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>> I have no apologies. I was a crusader for the development of water. I was the

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Messiah! I was the evangelist that went out and argued persuasively to develop

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our rivers and water supplies for the benefit of the people.

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>> In the American desert, we have built a great new civilization in less than a

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century. Where none could possibly be in the natural order of things. We have

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made the land wet where it was dry and dry where it was wet. We have lifted

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great rivers out of their ancient beds and moved them over half a continent. Our

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great cities stand in a desert that is drier than the plains of North Africa. It

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would all be impossible without the breathtaking manipulation of water. We

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fought over water, thrived on water, and finally we engineered the desert out of

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existence.>> Next to God, there's water.>> Everybody is conscious of water. If

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you head for the river with a bucket-- an empty bucket, you are liable to get

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shot.>> Can you imagine today in American city acquiring an entire river?

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>> The idea of subduing nature has captivated the whole country.

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>> Congress cannot appropriate enough money fast enough to build more dams.

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>> We built the dams for all the right reasons when they were desperately needed

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with little thought to the consequences. The developing world watched and envied

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our success.>> The engineering marvel that is inaudible dam inspected by Emperor

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Haile Selassie of Ethiopia.>> Supplying water to the population growing that

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fast is extremely difficult.>> It's a little bit like the sorcerer's

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apprentice. You've got to have more water, more water, more water.

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>> They are going to dam this canyon.>> There is no end to these people who had

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plans to dam San Francisco Bay,pipelines beyond your wildest dreams. This wasn't

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about curing oil. This was about carrying water.>> We have forgotten that the

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natural West is barren and fatally dry. And that our new bountiful West is a

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fragile construction. Here and there are reminders

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of what happens when the water is turned off. Or when the water works fail.

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>> Somehow the water stopped flowing. You have a desert again overnight.

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>> The dam's gone.>> The whole thing is gone now?

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>> The whole thing is gone. It rolled over about five minutes ago.

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>> Okay.>> If you can give us any help on radio or whatnot get the people

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started there out.>> All right. Where do you want the people evacuated?

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>> Well, we would like to get them off the river in low-lying inaudible

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>> Well, it's 6:22 at 710 Talk KMPC, I'm Dominic with Air Watch Traffic and I've

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got to tell you the jackknifed big rig in Pasadena has the 210 eastbound in

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trouble right at Rosemead where the right three lanes are out of commission, the

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jackknifed big rig there and about a quarter-mile slow. On the westbound side

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almost across the fence from it right at Sierra Madre. Right lane is blocked to

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the inaudible so get ready it's slow from the 605 and how are things in Orange

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County?>> Hey, Scott! inaudible>> -- in Ronald Reagan Freeway on the west

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inaudible Reseda Boulevard inaudible Foreign Language Spoken

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>> A car that spun out and hit the center divider and the two left lanes are

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protected by CHP vehicles.>> Use alternate routes such as Laurel Canyon or even

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Mulholland today.>> I think my grandfather has a vision with the city like

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Dublin. Which was the city of his childhood. And it was a vision I think of a

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19th century city. Where people ambled on streets and a new one another and

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enjoyed the theater and the opera and the University. A civilized 19th century

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city.>> No other Buick dealership in California has been best in its class for

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seven years. That's because no other Buick dealership has sold more than 10,000

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Buicks in the last 10 years. The list goes on and on. Right now we have lots of

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traffic to talk about, too. First of all the KABC traffic alert--

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>> The thing that you have to remember about Los Angeles is that it never really

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had a reason to be there. It had no minerals, no metals, no forests, and other

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words, everything that any major American city used to develop itself, LA

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lacked. And above all it lacked water.>> Since the beginning of time this was a

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place of earthquakes and perpetual drought. First claimed by the Spaniards, and

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then conquered by the Americans.Virtually everyone here had come from somewhere

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else. In 1878 William Mulholland arrived from the Green Hills of Ireland. He had

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stowed away on a sailing ship worked as a lumberjack failed as a gold miner and

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had walked across Panama to save $25 and train fare. He was fond of one armed

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chin-ups and grand Opera.Mulholland found work as a ditch digger on the growing

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town's dilapidated water system.>> LA was desperate to become a modern city. It

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had been a backwater for so many decades.>> But its water system, on the other

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hand, was pretty much the same old Jerry built thing. A bunch of old

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waterwheels. The falling apart system.>> He worked hard, read Shakespeare, and

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hydraulic engineering late into the night. Taught himself to keep the entire LA

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water system in his head and climbed through the ranks. In 1886 when his boss

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suddenly dropped dead, William Mulholland found himself superintendent of the LA

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water system. The little desert Pueblo had grown to 100,000 people thanks to the

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Chamber of Commerce and a new railroad. And by 1903 LA had sucked dry the tiny

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Los Angeles River. It's only source of water.>> My mother would tell me these

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stories of growing up without water. One bath a week on Saturday night and I

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washed in a big zinc tub that was dragged into the

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kitchen and water heated and Poppa got the first bath, mama got the second and

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the kids-- mother told me you know they were not what you would call white trash

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but she told me she never had a bath in pure clean water. Now I was raised with

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a real sense that water was a precious item and not to be squandered.

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>> Superintendent Mulholland tried to make Los Angeles live within its means.

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But growth sabotaged everything he did. By 1903, the chief knew that LA would

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have to stop growing or he would have to find a new source of water. His friend,

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Mayor Fred Eaton and told him of a great Valley 200 miles to the north.

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Pomacentrus phonetic Paiutes had lived along the Owens River. White settlers who

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colonized Owens Valley found Paiutes irrigating natural grasses with several

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miles of small irrigation canals.>> My grandmother told my only sister that when

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the whites came they started to push the Indians up into the rocky places where

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the water was scarce because they wanted the other for their cattle and things.

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And they came in and they fenced everything up. They start saying if you want to

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use my water, you have to have special permission and the Indians always let the

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water run. It was never something that belonged to one individual person. It

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belonged to the whole community.>> By 1904, settlers from New England,

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Switzerland, and Scotland had taken the Indians land, established farms in a

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dozen towns and a steamboat service on the age old Owens Lake. They dug and

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elaborate irrigation system diverting the Owens River into hundreds of miles of

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ditches. Former Mayor Fred Eaton convinced Mulholland to set out northward

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across the Mojave Desert in the fall of 1904 toward Owens Valley.

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>> They went by Buck boy phonetic which was the only way you can go it took them

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about two weeks to get there. I think there was a trail of whiskey bottles all

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the way out.>> In two weeks, Mulholland and Eaton were on the banks of the Owens

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River.>> At certain times of the year, in what years, anyway, you can get a

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little glimpse of what the river must've been like then and how it must have

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impressed Mulholland. The Owens Valley is one of the most dramatic places in the

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world.You have on the one side the Sierra Nevada, virtually every mountain over

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14,000 feet, and then you have a drop of 2 miles to the valley floor and then a

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rise of almost 2 miles up to the White Mountain range. Because the mountains

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stop virtually all weather, it is in the rain-- and there is no rain in the

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Owens Valley. It is a true desert looking up onto huge snow-covered peaks. And

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through the middle of it comes what you almost could call a-- Mississippi River

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given the setting. It is so improbable in this harsh desert to see River that

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used to be as engorged-- And not only was this river that could take care of the

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next 20, 30, probably inaudible 50 years of population growth in LA but it could

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flow all the way by gravity.Inaudible>> -- so full of enthusiasm he said you

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know I've seen something here-- water that will last us into the next century.

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>> And I think Mulholland suddenly must have changed and he saw himself as a

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sort of a builder of a Roman masterwork as somebody who kept a great hydraulic

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engineering tradition alive. I can't tell you what went through his head, but

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suddenly he was a convert. Having been more of an efficiency guy and a

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conservationist, suddenly he became an empire builder almost overnight.

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>> And now, they were going to capture a river. The only River that kind of

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accidentally flowed through this desert and they were going to move the whole

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river across this 200-plus miles of terrain that they just covered at some risk

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probably to their lives.>> The problem facing Mulholland was at the river was

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owned. All the water rights were owned by farmers who were irrigating something

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like 60,000 acres.This was a thriving agricultural area at the time and it was

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being further developed by the Bureau of reclamation. Now how in the world were

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you going to arrest that water away from these farmers and the federal

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government? That was the dilemma.>> Can you imagine today and American city

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acquiring an entire River for its future? Of course. It goes without saying. It

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could be done but it was done then.>> inaudible his ages for a federal project

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meant to irrigate Owens Valley Holland's men went to the county courthouse.

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There they convinced clerks to show them these, maps, and records the stream

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flows. Within days, Eaton was quietly buying property and water rights.

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Inaudible-- to a local irrigation project but to the city of Los Angeles.

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Without telling Mulholland, former Mayor Fred Eaton about the only dam site in

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Owens Valley for himself.>> Once the city knew who had the best water rights and

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who was likeliest to sell those rights, it was basically a done deal.

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>> It didn't take very long for them to capture most of that river.

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>> Two people who had ultimately benefited and who knew the whole story of this

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scheme were the publishers of the Los Angeles times. Harrison Gray Otis and

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Harry Chandler. They were the big promoters and boosters but they were sworn to

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secrecy as this was going on. They did not let the cat out of the bag until they

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couldn't help themselves and finally under a headline that said Titanic project

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to give the city River they talked about how the whole thing had gone. And you

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know when you read that today and imagine a major city newspaper just kind of

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gloating over the triumph of you know it's artifice and chicanery, it makes you

145
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real in a sense. But that was what Los Angeles was like in those days. It was--

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the climate was one of just getting what you want any way you can get it.

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>> The Owens Valley paper saw the future differently. The still secret aqueduct

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route would pass through the San Fernando Valley on its way to LA. And someone

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was buying up near worthless land in the San Fernando. Now, another cat out of

150
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the bag. It was a real estate syndicate that would make millions of Owens River

151
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water irrigated their newly acquired San Fernando Valley land.

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>> What was happening all the while these water rights in the Owens Valley were

153
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being acquired was that the San Fernando Valley is being bought up by a

154
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syndicate of people who represented the power structure of Los Angeles with the

155
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kind of exquisite sense of proportion.>> I suppose you could make a case for

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this being this incestuous cabal of hidden you know Jonathan inaudible

157
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California inaudible oligarchy. Old boys' wasp network-- no Jews, darks,

158
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Blacks, Mexicans allowed.>> Quietly, the entire San Fernando Valley was bought

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up by the arch capitalists of Los Angeles for the purpose of irrigating it when

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the Owens River finally arrived because Los Angeles would need all that water

161
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for a long time.>> If water could be brought to the San Fernando, from the Owens

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Valley, that rangy grassland that semi-arid terrain could be turned into an

163
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absolute Inaudible>> With all the cats out of all the bags, citizens would now

164
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vote on the inaudible. Mulholland campaigned with a vengeance. Opponents spread

165
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rumors that he was secretly dumping water at night to create a shortage but in

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the middle of a drought, with the temperature climbing toward 105, the people of

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LA voted 10 to 1 to pay for Mulholland's aqueduct to bring them the river they

168
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had just purchased.>> I think one thing that gets overlooked in discussing the

169
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aqueduct is that it was a popular move from the President of the United States

170
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down to the voters in the city of Los Angeles. This was highly approved project.

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>> Pres. Theodore Roosevelt citing the greatest good for the greatest number

172
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made Owens Valley off-limits to further development by surrounding it with a

173
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national forest.>> It suddenly became part of the Inyo National forest the only

174
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national forest in America with hardly any trees. The only trees were the

175
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orchard trees that were being irrigated and were about to die.

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>> With the law and the president on his side, Mulholland set out in 1905 to

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build his aqueduct across the desert.>> It was a great drama. It was a great

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epic drama the building of that aqueduct. You had kneeled teams and you had

179
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men. And they were working in desert heat, arid conditions, water was a

180
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problem. Ironically enough, here in this giant water project they had to worry

181
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about adequate water for the working stock and the men.

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>> It could be almost freezing at night and then 110 degrees in the daytime,

183
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practically. Mulholland was there all the time.>> Chief engineer Mulholland had

184
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no formal training in civil engineering. He had in fact never graduated from

185
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grade school.>> The automobile had barely been invented. Clipper ships were

186
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still sailing the seas and this was an engineering project the likes of which

187
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the world had really never seen before.>> Mulholland ordered the 12 foot steel

188
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pipe forged in Germany and shipped around the horn. 100,000 men and women worked

189
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on the aqueduct but never more than a few thousand at a time because the

190
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exhausting and dangerous work kept turnover so high. They had been farmhands,

191
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cowboys and hard rock miners but now they were city employees civil servants

192
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like the chief himself. With no air conditioning, no refrigeration, no

193
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hardhats, in 110 degree heat they crossed the Mohave in five years with a pipe

194
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big enough to hold a locomotive.>> This was, you know, and aqueduct that would

195
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have reached all the way across Massachusetts and then almost all the way back.

196
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Through a desert with mountains.What they were really building was the world's

197
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largest garden hose.>> Surveyors said they could build the aqueduct simply by

198
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following the trail of whiskey bottles Mulholland and Eaton has thrown off the

199
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back of their buckboard in 1904. In the end, the chief and his lieutenants

200
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finish the job under budget and ahead of schedule. William Mulholland built his

201
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original aqueduct so well that to this day it still carries the Owens River to

202
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the people of Los Angeles.>> The phrase grandpa's aqueduct were among my first

203
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words. The day of the dedication of the aqueduct was without a doubt the high

204
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point of my grandfather's life.>> A crowd of 30,000 to 40,000 Los Angelenos

205
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phonetic had gathered at the base of the spillway. There was a formal program

206
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but once the water spilled down the Cascade the formal program was abandoned

207
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because thousands of people rushed with their tin cups to drink the water.

208
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>> When the water came cascading down, Mulholland who was really exhausted at

209
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the time gave what I think is the most concise dedication speech in history. He

210
00:23:19,679 --> 00:23:37,629
unfurled an American flag he turned to the water and he said, there it is. Take

211
00:23:37,649 --> 00:23:39,669
it.>> Based on Mulholland's predictions, it was four times more water than Los

212
00:23:39,669 --> 00:23:50,319
Angeles could use.>> Oh, so slow from oso parkway. If you are on to San Diego

213
00:23:50,339 --> 00:23:53,799
South at Magnolia that accident clear to the right shoulder. We are clear back

214
00:23:53,799 --> 00:23:57,599
to the Westminster Mall with bumper-to-bumper through the beat cities. And you

215
00:23:57,619 --> 00:23:58,619
are going to be making your way on the 91 freeway--

216
00:23:58,619 --> 00:24:03,069
>> That moment actually has to be seen not just in terms of human history

217
00:24:03,089 --> 00:24:06,609
however brief human history is. It has to be seen in terms of geological time.

218
00:24:06,609 --> 00:24:13,619
Here you have the eons-old environment now being profoundly changed by the

219
00:24:13,639 --> 00:24:20,049
changing course of the river and that water in effect created contemporary Los

220
00:24:20,069 --> 00:24:24,409
Angeles.>> It's your earthquake damage repair at remodeling headquarters.

221
00:24:24,429 --> 00:24:28,549
>> This week get inaudible to Honolulu for only 199+ tax round-trip. Sun trips

222
00:24:28,569 --> 00:24:33,210
your pipeline to paradise. With air watch traffic--

223
00:24:33,230 --> 00:24:39,549
>> One of the big banquets in the city celebrating this great event he made a

224
00:24:39,569 --> 00:24:45,069
speech and made the very interesting observation he said we are doomed to

225
00:24:45,089 --> 00:24:53,769
success. Might be a motto for the city, do you think?

226
00:24:53,789 --> 00:25:00,441
>> When water came after 1913, it prepared for an absolute golden age of

227
00:25:00,461 --> 00:25:20,310
building and construction that lasted through-- Inaudible

228
00:25:20,330 --> 00:25:24,019
At one point in the early 20s there was some 67 lumber ships at the San Pedro

229
00:25:24,019 --> 00:25:27,460
Harbor lined up just waiting to get the wood off so they could keep the

230
00:25:27,460 --> 00:25:31,409
construction going. You also had the beginnings of the great Hollywood figures

231
00:25:31,429 --> 00:25:39,990
coming out-- DW Griffith, Cecil B DeMille coming just a few months after the

232
00:25:40,009 --> 00:25:47,269
water. At nowhere as you moved to Los Angeles were you not in the presence of

233
00:25:47,289 --> 00:25:55,009
lawns, hedges, palm trees-- great palm trees which sway above Los Angeles now

234
00:25:55,029 --> 00:25:59,529
like nodding giraffes are taken as the signature of the city. Palm trees were

235
00:25:59,549 --> 00:26:01,929
not native to the region they were planted by the hundreds in the hundreds in

236
00:26:01,929 --> 00:26:09,970
this era. Here you had a semi-arid region where coyotes roamed where tumbleweeds

237
00:26:09,990 --> 00:26:15,720
were blown by the wind which in a very short time was turned into arguably the

238
00:26:15,740 --> 00:26:20,849
most exquisite invented garden in history. Now if you link that with the

239
00:26:20,869 --> 00:26:26,679
adjacent citrus groves, which were still in full bloom in the teens and 20s, I

240
00:26:26,699 --> 00:26:33,849
wasn't there, but it must've been wonderful.>> You had a general sensibility of

241
00:26:33,869 --> 00:26:43,569
that time of turning the desert into and Eden.>> Charlie Chaplin and Alice

242
00:26:43,589 --> 00:26:48,299
Huxley came from England. William Faulkner from Mississippi. Frank Lloyd Wright

243
00:26:48,319 --> 00:27:04,250
from Wisconsin. Everyone came from everywhere.LA was suddenly growing 11 times

244
00:27:04,269 --> 00:27:14,970
faster than New York. Faster even than Calcutta. A million people by 1922 of

245
00:27:14,990 --> 00:27:17,319
whom 31,000 were licensed real estate agents. Now over Mulholland's objections,

246
00:27:17,319 --> 00:27:22,119
Los Angeles began annexing 52 surrounding communities. Soon the city limits

247
00:27:22,139 --> 00:27:28,370
would cover 400 mi.? more than any city in America.

248
00:27:28,390 --> 00:27:29,679
>> There are going to be a lot of irate citizens when they find out that they

249
00:27:29,679 --> 00:27:32,961
are paying for water that they are not going to get.

250
00:27:32,980 --> 00:27:37,530
>> Oh, that's all taken care of. See, Mr. Gitts phonetic, either you bring the

251
00:27:37,550 --> 00:27:47,789
water to LA or you bring LA to the water.>> What he simply meant was that you

252
00:27:47,809 --> 00:27:55,859
would bring the water to where you wanted to bring it and call that place LA and

253
00:27:55,879 --> 00:28:03,889
therefore you could get Los Angeles taxpayers to pay what in effect were a cabal

254
00:28:03,909 --> 00:28:11,039
of real estate speculators to have the city pay millions of dollars for them to

255
00:28:11,059 --> 00:28:14,799
pump water down to land that was not in fact part of the city and then cause

256
00:28:14,799 --> 00:28:19,200
them to vote that is part of the city and thereby increase the value of that

257
00:28:19,220 --> 00:28:26,389
land which they had purchased and held 1000 fold. So they were causing one city

258
00:28:26,409 --> 00:28:30,939
in effect to pay for them to develop another city by-- and then saying well,

259
00:28:30,959 --> 00:28:37,419
it's really same city.>> As the Owens River was finally being relocated across a

260
00:28:37,439 --> 00:28:44,429
quarter of the state of California, it became immediately obvious that there was

261
00:28:44,449 --> 00:28:49,929
way more water than Los Angeles needed. And so because the water was coming in

262
00:28:49,949 --> 00:28:54,439
to the San Fernando Valley, it ended up irrigating the San Fernando Valley. It

263
00:28:54,459 --> 00:29:00,049
was basically an artificial imported River for agriculture there rather than the

264
00:29:00,069 --> 00:29:03,379
agriculture that had been essentially put out of business in the Owens Valley.

265
00:29:03,399 --> 00:29:11,639
>> A syndicates arid tracks in the San Fernando Valley blossomed into orange and

266
00:29:11,659 --> 00:29:18,399
lemon groves, peach orchards, fields of winter tomatoes by 1920, LA County was

267
00:29:18,419 --> 00:29:26,220
the most productive farm county in America.>> It may have been legal, but move a

268
00:29:26,240 --> 00:29:31,909
whole River ostensibly for public good and end up making a bunch of capitalists

269
00:29:31,929 --> 00:29:36,889
even richer than they already were by giving them brand-new water supply was

270
00:29:36,909 --> 00:29:42,379
really a kind of a remarkable feat.>> They are conning LA into building it but

271
00:29:42,399 --> 00:29:45,169
the water is not going to go to LA.It's coming right here..

272
00:29:45,169 --> 00:29:50,389
>> What?>> Everything you can see. Everything around us. I was at the Hall of

273
00:29:50,409 --> 00:29:58,710
records today.>> The original title for Chinatown I actually had-- was going to

274
00:29:58,730 --> 00:30:05,759
call it water and power. Because you know that's what it came. And water was

275
00:30:05,779 --> 00:30:19,339
power. It was money. And those who knew how to manipulate it like much more

276
00:30:19,359 --> 00:30:22,099
directly than anybody could ever manipulate a stock market could make money off

277
00:30:22,099 --> 00:30:28,679
of it. And you could see it. It was a palpable thing. Running through your

278
00:30:28,699 --> 00:30:35,259
movie. You know? I mean just a river of greed.>> Do you have any idea what this

279
00:30:35,279 --> 00:30:40,730
land would be worth with the study water supply? About 30 million more than they

280
00:30:40,750 --> 00:30:46,970
paid for it.>> The syndicate began plowing under their newly developed San

281
00:30:46,990 --> 00:30:52,669
Fernando orange groves for tract homes. Advance guard of the largest subdivision

282
00:30:52,689 --> 00:30:59,049
in history. The value of their land had gone up tenfold.

283
00:30:59,069 --> 00:31:04,159
>> This is a great age of salesmanship. Because these were masters of the art of

284
00:31:04,179 --> 00:31:09,710
encouraging people to envision on an empty hillside the great cities, the towns,

285
00:31:09,730 --> 00:31:14,289
the schools, the churches, the synagogues, which would one day be there had they

286
00:31:14,309 --> 00:31:19,460
but the faith that the salesman had. Owning your own home in this region was

287
00:31:19,480 --> 00:31:23,619
given an almost quasi-religious value that your children would not be delinquent

288
00:31:23,639 --> 00:31:27,319
if you had a home. That your marriage would be happy but many of the ills of our

289
00:31:27,319 --> 00:31:32,950
society were due to the fact that people lived in cities and rented.

290
00:31:32,970 --> 00:31:37,549
>> Mulholland himself did not profit directly from the syndicates dealings but

291
00:31:37,569 --> 00:31:43,679
he was now the highest-paid public employee in California. The University of

292
00:31:43,699 --> 00:31:47,990
California gave an honorary degree to a doctor Mulholland the penniless

293
00:31:48,009 --> 00:31:52,109
immigrant who never finished grade school but could keep the entire LA water

294
00:31:52,129 --> 00:31:59,720
system in his head. LA now had a Mulholland school, Mulholland dam, Mulholland

295
00:31:59,740 --> 00:32:09,250
reservoir. And it named its new winding scenic drive the Mulholland Highway.

296
00:32:09,269 --> 00:32:12,719
>> Every kid in LA knew-- it was one of the first names you learned when you

297
00:32:12,719 --> 00:32:17,159
hit-- when you were old enough to get a junior operator's license because that's

298
00:32:17,179 --> 00:32:23,689
where you parked your car to make out. You know? So you know that's one

299
00:32:23,709 --> 00:32:28,819
association with Mulholland is where you took your girl.

300
00:32:28,839 --> 00:32:33,089
>> The men in the family that was a staple of conversation-- waterworks. There

301
00:32:33,109 --> 00:32:38,439
was always a Dodge to get the family to go out and it was usually either to see

302
00:32:38,459 --> 00:32:42,859
the wildflowers in the spring but it somehow always ended up that we were

303
00:32:42,879 --> 00:32:50,269
standing in front of some big turbine or waterworks and with the men discussing

304
00:32:50,289 --> 00:32:55,879
all of just the way you know I had to discuss impressionist paintings with a

305
00:32:55,899 --> 00:33:01,939
friend at the County Museum.>> The city which never had a reason to be now had

306
00:33:01,959 --> 00:33:08,230
1000 oil wells, its own automobile and airplane factories, and before long, 90%

307
00:33:08,250 --> 00:33:14,579
of all the worlds movies would be made in LA. The imported Owens River allow the

308
00:33:14,599 --> 00:33:18,939
city to expand and three times the rate Mulholland had used in his aqueduct

309
00:33:18,959 --> 00:33:24,929
calculations.>> It wasn't a prophet. He couldn't foresee that LA would grow the

310
00:33:24,949 --> 00:33:28,059
way it did.And that's what upset a lot of the balance.

311
00:33:28,059 --> 00:33:34,039
>> A inaudible committee tried to nominate William Mulholland for mayor. He said

312
00:33:34,059 --> 00:33:37,939
he would rather give birth to a porcupine backwards than the mayor of Los

313
00:33:37,959 --> 00:33:44,939
Angeles.>> It was a scramble. I mean the city kept growing and the Chamber of

314
00:33:44,959 --> 00:33:49,659
Commerce kept booming and there were all these marvelous come-ons from to the

315
00:33:49,679 --> 00:33:54,419
railroad companies and from the Chamber of Commerce and he used to joke and say

316
00:33:54,439 --> 00:33:58,449
that he thought the only thing that can stop LA from growing was to kill Frank

317
00:33:58,469 --> 00:34:03,490
Wiggins and Frank Wiggins was the president of the Chamber of Commerce who spent

318
00:34:03,509 --> 00:34:10,500
his lifetime booming LA all over the country. And encouraging more people and so

319
00:34:10,518 --> 00:34:16,590
it was a little bit like the sorcerer's apprentice. You start the process going

320
00:34:16,610 --> 00:34:20,659
and you got to have more water and more water and more water. And you, the

321
00:34:20,679 --> 00:34:25,500
father of the city's water system are supposed to continue to provide this

322
00:34:25,518 --> 00:34:29,900
water. It's a terrible place to be. And you've got to be ingenious and inventive

323
00:34:29,920 --> 00:34:38,289
and come up with new ideas for getting water.>> Now there were 60,000 realtors.

324
00:34:38,309 --> 00:34:42,500
The Chamber of Commerce sent millions of promotional brochures to the Midwest

325
00:34:42,518 --> 00:34:49,590
and New England to Guatemala City and Paris. Only 10 years after Mulholland

326
00:34:49,610 --> 00:34:54,949
finished his great aqueduct with a fourfold surplus, LA was running out of

327
00:34:54,969 --> 00:35:03,009
water. And he was pondering new sources.The Colorado, Mono Lake, or the Sierras.

328
00:35:03,029 --> 00:35:07,639
>> Maybe the best example of the metamorphosis of Mulholland into an obsessive

329
00:35:07,659 --> 00:35:15,429
water seeker was described to me by Horace Albright who was back in the 20s a

330
00:35:15,449 --> 00:35:19,610
superintendent at Yosemite national Park. And he was at a banquet table with

331
00:35:19,630 --> 00:35:26,179
Mulholland and Mulholland started waxing eloquent about how beautiful the valley

332
00:35:26,199 --> 00:35:31,329
is and then he said what he would do if he were in charge is he would send

333
00:35:31,349 --> 00:35:36,569
photographers into the valley and let them photograph all day long all night

334
00:35:36,589 --> 00:35:42,199
every season and just have the most astounding collection of Yosemite

335
00:35:42,219 --> 00:35:46,159
photographs that you could ever imagine. Put them in books and send them free to

336
00:35:46,179 --> 00:35:52,239
every library in the world and then he would go in there and build a great big

337
00:35:52,259 --> 00:36:22,259
dam and stop the God damned waste.>> Just to the north of Yosemite, late John

338
00:36:39,710 --> 00:36:48,460
Muir's beloved Hetch Hetchy Valley.Here, LA's rival San Francisco was in fact

339
00:36:48,480 --> 00:36:53,549
planning a dam which would soon permanently submerge Hetch Hetchy under 300 feet

340
00:36:53,569 --> 00:37:03,079
of water. Owens Valley had in fact gotten off easy compared to Hetch Hetchy.

341
00:37:03,099 --> 00:37:06,719
Mulholland's aqueduct had only dewatered the southern half of the valley.

342
00:37:06,739 --> 00:37:12,179
Leaving the northern towns and farms to flourish during World War I.

343
00:37:12,199 --> 00:37:15,819
>> Well, Owens Valley was an absolute you might say showplace. It produced

344
00:37:15,839 --> 00:37:21,150
fruit-- of the people from LA would go nuts over to get this fruit from here. I

345
00:37:21,170 --> 00:37:24,630
can remember when the sky would get black with flights of ducks. This was one of

346
00:37:24,630 --> 00:37:30,170
the major flyaways. Oh, absolutely black with them. I mean that. The sky would

347
00:37:30,190 --> 00:37:33,769
be black and even for a day or two or for hours and hours.

348
00:37:33,789 --> 00:37:40,929
>> It was a great time to live up here. It was a very close knit community. You

349
00:37:40,949 --> 00:37:42,289
know? Every Saturday night they would keep the opera house open all night and

350
00:37:42,289 --> 00:37:48,130
they would show the movie and when the movie was over they would push the chairs

351
00:37:48,150 --> 00:37:51,489
back and everybody would dance all night. Then they'd have a breakfast and

352
00:37:51,489 --> 00:37:54,739
everybody would go home back to their branches at sunup, you know? Did this

353
00:37:54,739 --> 00:38:07,659
every Saturday night and it was a great time to live in the Owens Valley.

354
00:38:07,679 --> 00:38:15,690
>> What few people knew was that William Mulholland was about to turn his

355
00:38:15,710 --> 00:38:22,670
attention to what remained of the Owens River.>> This growing city of Los

356
00:38:22,690 --> 00:38:29,259
Angeles becomes like a vampire making a direct connection to the major artery of

357
00:38:29,279 --> 00:38:34,079
the Owens Valley which is the Owens River. And of course imagine those ranchers

358
00:38:34,099 --> 00:38:37,839
who were initially told that Los Angeles would be their partner, their friend,

359
00:38:37,859 --> 00:38:41,539
that they would grow and prosperity along with the city began to see that the

360
00:38:41,539 --> 00:38:45,679
vampire was sucking the lifeblood and that their fertile fields were becoming

361
00:38:45,699 --> 00:38:52,469
parched and nonproductive.>> In the wet years since 1905, relations between the

362
00:38:52,489 --> 00:38:58,299
city and the Valley had been surprisingly cordial but now there was drought. The

363
00:38:58,319 --> 00:39:03,139
city sunk 52 turbine wells into the valley floor to pump groundwater into the

364
00:39:03,159 --> 00:39:07,449
aqueduct crippling surrounding ranches.>> What people resented here is they

365
00:39:07,469 --> 00:39:11,210
didn't have the option. They didn't have a choice. And the pressure that had

366
00:39:11,210 --> 00:39:15,150
built over 20 years and the inaudible was done and this whole water we're

367
00:39:15,170 --> 00:39:20,819
talking about they could care nothing about this property.

368
00:39:20,839 --> 00:39:25,199
>> On Sunday my mother would take me for drives and she would always talk about

369
00:39:25,219 --> 00:39:30,599
apple orchards and peach orchards. And it wasn't until years later that I

370
00:39:30,619 --> 00:39:34,000
realized because growing up in Bishop, there was always a-- we were surrounded

371
00:39:34,019 --> 00:39:39,279
by sagebrush. It was always dry. It was always dusty. There was always dust in

372
00:39:39,299 --> 00:39:43,589
the air. And I couldn't even imagine what my mother was talking about. I

373
00:39:43,609 --> 00:39:49,839
couldn't imagine. And it took me until a young adult to realize that it was much

374
00:39:49,859 --> 00:40:01,730
different at one time. I would have liked to have seen what my grandparents saw

375
00:40:01,750 --> 00:40:07,069
there. I'd like to see the green. I'd like to see the orchards. It must've been

376
00:40:07,089 --> 00:40:11,389
gorgeous. It must've been gorgeous. I mean I think that the Owens Valley is

377
00:40:11,409 --> 00:40:18,579
beautiful now. I grew up there. And is beautiful now. So can you imagine what it

378
00:40:18,599 --> 00:40:24,130
was like when my grandfather was there? When my great-grandfather was there? It

379
00:40:24,150 --> 00:40:36,269
could make me cry.>> Anger mounted as Mulholland's men cut ranchers canals. The

380
00:40:36,289 --> 00:40:41,449
city bought more land, siphoned off more and more water. Half the crops were

381
00:40:41,469 --> 00:40:48,000
gone by 1924.Schools and businesses began to close. Owens Lake went bone dry.

382
00:40:48,019 --> 00:41:00,199
Rumors of resistance began to fly. Someone blew a hole in the siphon. And then,

383
00:41:00,219 --> 00:41:05,480
just before Thanksgiving in 1924, the local bank president and 100 citizens

384
00:41:05,500 --> 00:41:13,670
seize the aqueduct. They opened the floodgates and sent the entire flow of the

385
00:41:13,690 --> 00:41:26,860
Owens River down a ditch and back into its ancient channel in the valley floor.

386
00:41:26,880 --> 00:41:30,949
>> They organized a caravan of these old model T's that drove I think probably

387
00:41:30,969 --> 00:41:37,159
dozens of cars down to the Alabama gates on the aqueduct where there was a

388
00:41:37,179 --> 00:41:39,779
turnout valve will they could basically stop the flow of water to Los Angeles.

389
00:41:39,779 --> 00:41:46,219
>> Talk about community involvement. I know that my grandfather was there. I

390
00:41:46,239 --> 00:41:51,960
have spoken recently with my mother's cousin and she said that she remembers

391
00:41:51,980 --> 00:41:58,360
that it was a party that her mother got her up early and got her dressed up and

392
00:41:58,380 --> 00:42:06,460
she was only four. So, there was a-- I me that was a great step and those people

393
00:42:06,480 --> 00:42:12,900
didn't move from the Alabama gates. They didn't move. That took a lot of

394
00:42:12,920 --> 00:42:13,920
courage. That did.Inaudible>> There wasn't any guns involved. There wasn't that

395
00:42:13,920 --> 00:42:24,759
type of thing. There'd only been a inaudible from there and he was sympathetic

396
00:42:24,779 --> 00:42:33,159
to his inaudible if you will.So there was a whole bunch of oh, arbitration but

397
00:42:33,179 --> 00:42:44,009
discussion but interest focused on this thing is mainly what they were after.

398
00:42:44,029 --> 00:42:45,809
>> The crowd grew to 700 picnicking, singing Onward Christian Soldiers, playing

399
00:42:45,809 --> 00:42:57,789
Enrico Caruso on a hand cranked phonograph. Superintendent Mulholland sent city

400
00:42:57,809 --> 00:43:27,809
police to take back the water but the local sheriff stood between the officers

401
00:43:28,679 --> 00:43:30,500
and the citizens.>> This news did travel around the world. This was a great big

402
00:43:30,500 --> 00:43:36,230
story at the time. And it was embarrassing for Los Angeles. Because they were

403
00:43:36,250 --> 00:43:46,949
being cast as the villain. And you know it was hard to see that any other way.

404
00:43:46,969 --> 00:43:51,909
>> Mulholland saw this as number one an instance of civil insurrection but saw

405
00:43:51,929 --> 00:43:56,179
that nothing less than the survival of Los Angeles itself was at stake and that

406
00:43:56,199 --> 00:44:02,219
basically that had to be a cleansing of farmers from that region. That the two

407
00:44:02,239 --> 00:44:06,779
communities were incompatible. And that they would have to be bought out.

408
00:44:06,799 --> 00:44:10,619
>> And so they decided to try to sit down with some of the leaders of the Owens

409
00:44:10,619 --> 00:44:16,549
Valley and negotiate some kind of a settlement.>> After week, the local bank

410
00:44:16,569 --> 00:44:20,769
president told the Raiders that a Los Angeles consortium would negotiate a fair

411
00:44:20,789 --> 00:44:25,779
price for the remaining water rights in Owens Valley. LA would even consider

412
00:44:25,799 --> 00:44:30,969
sharing the water. With cheers and congratulations, the ranchers and their

413
00:44:30,989 --> 00:44:36,719
families went home. Only to learn later that the deal had fallen through.

414
00:44:36,739 --> 00:44:43,119
>> As these negotiations such as they were are going on, the city is busily

415
00:44:43,139 --> 00:44:48,769
buying more rights, land and water rights in the Valley. Basically buying the

416
00:44:48,789 --> 00:44:55,400
whole place up.>> While ranchers occupied the aqueduct, city agents had secured

417
00:44:55,420 --> 00:44:59,699
legal options on virtually all remaining land and water rights in Owens Valley.

418
00:44:59,719 --> 00:45:08,769
They bought whole towns. Even the county seat and County jail.

419
00:45:08,789 --> 00:45:15,059
>> More trouble. And it's not the first time either. The last bombing was four

420
00:45:15,079 --> 00:45:20,710
years ago and ranchers objecting to the city cutting across their property are

421
00:45:20,730 --> 00:45:26,909
suspected. It's one of the main line pipes about 150 miles north of Los Angeles

422
00:45:26,929 --> 00:45:31,469
that supplies water to the big town. It's a lucky Los Angeles has an emergency

423
00:45:31,489 --> 00:45:36,909
watershed or this might have resulted in a terrible drought disaster. The police

424
00:45:36,929 --> 00:45:41,179
are after the fiends who did this rotten job let's hope they get them. There is

425
00:45:41,179 --> 00:45:51,119
no punishment too strong for them.>> They received a phone call and this is like

426
00:45:51,139 --> 00:45:56,349
telling Leonardo da Vinci that someone has just slashed the Mona Lisa. I mean he

427
00:45:56,369 --> 00:46:08,849
was just appalled outraged and furious and at that point, a certain ugly turn of

428
00:46:08,869 --> 00:46:15,449
events occurred. The mood changed.>> Now, night after night, saboteurs dynamited

429
00:46:15,469 --> 00:46:20,170
Mulholland's masterwork. The great aqueduct inaudible

430
00:46:20,190 --> 00:46:30,529
>> They had numerous stories about my grandfather taking off and blowing up

431
00:46:30,549 --> 00:46:39,079
dynamiting the aqueduct. It took great pride in the fact of that the many raids

432
00:46:39,099 --> 00:46:43,679
to blow up the aqueduct.>> They would go along and dynamite sections and then

433
00:46:43,699 --> 00:46:48,009
they'd go right off back up into the hills, would camp out for weeks and weeks

434
00:46:48,029 --> 00:46:53,279
and weeks after they had bombed it they were afraid to come home and have them

435
00:46:53,299 --> 00:46:58,480
have their wives and kids had to basically hold family and Fort together.

436
00:46:58,500 --> 00:47:03,920
>> The city named three women and 15 men as ringleaders. But could never win a

437
00:47:03,940 --> 00:47:08,960
single conviction.>> They were heroes you know in your own mind. You know, those

438
00:47:08,980 --> 00:47:13,259
guys are great for what they did and everything. But we always thought that you

439
00:47:13,279 --> 00:47:16,789
wish we'd been there if we were kids, you know, but--

440
00:47:16,809 --> 00:47:22,109
>> Interestingly enough, then he went on to be a California State Sen. So he

441
00:47:22,129 --> 00:47:26,349
wasn't a crazy man. He was just a man on a mission and a purpose.

442
00:47:26,369 --> 00:47:35,139
>> Mulholland and his colleagues said look, this can't go on. This is-- you are

443
00:47:35,159 --> 00:47:41,889
threatening the water supply for a great city. This is criminal. And they sent

444
00:47:41,909 --> 00:47:46,670
machine guns up there and it stopped.>> Train loads of them were going up to the

445
00:47:46,690 --> 00:47:50,769
Owens Valley and basically imposing martial law. There were searchlights and

446
00:47:50,789 --> 00:47:57,429
floodlights up and down that Valley sweeping across the aqueduct all night long.

447
00:47:57,449 --> 00:48:02,239
>> Mulholland sent 600 heavily armed police to secure the city's water supply.

448
00:48:02,259 --> 00:48:07,920
Backed by the full force of state and federal law, endorsed by the Chamber of

449
00:48:07,940 --> 00:48:16,389
Commerce.>> As Jean Renoir said, everyone has his reasons. And I'm sure he had

450
00:48:16,409 --> 00:48:22,869
his reasons and he justified it because he had to. I can see how it would've

451
00:48:22,889 --> 00:48:27,639
been very easy to get carried away by powerful men saying see what you can do

452
00:48:27,659 --> 00:48:32,380
for the city. You know? What a great man you will be. You know?

453
00:48:32,400 --> 00:48:39,549
>> When I was a kid, you know, he was a bad guy. He was the guy with the black

454
00:48:39,569 --> 00:48:44,319
hat. He was-- we all hated him, you know? I mean we all talked about a lot and

455
00:48:44,339 --> 00:48:50,730
you know what evil guy he was, but he had a fantastic vision but he didn't care

456
00:48:50,750 --> 00:48:54,089
who he stepped over to get it. He didn't care what happened to the Owens Valley.

457
00:48:54,089 --> 00:48:57,989
>> I would say that when I was a little girl it was not good to be a Mulholland

458
00:48:57,989 --> 00:49:04,170
in Owens Valley and I was never taken there and my folks if they should chance

459
00:49:04,190 --> 00:49:09,579
to travel my mother told me they always registered at a hotel using her maiden

460
00:49:09,599 --> 00:49:17,150
name. Because we were just not well liked in Owens Valley and it was not a good

461
00:49:17,170 --> 00:49:23,859
name to carry.>> Well, Mulholland was a very honest man. Because he said that

462
00:49:23,879 --> 00:49:28,889
everyone in Bishop was a son of a bitch and that there wasn't enough pine trees

463
00:49:28,909 --> 00:49:33,599
to hang the natives on which they deserved whereas the rest of them they went

464
00:49:33,619 --> 00:49:38,059
with the protocol and with inaudible and so on but not Mulholland.

465
00:49:38,079 --> 00:49:44,170
>> He knew that it was a vein hope I mean to think that they could go back I

466
00:49:44,190 --> 00:49:50,489
mean the water had been taken. It was the fait accompli. There was no turning

467
00:49:50,509 --> 00:49:56,000
back. Owens Valley was not going to be reverted back to what it had been in

468
00:49:56,019 --> 00:50:01,289
1905. That deed had been done.>> Somebody did put up a sign and that said Los

469
00:50:01,309 --> 00:50:07,009
Angeles city limits way out in the Owens Valley as kind of a bitter joke. It was

470
00:50:07,029 --> 00:50:11,859
really than everyone knew William Mulholland had triumphed. He had one the

471
00:50:11,879 --> 00:50:18,000
Valley was really his.>> Before long, city bulldozers began knocking down

472
00:50:18,019 --> 00:50:25,799
farmhouses and feeling and irrigation ditches.>> Well first we had the Valley

473
00:50:25,819 --> 00:50:29,399
then the sellers came in and took away from us in the city of Los Angeles came

474
00:50:29,399 --> 00:50:43,529
and they took it away from them.>> All Mulholland needed now was a place to

475
00:50:43,549 --> 00:50:49,480
store water for the growing city.But former LA Mayor Fred Eaton owned the only

476
00:50:49,500 --> 00:50:53,980
reservoir site in Owens Valley.And was demanding $1 million for it. So

477
00:50:54,000 --> 00:51:01,219
Mulholland build a huge dam in the hills just 40 miles from downtown LA. It was

478
00:51:01,239 --> 00:51:06,279
the largest arch support dam in North America. The final link in a decade of

479
00:51:06,299 --> 00:51:13,480
triumph. By the spring of 1928, the reservoir in San Francisquito Canyon was a

480
00:51:13,500 --> 00:51:18,109
full to the brim with a year's supply of Owens River water. Far from the scene

481
00:51:18,129 --> 00:51:24,949
of battle. On March 12, workers noticed a small leak on the north side.

482
00:51:24,969 --> 00:51:32,529
Mulholland inspected the leak pronounced the dam sound and went home to bed.

483
00:51:32,549 --> 00:51:39,440
>> My grandfather was awakened from his sleep with a phone call saying the dam

484
00:51:39,460 --> 00:51:47,449
had gone out. And his first response was he stumbled toward the phone was oh

485
00:51:47,469 --> 00:52:00,739
please God don't let people be killed.>> There was no warning. There was no

486
00:52:00,759 --> 00:52:08,699
warning system. And it started wiping out whole communities.

487
00:52:08,719 --> 00:52:19,139
>> You had so much water in that dam. That there were 1000 ton blocks of

488
00:52:19,159 --> 00:52:26,650
concrete riding the crest. It was not water at a certain point. It was trees,

489
00:52:26,670 --> 00:52:36,629
homes, blocks of concrete, rocks, rubble. It was a semisolid wall advancing at

490
00:52:36,649 --> 00:52:53,619
20 or 30 miles an hour 40 and 50, 60 feet high. You couldn't run from it.

491
00:52:53,639 --> 00:53:06,619
>> I was five years old when the St. Francis dam broke. And with my limited

492
00:53:06,639 --> 00:53:11,079
perceptions I realized some dreadful thing. It was like bringing a dark curtain

493
00:53:11,099 --> 00:53:20,400
down over a lighted area. My father took me-- he was-- my father was stunned and

494
00:53:20,420 --> 00:53:26,299
he took me in the car. My mother was not well at the time. And we drove up to

495
00:53:26,319 --> 00:53:33,710
the dam site and on the way up, he taught me how to say San Francisquito Canyon

496
00:53:33,730 --> 00:53:38,929
and we rehearsed it over and over as if it were some kind of a catechism lesson

497
00:53:38,949 --> 00:53:46,289
of what it did for me was imprint that name forever in my mind as a scene of

498
00:53:46,309 --> 00:53:55,489
some terrible fate which had befallen our family.

499
00:53:55,509 --> 00:54:08,429
>> Mulholland surveyed the greatest man-made disaster in California history. His

500
00:54:08,449 --> 00:54:38,449
St. Francis dam had killed as many people as the San Francisco earthquake.

501
00:54:39,139 --> 00:54:44,529
>> I've always been moved all my life at the pictures that were taken of in the

502
00:54:44,549 --> 00:54:52,379
morning that he was-- went up and surveyed the ruins of the dam failure. It's

503
00:54:52,399 --> 00:54:59,389
like looking at the most stricken human being I've ever seen. It's a dead stark

504
00:54:59,409 --> 00:55:04,849
look at his on his face as he stands amid the rubble of something he had

505
00:55:04,869 --> 00:55:11,009
created. It was an engineer's most horrible fate any engineer could have to

506
00:55:11,029 --> 00:55:21,359
build a structure that fails and also kills.>> So Mulholland was in a state of

507
00:55:21,379 --> 00:55:28,420
shock. He made an initial effort really. It wasn't much of an effort-- to blame

508
00:55:28,440 --> 00:55:31,500
the whole thing on dynamiters phonetic which was the term he now used

509
00:55:31,500 --> 00:55:35,199
generically to refer to anybody in the Owens Valley.

510
00:55:35,219 --> 00:55:40,989
But it was soon very obvious that the dam had failed by itself and nobody had

511
00:55:41,009 --> 00:55:48,309
sabotaged it and that Mulholland had paid a visit to the dam just hours earlier

512
00:55:48,329 --> 00:55:55,609
and said that the dam was fine. So his reputation which had-- he had been a God

513
00:55:55,629 --> 00:56:02,159
figure in Los Angeles.>> Mulholland went from being of the father of the city,

514
00:56:02,179 --> 00:56:17,529
the founder of the city to standing possible indictment.

515
00:56:17,549 --> 00:56:23,769
>> The precise cause was never found. No criminal charges were ever filed, but

516
00:56:23,789 --> 00:56:30,059
the coroner's jury held William Mulholland responsible. He accepted the blame.

517
00:56:30,079 --> 00:56:33,309
Broke down in sobs and said that he envied the dead.

518
00:56:33,329 --> 00:56:51,089
>> They kept slowly taking away the water from the canals and the ditches and

519
00:56:51,109 --> 00:56:55,309
everything slowly but surely they got everything siphoned down and so the land

520
00:56:55,329 --> 00:57:00,319
of the trees and the whole form says they all died off and all the old orchards

521
00:57:00,339 --> 00:57:02,759
died off and they are all gone now all the houses are all gone. So they just

522
00:57:02,759 --> 00:57:11,899
turned back into a desert as it was, basically.>> When we traveled to Los

523
00:57:11,919 --> 00:57:16,009
Angeles we watched the aqueduct. My parents would

524
00:57:16,029 --> 00:57:23,539
always say, there is our water. Girls, that water came from the Owens Valley.

525
00:57:23,559 --> 00:57:31,719
And as a child I remember feeling animosity towards Los Angeles. You always

526
00:57:31,739 --> 00:57:38,809
knew. He always felt that they took our water.>> Mulholland resigned in

527
00:57:38,829 --> 00:57:43,710
disgrace. His real achievements clouded by the disaster and by the suffering in

528
00:57:43,730 --> 00:57:49,239
Owens Valley. His plans for still greater aqueducts lay on the drawing board but

529
00:57:49,259 --> 00:57:54,119
to the people of LA he was an embarrassment. Officials began referring to the

530
00:57:54,139 --> 00:58:02,039
Mulholland reservoir as the Hollywood reservoir. Owens Valley was history but

531
00:58:02,059 --> 00:58:06,539
fantasy and folklore lived on.The myth of rampaging bullies destroying a

532
00:58:06,559 --> 00:58:10,009
paradise, gallant ranchers defending their homes.>> These gentlemen bring word

533
00:58:10,029 --> 00:58:14,559
from the capital. The inaudible Valley has been condemned.

534
00:58:14,579 --> 00:58:18,940
>> Condemned?>> What do you mean?>> It seems that Metripol phonetic City needs

535
00:58:18,960 --> 00:58:23,960
more water and power. So the state has decided to build a dam across cut stone

536
00:58:23,980 --> 00:58:28,059
Canyon and turn the Valley into a reservoir.>> Just let them start trying to

537
00:58:28,079 --> 00:58:32,629
build a dam around here.>> The state authorized me to build a dam. And it's

538
00:58:32,649 --> 00:58:38,349
going to be built whether you like it or not.>> Take it easy, you don't know the

539
00:58:38,369 --> 00:58:54,489
kind of people you're dealing with, Mister.>> But he will find out.

540
00:58:54,509 --> 00:58:59,589
>> In 1934 using Mulholland's original plans, the Metropolitan water District

541
00:58:59,609 --> 00:59:03,980
lasted a new aqueduct all the way to the Arizona State line to its second River,

542
00:59:04,000 --> 00:59:14,659
the Colorado.>> Unless we take immediate steps to bring in water from an outside

543
00:59:14,679 --> 00:59:20,029
source, the people of Southern California will be up against a serious water

544
00:59:20,049 --> 00:59:24,670
shortage. But we are fortunate in having within our reach a water source capable

545
00:59:24,690 --> 00:59:31,170
of supplying our needs. This source is the Colorado River.

546
00:59:31,190 --> 00:59:35,869
Inaudible>> The governor of Arizona deployed his state militia to the river's

547
00:59:35,889 --> 00:59:44,629
bank to stop Los Angeles from taking Colorado River water.

548
00:59:44,649 --> 00:59:57,839
>> It was to no avail.>> Final resolution would not come until 30 years later

549
00:59:57,859 --> 01:00:01,309
after one of the longest court cases in American history.

550
01:00:01,329 --> 01:00:05,809
>> On the day when the waters of the Colorado River rushes into this aqueduct

551
01:00:05,829 --> 01:00:12,029
the greatest engineering feat of its kind ever accomplished will take its place

552
01:00:12,049 --> 01:00:18,569
among the wonders of the world.>> It is a wonderful thing to contemplate this

553
01:00:18,589 --> 01:00:24,369
new conquest of the great Southwest were everything that man desires is

554
01:00:24,389 --> 01:00:29,969
present. Everything except sufficient water. With sufficient water we can be

555
01:00:29,989 --> 01:00:37,969
assured of a great and a stable civilization.>> Wow. What a day. I'm afraid

556
01:00:37,989 --> 01:00:43,250
we're going to be busy. Hi, Greg. It was a high-speed pursuit earlier this

557
01:00:43,269 --> 01:00:46,469
morning. They have the San Bernardino westbound on and off ramps at Atlantic

558
01:00:46,469 --> 01:01:08,670
closed down because of a police investigation.Bumper to bumper to Puente.

559
01:01:08,690 --> 01:01:10,269
Foreign Language Spoken>> -- we'd like to welcome you all aboard Universal

560
01:01:10,269 --> 01:01:13,379
Studios Hollywood super trim presented by Texaco. Oh, yeah. Uh-oh. I think I

561
01:01:13,379 --> 01:01:27,940
hear something. It might get a little bit wet.>> Hey, watch out for that tree

562
01:01:27,960 --> 01:01:36,920
back there!>> He brought enough elements together, water, population, wealth so

563
01:01:36,940 --> 01:01:43,579
that Los Angeles was now almost condemned to grow and grow and grow.

564
01:01:43,599 --> 01:01:55,440
>> So after the 1920s, Los Angeles' history is almost defined by an obsessive

565
01:01:55,460 --> 01:02:02,549
constant search for more and more water. Hoover dam was authorized in 1928,

566
01:02:02,569 --> 01:02:09,829
finished by the mid-30s then Mono Lake which is north of the Owens Valley was

567
01:02:09,849 --> 01:02:13,839
hooked up to the aqueduct. And began draining all the streams that feed this

568
01:02:13,859 --> 01:02:20,029
irreplaceable natural wonder out there.>> Mulholland had long had his eye on

569
01:02:20,049 --> 01:02:26,009
Mono Lake, 100 miles north of Owens Valley. In 1936, his successors dusted off

570
01:02:26,029 --> 01:02:31,449
his plans and pushed the aqueduct north to mono seeking again the greatest good

571
01:02:31,469 --> 01:02:35,039
for the greatest number.>> People really shouldn't have any problem with our

572
01:02:35,059 --> 01:02:40,339
water system and take it for granted or the water people are doing their job

573
01:02:40,359 --> 01:02:46,629
well. I always felt that I was working for a good purpose. I wasn't doing

574
01:02:46,649 --> 01:02:53,929
something that in my view really didn't basically benefit society. I felt that I

575
01:02:53,949 --> 01:02:58,789
was working on something that was a fundamental benefit to society. I was proud

576
01:02:58,809 --> 01:03:04,389
of that.>> The people of LA could not depend on water from ancient streams

577
01:03:04,409 --> 01:03:16,009
feeding Mono Lake.>> This is the desert. This is the grim waterless waste that

578
01:03:16,029 --> 01:03:20,250
covered most of Los Angeles even within the memory of living men. Here between

579
01:03:20,269 --> 01:03:21,329
the mountains and the sea, Los Angeles was built. Here is a living breathing

580
01:03:21,329 --> 01:03:25,960
proof that energy and vision can build a metropolis almost overnight. Angelenos

581
01:03:25,980 --> 01:03:33,359
phonetic are likely to live on a ranch still within city limits. Perhaps a few

582
01:03:33,379 --> 01:03:37,299
years ago they were residents of Iowa, Illinois, New Jersey. Here they quickly

583
01:03:37,319 --> 01:03:41,769
abandon old conventions of inaudible. Dress as they please make the most of

584
01:03:41,789 --> 01:03:48,099
their mild seductive climate. The inaudible introduction to this promised land

585
01:03:48,119 --> 01:03:55,480
of exotic people, sunshine, stucco, money, optimism. Success is her pattern.

586
01:03:55,500 --> 01:04:09,699
This is LA.This is America.>> The rise of Nazis in Germany and the fleeing of

587
01:04:09,719 --> 01:04:10,939
all that talent have the creation of a euro Southern California. Otto Preminger

588
01:04:10,939 --> 01:04:13,719
who was of course fleeing the Nazis was at the Hillcrest country club and people

589
01:04:13,719 --> 01:04:16,619
playing cards and people were talking. And these two people started talking in

590
01:04:16,619 --> 01:04:22,029
Hungarian and they were talking white Hungarian phonetic. Otto Preminger said,

591
01:04:22,049 --> 01:04:23,569
what's the matter, he says, why are you talking in Hungarian? This is Los

592
01:04:23,569 --> 01:04:39,000
Angeles. He said, talk German.>> From Berlin, New York, Alabama, from all over

593
01:04:39,019 --> 01:04:45,889
the world people flooded into Southern California. They said it was just like

594
01:04:45,909 --> 01:04:57,559
everyone else only more so.>> There was a new paradise. It's something like--

595
01:04:57,579 --> 01:05:01,349
you know love and good health. You really miss it by its absence very often. I

596
01:05:01,349 --> 01:05:06,929
mean it just wasn't aware-- I was never aware growing up, but how wonderful it

597
01:05:06,949 --> 01:05:20,629
was until it was gone and that was the air itself. The air was wonderful. If you

598
01:05:20,649 --> 01:05:28,299
stop and think about the mean temperature of the climate here year-round, it's

599
01:05:28,319 --> 01:05:33,419
probably the most perfect climate to you know, sort of walk around and with

600
01:05:33,439 --> 01:05:48,440
almost no clothing because the air you just feel that is almost an extension of

601
01:05:48,460 --> 01:05:49,460
your own skin. It doesn't-- it's not too hot, it's not too cold.

602
01:05:49,460 --> 01:05:51,579
>> The machinery of water acquisition overworked the Owens River, the Colorado,

603
01:05:51,599 --> 01:05:58,559
and the Mono basin. In 1964, the Metropolitan water District proposed diverting

604
01:05:58,579 --> 01:06:03,359
the Columbia River to Southern California. The future had arrived.

605
01:06:03,379 --> 01:06:08,629
>> Somebody finally decided rather than just go after another source of water

606
01:06:08,649 --> 01:06:13,250
every 10 or 20 years, why don't we go to where there's so much water we will

607
01:06:13,250 --> 01:06:19,039
have enough for 200 years. And where was that place? Alaska. It would have

608
01:06:19,059 --> 01:06:25,449
brought this water down in huge jolts, irrigated Nevada, irrigated Eastern

609
01:06:25,469 --> 01:06:28,429
Oregon on the way. Some of it would've gone all the way to Mexico. It was going

610
01:06:28,429 --> 01:06:33,569
to go to Arizona, it was going to go to Texas.>> Nobody really blinked. There

611
01:06:33,589 --> 01:06:37,029
were lots of people in the business who thought well, yeah. It's maybe a little

612
01:06:37,029 --> 01:06:39,689
premature, but this is going to happen someday because it has to.

613
01:06:39,689 --> 01:06:47,469
>> This is not a mirage. But rather a preview of an atomic Marvel of tomorrow. A

614
01:06:47,489 --> 01:06:53,079
milestone in man's development. A nuclear powered Agro industrial complex. With

615
01:06:53,099 --> 01:06:58,559
a nuclear reactor as the energy source, and a D salting plant as the fresh water

616
01:06:58,579 --> 01:07:03,699
source, the desert may be transformed into a nuclear powered Agro industrial

617
01:07:03,719 --> 01:07:11,980
complex.>> There were plans to last so you know icebergs and tell them down. You

618
01:07:12,000 --> 01:07:18,679
know,it was like the flimflam man. I mean there was no end to these people who

619
01:07:18,699 --> 01:07:27,919
had plans to dam San Francisco Bay, to pipelines beyond your wildest dreams.

620
01:07:27,939 --> 01:07:32,199
These-- and this wasn't about carrying oil. This was about carrying water. This

621
01:07:32,219 --> 01:07:38,779
is water.>> When these reactors are coupled to a desalting plant, approximately

622
01:07:38,799 --> 01:07:41,960
1 billion gallons of fresh water will be produced per day.

623
01:07:41,980 --> 01:07:51,379
>> Of course at the time, nobody was challenging the idea of using 8 gallons of

624
01:07:51,399 --> 01:07:59,019
water per flush in a toilet. Or irrigating your lawn to the point where it's

625
01:07:59,039 --> 01:08:03,039
standing an inch deep in water. Nobody thought about conservation. People only

626
01:08:03,059 --> 01:08:08,210
thought about supply.>> The city had long since exhausted supply from the tiny

627
01:08:08,230 --> 01:08:16,988
Los Angeles River and cemented over its channel by 1960. The DWP built a

628
01:08:17,010 --> 01:08:20,569
reservoir to store supply of Owens River water near the center of Los Angeles.

629
01:08:20,590 --> 01:08:23,609
>> The Los Angeles city police helicopter is here. The Los Angeles city fire

630
01:08:23,609 --> 01:08:31,269
department helicopters here. The police are on the ground with motorcycles and

631
01:08:31,288 --> 01:08:35,969
automobiles. Trying to effectively activate people from here so there can't

632
01:08:35,988 --> 01:08:42,029
possibly be any more loss of life than there is. Property no telling how much

633
01:08:42,050 --> 01:08:49,519
property has already been lost.>> A triangle shaped wedge tears out of the

634
01:08:49,538 --> 01:08:50,679
asphalt and concrete lined wall of the earth-filled phonetic dam of the Baldwin

635
01:08:50,679 --> 01:08:51,679
Hills reservoir. And millions of gallons of water raced down the canyon toward

636
01:08:51,679 --> 01:08:53,429
the homes below in the community between downtown Los Angeles and International

637
01:08:53,429 --> 01:09:08,828
Airport. Almost 300 million gallons of water in 77 minutes. An incredible

638
01:09:08,849 --> 01:09:20,359
disaster.>> The Department of water and power had no choice but to carry on

639
01:09:20,380 --> 01:09:29,109
since it now served 3 million people. In 1966, LA acquired its third River like

640
01:09:29,130 --> 01:09:33,109
a giant version of Mulholland's Owens Valley project, the California State

641
01:09:33,130 --> 01:09:37,849
aqueducts now brought the Feather River from 600 miles north. Enough water to

642
01:09:37,868 --> 01:09:46,559
fill the Rose Bowl every 90 minutes.>> Los Angeles by the 70s was reaching 200

643
01:09:46,578 --> 01:09:51,759
miles in one direction, 250 miles in another direction and 600 miles in a third

644
01:09:51,779 --> 01:10:01,209
direction. For water. And it still wasn't enough.>> In 1970 the Department of

645
01:10:01,229 --> 01:10:05,689
water and power using Mulholland's original sketches finished the second

646
01:10:05,710 --> 01:10:16,959
barrel, a parallel aqueduct not far from the original. Sucking now twice as much

647
01:10:16,979 --> 01:10:18,329
water from Mono Lake. The million year old Lake now fell 2 feet every year. It

648
01:10:18,329 --> 01:10:24,819
was the only stop for a million migrating seabirds on their way from the Arctic

649
01:10:24,840 --> 01:10:31,149
to Bolivia.>> You could see the lake going down and down and down. Pretty soon

650
01:10:31,170 --> 01:10:33,849
it it was not even growing around the lake anymore. Everything was drying up all

651
01:10:33,849 --> 01:10:41,129
the little springs were dying. You know. That was really devastating because we

652
01:10:41,149 --> 01:10:47,149
thought the whole Lake is going to be like this. And when you think of God's

653
01:10:47,170 --> 01:10:51,209
given like you think it should be like it was.>> The local people had already

654
01:10:51,229 --> 01:10:54,809
resigned themselves to the fact that the lake was going to dry up or get to a

655
01:10:54,809 --> 01:11:05,819
very small level. Just because of the adversary Department of water and power is

656
01:11:05,840 --> 01:11:07,139
too big to fight. It was not anything that anybody can do.

657
01:11:07,139 --> 01:11:11,529
>> Great alkali dust storms began boiling up off the exposed shores of Mono and

658
01:11:11,550 --> 01:11:17,489
the dry bed of Owens Lake. By 1974, Owens Valley the Switzerland of America had

659
01:11:17,510 --> 01:11:24,349
the worst particulate pollution in the country.>> The sense that somehow LA had

660
01:11:24,369 --> 01:11:32,209
sinned against another people became a central imagery in this whole water

661
01:11:32,229 --> 01:11:35,629
story. And one that I've always had a lot of trouble

662
01:11:35,649 --> 01:11:41,509
with. Because I've always sympathized with the underdog but at the same time

663
01:11:41,529 --> 01:11:45,889
I've been proud of my grandfather so it's given me a great deal of conflict to

664
01:11:45,889 --> 01:11:51,589
have to come to terms with that.>> Why are you doing it? How much better can you

665
01:11:51,609 --> 01:11:54,359
eat? What can you buy that you can't already afford?

666
01:11:54,369 --> 01:12:00,379
>> The future, Mr. Gibbs. The future.>> And the crimes that they committed in

667
01:12:00,399 --> 01:12:06,529
the name of the future, against the future is really the history of water in

668
01:12:06,550 --> 01:12:15,445
California here in LA. I mean it's-- it's just the supreme irony.

669
01:12:15,465 --> 01:12:19,409
>> See, Mr. Gibbs, most people never have to face the fact that at the right

670
01:12:19,429 --> 01:12:24,269
time and the right place they are capable of anything.

671
01:12:24,289 --> 01:12:29,499
>> Sometimes they are so monstrous that they can't figure out how to punish them

672
01:12:29,519 --> 01:12:35,489
so they actually sort of reward them. And inaudible name is on the scenic route

673
01:12:35,510 --> 01:12:42,379
of the city and inaudible of those names are on plaques as city founders. Rather

674
01:12:42,399 --> 01:12:48,819
than in jail where they belonged.>> When I think of a movie like Chinatown as an

675
01:12:48,840 --> 01:12:55,009
easy out it oversimplifies it's melodramatic. It's not true I may not literally

676
01:12:55,029 --> 01:13:03,409
not true. But it provides a rather easy explanation of events and for people who

677
01:13:03,429 --> 01:13:15,309
like to bash LA is perfect.New York Times loves to hold it up as a piece of

678
01:13:15,329 --> 01:13:20,679
history.>> The movie Chinatown was bad at contorted history but it was powerful

679
01:13:20,699 --> 01:13:26,179
myth.Rekindling violence against the Department of water and power. Now

680
01:13:26,199 --> 01:13:31,579
headquartered in a building that cost as much as Mulholland's original aqueduct.

681
01:13:31,599 --> 01:13:37,329
>> There was violence here before a long time ago back in 1924 angry farmers and

682
01:13:37,349 --> 01:13:42,849
ranchers lined the wall armed with shotguns and rifles. They blew holes in the

683
01:13:42,869 --> 01:13:48,559
aqueduct 17 times. This year it took this form a dynamite blast at the gates of

684
01:13:48,579 --> 01:13:54,099
the first aqueduct the water for Los Angeles stopped briefly instead--

685
01:13:54,119 --> 01:13:58,469
>> Resistance was futile. The Department of water and power by now had more

686
01:13:58,489 --> 01:14:03,529
manpower than the population of Bishop more in fact than the entire population

687
01:14:03,550 --> 01:14:10,149
of Owens Valley. But this time something had changed. David Gaines a young

688
01:14:10,170 --> 01:14:14,929
biologist from LA and a dozen University of California students had begun a

689
01:14:14,949 --> 01:14:20,429
careful study of Mono Lake's singular ecosystem. They found it on the brink of

690
01:14:20,449 --> 01:14:27,609
collapse.>> We knew about Owens like of course. Now it's just a dry ditch you

691
01:14:27,630 --> 01:14:31,389
know 100 miles to the south. We realized that Mono Lake could look like that

692
01:14:31,409 --> 01:14:36,649
someday and once we realized both here, that all that would be lost we couldn't

693
01:14:36,670 --> 01:14:42,549
let it just go down without making some effort to save it.

694
01:14:42,569 --> 01:14:48,579
>> By 1976, Mono Lake had fallen 40 feet. Exposing mineral towers which had

695
01:14:48,599 --> 01:14:56,129
formed underwater over the ages. It had become three times saltier than the

696
01:14:56,149 --> 01:14:59,849
ocean.>> What we are asking what Mono Lake is asking all of us is where we going

697
01:14:59,849 --> 01:15:04,509
to draw the line? If we don't share some water with Mono Lake will be next? Will

698
01:15:04,529 --> 01:15:09,709
it be like Tahoe, will be the Eagle River? The Yukon? Will it be on and on until

699
01:15:09,729 --> 01:15:13,569
the last of our singing rivers and beautiful lakes are gone because we've taken

700
01:15:13,590 --> 01:15:19,399
every last drop we watched the last waterfall and the last salmon follow the

701
01:15:19,420 --> 01:15:24,469
California State emblem the California grizzly into oblivion? It is a

702
01:15:24,489 --> 01:15:28,519
battleground in that sense. It's asking us how much are we going to share with

703
01:15:28,539 --> 01:15:36,249
the Earth?>> Well it was very primitive. I mean there was 12 people only one or

704
01:15:36,269 --> 01:15:40,769
two cars everybody else did their research via bicycle. They did take their

705
01:15:40,789 --> 01:15:44,309
binoculars and their backpack and their lunch and then hop on their bikes and

706
01:15:44,329 --> 01:15:48,329
they'd ride down the dirt roads and dump their bikes and hike out for a couple

707
01:15:48,329 --> 01:15:55,689
miles and then walk through mud and you know they were really the quintessential

708
01:15:55,710 --> 01:16:00,459
researchers out there braving the elements.>> All those college boys come over

709
01:16:00,479 --> 01:16:04,729
they all want to look like professors you know they got big beers you know and

710
01:16:04,750 --> 01:16:11,029
so Mr. Gaines he was one of them. You know?And he looked just like the rest of

711
01:16:11,050 --> 01:16:15,619
them. You know? Kind of like a hippie I'd say but I don't want to say you know

712
01:16:15,619 --> 01:16:22,059
he wasn't a hippie but he looked that way.But he was pretty smart that guy. He

713
01:16:22,079 --> 01:16:27,769
would start a thing going-->> When I grew up in Los Angeles I never learned

714
01:16:27,789 --> 01:16:33,009
where water came from. And it was only after doing some complex calculations

715
01:16:33,029 --> 01:16:38,279
that we learned that if diversions continued this Lake will fall another 40 to

716
01:16:38,300 --> 01:16:44,869
60 vertical feet. What we will be left with is an alkaline waste land a sterile

717
01:16:44,889 --> 01:16:49,269
chemical sump where there is now one of the most beautiful and life productive

718
01:16:49,289 --> 01:17:02,449
places on earth.>> Far more than natural beauty was threatened at Mono Lake.

719
01:17:02,469 --> 01:17:07,839
>> What was at stake was a big aquatic ecosystem that was very simple but very

720
01:17:07,859 --> 01:17:12,729
productive. I mean the numbers are astronomical. You got algae and then the

721
01:17:12,750 --> 01:17:15,679
brine shrimp eat the algae and then you've got millions of birds coming every

722
01:17:15,679 --> 01:17:23,349
summer to eat the brine flies and the brine shrimp. A far off dream was out

723
01:17:23,369 --> 01:17:28,049
there but I don't think we gazed up at it too much. It might be too

724
01:17:28,069 --> 01:17:33,339
discouraging. I mean to have a handful of biologists fighting the Department of

725
01:17:33,359 --> 01:17:38,239
water and power of the city of Los Angeles with a multimillion dollar budget was

726
01:17:38,260 --> 01:17:43,749
too big of a contrast.>> When William Mulholland took water from Owens Valley

727
01:17:43,769 --> 01:17:49,539
and Mono Lake years before, no one questioned the damage to nature. But an

728
01:17:49,559 --> 01:17:54,909
environmental movement had come of age in America. Along with powerful new laws

729
01:17:54,929 --> 01:18:00,789
and a great shift in public opinion. Committees at Mono Lake and Owens Valley

730
01:18:00,809 --> 01:18:05,909
together with the Audubon Society, went to court to stop the water conquest

731
01:18:05,929 --> 01:18:10,529
Mulholland had set in motion in 1905.>> If you're angry and have nothing else--

732
01:18:10,550 --> 01:18:16,319
no other recourse I think dynamite comes to mind. And they were ranchers. They

733
01:18:16,340 --> 01:18:22,379
understood dynamite. We were college biologists. No experience with dynamite. We

734
01:18:22,399 --> 01:18:26,659
knew facts and figures and we knew that we could you know we were educated

735
01:18:26,679 --> 01:18:32,169
people and we could probably figure out how to find lobbyists to go to help us

736
01:18:32,189 --> 01:18:36,469
in Sacramento and how to find lawyers.People were saying well, ask for a lot. Go

737
01:18:36,489 --> 01:18:40,669
way high and then you compromise down with the politicians and the agencies and

738
01:18:40,689 --> 01:18:45,769
we were all biologists and we kind of said that doesn't sound right. Why can't

739
01:18:45,789 --> 01:18:50,589
we just start with what we know is the truth and it just stay there forever? And

740
01:18:50,609 --> 01:18:56,149
that's what we did.>> The courts ruled that drying out the Owens River or

741
01:18:56,170 --> 01:19:02,739
streams feeding Mono Lake was not in the public interest. In 1988, the state

742
01:19:02,760 --> 01:19:06,130
forced the city to return water to Mono for the first time in half a century.

743
01:19:06,130 --> 01:19:11,999
Los Angeles began water conservation on a scale never before seen in America.

744
01:19:12,019 --> 01:19:18,959
And now shares the water in a fragile peace with Owens Valley and Mono Lake.

745
01:19:18,979 --> 01:19:25,229
>> One local person said, if you guys say the lake I'll eat my hat. It turns out

746
01:19:25,250 --> 01:19:30,049
that we saved the lake and we have the regulations and people seem much happier.

747
01:19:30,069 --> 01:19:35,479
We see water running down the creek fish in the creek. Maybe some of them

748
01:19:35,500 --> 01:19:38,319
remember the great numbers of ducks and geese that were down at the lake and

749
01:19:38,319 --> 01:19:45,789
they look forward to that being in the future again.

750
01:19:45,809 --> 01:19:49,599
>> I didn't think that they would succeed in persuading the inaudible to let the

751
01:19:49,619 --> 01:19:57,759
water in again.>> What you think they would not succeed?

752
01:19:57,779 --> 01:20:04,719
>> Well, how can you fight the city of Los Angeles? So really this is a victory.

753
01:20:04,739 --> 01:20:13,879
A great victory.>> David Gaines did not live to see the victory. He had died a

754
01:20:13,899 --> 01:20:28,459
year before in an automobile accident not far from Mono Lake.

755
01:20:28,479 --> 01:20:34,939
>> And so finally, the machine that Mulholland had set in motion just kind of

756
01:20:34,960 --> 01:20:42,179
began to fall apart. The whole posture of the Los Angeles Department of water

757
01:20:42,199 --> 01:20:48,029
and power and the city changed. The city negotiated with Mono Lake folks and

758
01:20:48,050 --> 01:20:53,549
decided to give more water back to the lake. It gave up on the idea of importing

759
01:20:53,569 --> 01:21:00,389
Klamath River water or Columbia River water.>> I think ultimately, it was

760
01:21:00,409 --> 01:21:07,249
people's feeling why bring more water in if it just encourages more growth that

761
01:21:07,269 --> 01:21:12,189
forces us to bring more water in. You know?It's sort of a death vortex. It's the

762
01:21:12,210 --> 01:21:17,429
red Queen in Alice in Wonderland running faster and faster just to stay in

763
01:21:17,449 --> 01:21:25,579
place. And that mentality has sort of died a respectful death. And you know if

764
01:21:25,599 --> 01:21:30,979
there's an occasional shortage well that's too bad. We are in a desert here. We

765
01:21:31,000 --> 01:21:38,049
are not supposed to be like Miami all the time every day of the year to

766
01:21:38,069 --> 01:21:50,449
infinity.>> After the dam failure, my grandfather underwent the most profound

767
01:21:50,469 --> 01:21:59,449
change that you can imagine and-- but he had been a vigorous functioning

768
01:21:59,469 --> 01:22:05,559
70-year-old man or 72-year-old man at the time the dam failed. And he simply

769
01:22:05,579 --> 01:22:11,629
shriveled. He'd come out to the ranch and he sits in the living room with his

770
01:22:11,649 --> 01:22:18,399
cigar and the conversation would go around and he would just shut his eyes. He

771
01:22:18,420 --> 01:22:30,849
would sit there like some kind of a sleeping giant. I was so struck as a child

772
01:22:30,869 --> 01:22:37,829
when I attended the funeral and his body lay in state and city hall and the

773
01:22:37,849 --> 01:22:44,179
working men who came to pay their last respects to him. Some of them cried and

774
01:22:44,199 --> 01:22:47,880
when I was 12 years old and that made a big impression on me because I'd never

775
01:22:47,880 --> 01:22:55,199
seen grown men cry.And so, I derived from that that this was a man who had

776
01:22:55,219 --> 01:23:01,019
commanded a lot of love and respect in his day. And I've spent a lifetime trying

777
01:23:01,039 --> 01:23:06,329
to drive that with all the attacks that had been made on him by people who

778
01:23:06,349 --> 01:23:15,799
didn't know him.>> Freeways are settling down, believe it or not. We check on

779
01:23:15,819 --> 01:23:19,969
the 405 and the 101 leaving the Hollywood Hills. Not bad at all. No need to take

780
01:23:19,969 --> 01:23:24,439
alternate routes such as Laurel Canyon, Coldwater Canyon, or even Mulholland

781
01:23:24,460 --> 01:23:35,756
Drive. I'm Dr. Roadmap flying for Capt. Jorge inaudible 'copter 790.

782
01:23:35,776 --> 01:23:36,698
Music