The history of the Southern District of the Department of Water Resources is almost as long as the history of the Department itself. In 1929, the Division of Water Resources (forerunner of the Department) was established within the California Department of Public Works in Sacramento.

One year later, a State Water Resources Office was opened in Alhambra to conduct the South Coastal Basin Investigation. From the investigation came Bulletin 45 (now out of print), which was the first publication to define the many groundwater basins of the region and to include quantitative descriptions of groundwater occurrence and storage capacity.

In 1932, the office was moved to Los Angeles, and in 1956, when Water Resources became a full Department, the office became the Southern California Branch Office. A year later, its name was changed to the Southern District Office. The office stayed in downtown Los Angeles at several different locations, the last of which was the Eastern Columbia Building at Broadway and 9th Street. In 1991 the office was moved to its present location in Glendale.

Throughout its life, the Southern District has carried out a number of studies and projects, the most notable of which are:

• Design of the California Aqueduct from the Edmonston Pumping Plant, at the foot of the Tehachapi Mountains, to Lake Perris, the southern terminus of the aqueduct

• Design and supervision of construction of Whale Rock Reservoir in San Luis Obispo County

• Conduct of in-depth studies of groundwater resources in selected basins in Southern California, which have contributed to management of the groundwater in those basins

• Conduct of studies contributing to development of the water management concept known as conjunctive use

• Development of water quality control plans for three of the water basins in Southern California--East Colorado River Basin, West Colorado River Basin, and South Lahontan Region

• Development of sea water intrusion barriers in threatened groundwater basins

• Assistance in development of a technique for creating a computerized mathematical model of groundwater basins

The Southern District encompasses approximately 40 percent of the State’s area and is home to about 19.7 million Californians, nearly 60 percent of the State’s total population. It contains the Counties of San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, Ventura, Los Angeles, Orange, San Diego, Imperial, Riverside, San Bernardino, and Inyo and portions of Kern and Mono. Total water use is almost 11 million acre-feet annually.

Copyright © 1998. California Department of Water Resources. All rights reserved. 
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The URL is http://wwwdpla.water.ca.gov/sd/
Last modified: September 3, 2001
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