2,629 and this number peaked at 6,060 in May 1909. In 1910, employment dropped to 1,150 due to financial reasons but rebounded later in the year. Between 1911 and 1912 employment ranged from 2,800 to 3,800 workers. The number of laborers working on the aqueduct at its peak was 3,900. In 1913, the City of Los Angeles completed construction of the first Los Angeles Aqueduct.

Dettagli