Page 10 - labwp1929annual

8 TWENTY-EIGHTH ANNUAL REPORT

30, as compared to the previous year, .while the Power System's sales,
as already stated, increased 8.3 per cent. In the Water System, the total
operating expenses show an actual decrease of 3.8 per cent over the
previous year, notwithstanding an increase in sales amounting to 4.3
per cent.
SURPLUS EARNINGS
Surplus earnings realized by the Water System, after meeting all
operating expenses, interest on outstanding general water works bonds,
and after making due allowance for depreciation, amounted to $1,847,-
298.52. This surplus, in view of the failure of proposed water bonds last
June, however, is altogether inadequate to meet the pressing need for
capital money by the Water System.
In the Power System, surplus earnings, after full allowance was
made for all operating expenses, interest on all outstanding power bonds
and for depreciation, amounted to $3,626,972.23. This is an increase of
18% per cent over the previous year, and is especially notable in view of
the marked reduction in electric rates put into effect on the Power
System in November, 1928.
A detailed review of the operations of the Department's Water
System and Power System is given in the attached report.

Water System

F. E. WEYMOUTH, Chief Engineer of Water Works
Chief attention has been given in recent months to the problem of
securing, with the least possible delay, the additional storage capacity
that is considered essential for emergency holdover and regulation of the
discharge of the Owens River Aqueduct. An intensive effort has been
made to locate new reservoir sites with feasible construction costs,
suitable elevations, and within reasonable distance of the City's water
distribution system.
Among the sites for which preliminary studies have been made,
(including comparative cost estimates, topographic surveys, and drilling
and test pits as found necessary) are the following: Bell Canyon, Cala-
basas, Los Virgenes Valley, Malibu Creek, Dry Canyon (Hollywood Hills),
Vejor Valley, Bishop Road, Effie, Russell Valley, and Sepulveda Canyon.
These are of very varied importance, size , and feasibility, and most of
the detailed work has been done on the first two of the list.
In Bell Canyon, four miles west of Owensmouth, a possible reservoir
basin was found, with a capacity from 5,000 acre feet to 19,600 acre feet.
The damsite which appeared most advantageous was exhaustively studied
and tested in great detail, preliminary designs and cost estimates having
been made for several capacities. The findings were then submitted to
the Board of Engineers, convened in Los Angeles on May 30, 1929. It
was the conclusion of this Board that the damsite was of doubtful quality
and the recommendation was made that this dam be not constructed until
other possibilities in the region had been more thoroughly investigated.
A topographic survey and a limited amount of field exploration was
then made to determine the feasibility of the Calabasas reservoir site,
in the Santa Monica Mountains above the southwest corner of the San
Fernando Valley. Preliminary figures showed that the development of
this project would be relatively expensive, due in part to the excessive
cost of connecting it with the existing system. Consideration of this
reservoir was, therefore, given up temporarily, pending the examination
of other storage possibilities.