Modesto Irrigation District history

No tax assessments had been levied for four years and efforts had failed five years earlier to see bonds voted in 1895.

As construction plans proceeded, negotiations went on between the bondholders and district officials, concluding on November 5, 1901, shortly after Goodwin had presented plans, specifications and cost estimates for the works.

The vote was unanimous in Divisions 1, 4, and 5 as farmers in former strongholds of opposition either stayed home on election day, January 13, 1902, or decided, "If you can’t beat them, join them."

The main canal was operative to the district’s boundary when water from La Grange Dam first flowed into Dry Creek at 7 AM on April 3, 1903.

The Jubilee which signalized the completeion was celebrated in Modesto in 1904.

Add the generation and distribution of public power beginning in 1923 and what exists is a pair of services – water and power – that have benefited the region many times over.

The bottom photo shows the original Don Pedro Dam, a concrete arch structure that was completed in 1924 above the site of LaGrange Dam on the Tuolumne River.

San Francisco had been wholesaling to PG&E the Hetch Hetchy energy not used for its streetcar lines and other municipal purposes since July 1925.

Starting in 1938, power revenues were transferred annually to the irrigation department.

Federal Judge Michael Roche found this arrangement to be in compliance with the Raker Act on July 9,1945.

The fiscal concerns, however, were not stated in the formal declaration issued by the irrigation districts in May 1954:

Even when San Francisco increased its wholesale charges for Hetch Hetchy power by 33 percent in 1960, the MID was able to hold the line on rates.

The Sierra Club in July 1970 issued a "crisis report" calling for the development of a nuclear plant in the Cooperstown area of Tuolumne County in Lieu of further hydroelectric development by the City of San Francisco.

In 1974 the MID , TID and PG & E actively pursued the idea as a joint venture; preliminary investigations indicated it would be feasible.

Today the district remains tax free, although in 1976 an irrigation water-user charge was adopted.

Shortly after becoming the district?s general manager in October 1980, H. L. "Les" Brooks recognized the need for greater concentration on long-range power resource development.

The MID and TID were well into the second year of a comprehensive feasibility and environmental study of the site when in September 1984 President Ronald Reagan signed legislation establishing that section of the Tuolumne as a wild and scenic river.

Kennan Beard, president of Del Este Water Company who served four years as an MID director before retiring at the end of 1985, explains:

The water story opened a new chapter in 1994 when MID began operating the Modesto Regional Water Treatment Plant.