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16 TWENTY-EIGHTH ANNUAL REPORT

RANCH BUILDINGS
In connection with the land operations in the Owens Valley, it has
been necessary to repair and make habitable a great many of the ranch
buildings occupied by tenants of City-owned lands. Buildings and grounds
under private ownership, in the majority of cases, had been allowed to
lapse into a bad condition. In line with the policy of the Department to
maintain as much of the Owens Valley land as possible under cultivation,
and to keep its buildings and grounds in a neat and presentable state
of preservation, a considerable force of men has been employed in this
work. Two ranch houses were completely destroyed by fire during the
year, both of which have been replaced by new structures. In order to
offset the lack of fire-fighting facilities in the Valley, the Department is
building a chemical fire-fighting apparatus mounted on a truck chassis,
for use in protecting City-owned property from such disastrous fires.

Water Distribution and Operation
w. W. HURLBUT, Engineer
The growth and increased use of water has been due to the expan-
sion of the city westerly in the vicinity of the new University and West-
wood District, and the extreme south-westerly portion of the city. While
there has also been substantial improvement in the high value and com-
mercial districts of the city, coupled with the extreme dryness and warm
weather, an unusual demand has been placed on the distribution system.
The local rainfall for the season just closed amounted to 12.66 inches,
this is a deficiency of 17 per cent below normal, while the- rainfall for
the previous year was 38 per cent deficient. This, coupled with the sub-
normal record of the preceding eleven years, gives us a mean of 12.4
inches, or 81 per cent of the normal rainfall for this period. This condi-
tion of low precipitation has affected our ground water storage which
has been depleted to an alarming extent. The mean flow of the Los
Angeles River at Crystal Springs for the year just closed, was 73.1
second feet and the draft on all city wells on the coastal plane was
15.9 second feet. In the Harbor District wells, the mean flow was 12
second feet and the Vanowen wells, 3.8 second feet. The total local supply
was 104.8 second feet, or 31 per cent of our total consumptive use, which
amounts to 340.4 second feet for the year, leaving a draft of 235.62
second feet, or 69 per cent of this total to be drawn from the Los Angeles
Aqueduct and storage.
GROUND WATER DEVELOPMENT-SAN FERNANDO VALLEY
In order to safeguard the city and be able to take care of the de-
ficiency in our supply that would be caused by an interruption in the
flow of the Los Angeles Aqueduct, or the continuation of the drought
, I conditions that are now prevalent, it has been decided to completely
develop the ground water emergency supply of the upper San Fernando
Valley. This requires a supply of approximately 100 second feet. This
makes necessary the drilling of six additional 29 inch wells easterly
along Vanowen Street from those wells drilled in 1924-25. Six lots have
been purchased, three equally spaced between Tujunga and Vineland
Avenues, on the south side of Vanowen, and three on the south side of
Kittridge Street, at 600 feet intervals, easterly from Vineland Avenue.
This extends our operations practically to the Burbank line. The first
well in this string is being drilled ana should be put on test the latter
part of July.
This supply can be distributed to the city south of the Santa Monica
Mountains by way of the Franklin Canyon trunk line, and the Franklin
Reservoir, and the Lankershim trunk line, and the Hollywood Reservoir.