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years brings “below average precipitation” to Los Angeles because of the occasional sub-tropical
deluges that impact the coast on average about once every three to five years. The precipitation
cycles in 1861-62, 1883-84, and 1888-89 had been particularly severe spikes, such that “average”
precipitation values were of little use or consequence for long-range planning, because they lacked
the means of storing the excess runoff, or even encouraging its percolation into depleted coastal
aquifers. In 1899 Eaton became the first native-born Mayor of Los Angeles, serving for two years.
In 1899 Eaton became the first native-born Mayor of Los Angeles, serving for two years.

Figure 2. William Mulholland at left, and his mentor and colleague Fred Eaton, at right. In
1904-05 the two men conceived the idea of constructing an aqueduct ~240 miles long, linking
Los Angeles to the Owens River emanating from the eastern escarpment of the Sierras.

By 1904 the water situation in the Owens Valley began to change. In August of that year
Eaton accompanied J.B. Lippincott and J.C. Clausen of the newly-formed Federal Reclamation
Service on a tour of the Owens River watershed, which had been under study the previous year.
Lippincott was a veteran water resources engineer in southern California, who had recently accepted
a position with the Reclamation Service as their Southwest Bureau Chief. His assignment was to
develop as many workable irrigation projects as possible, to bolster political support for the new
reclamation agency and its guiding light, Frederick H. Newell (Hoffman, 1981). After a favorable
reconnoiter of the Owens watershed, Eaton returned to Los Angeles and hurriedly began
considering what Los Angeles might do to enter the competition for the waters of the Owens River.
All of the Owen Valley lands then under study by Reclamation were held by the U.S. Department of
Interior under the tenets of the 1902 Reclamation Act. If the City didn't move quickly, they would
lose any chance of securing any legal claim to the water.
In late September 1904, Eaton returned to Owens Valley with Bill Mulholland, the pair

keeping a low profile amongst the valley’s residents. The purpose of their trip was to reconnoiter the
feasibility of building an aqueduct to convey water from the Owens River across the Mojave Desert
and Sierra Pelona Mountains to Los Angeles. Mulholland returned convinced that an aqueduct
could be constructed.

World Environmental and Water Resources Congress 2017