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💧 About This Website
Your gateway to L.A.'s water and power history and current issues. Water and Power Associates' website is a trusted, independent resource for anyone interested in the history and current issues of water and energy in Southern California. It offers: ◆ Objective, non-partisan information on water and power ◆ A vast digital archive of photographs and historical documentation ◆ Educational tools for researchers, students, and civic planners The website serves as both an advocacy and preservation platform, ensuring that Southern California's infrastructure story is remembered—and that future policy is shaped with insight. |
🔹 Who We Are
Independent, informed, and committed to preserving Southern California's infrastructure legacy. Water and Power Associates is a non-profit, independent, membership-funded organization dedicated to: ◆ Providing objective information about water and energy issues in Southern California and the West ◆ Preserving the multicultural history of Los Angeles’ growth through infrastructure ◆ Offering access to rare photographs, expert commentary, and timely analysis Trusted by policymakers, researchers, authors, and filmmakers, our members are a valued source of knowledge on infrastructure, conservation, and civic planning. |
📬 April 2025 Newsletter – Highlights & Insights
Click HERE to view the April 2025 online edition of the Water and Power Associates Newsletter.
This issue explores critical Water and Energy issues that affect life throughout Southern California.
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Click below to read our newest edtion featuring:
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🔌 U.S. Electric Power Sector – Issues to Watch in 2025
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💧 Water Supply 101 – Where Does L.A.’s Water Come From?
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🔋 EIA Projections – More Solar, Less Natural Gas
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🚗 California EV Sales Have Stalled – What’s Next?
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🌬️ Trump Takes the Wind Out of Wind Energy
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⚠️ Ivanpah Solar Plant to Shut Down
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🏆 Honoring Duane L. Georgeson & Jerry Gewe
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🔍 Mystery History Quiz
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🗓️ Annual Meeting, Guest Speakers & Power System Updates
Click HERE to see the April 2025 Newsletter
🗂️ Explore Past Issues of Our Newsletter
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Browse earlier editions to track the evolution of water and energy issues over time.
Click HERE to view the Archive.
📅 Upcoming Events & Monthly Board Meetings
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Water and Power Associates (W&PA) Board Meetings are held on the second Wednesday of each month, from 10:00 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., via Zoom and/or in-person. All members and their guests are welcome to attend.
Please RSVP by contacting: Webmaster@waterandpower.org
🧑🏫 Board Meeting Schedule & Guest Speakers:
July 9, 2025
Guest Speaker: Janisse Quiñones, CEO and Chief Engineer, LADWP
Topic: State of the LADWP
Location: JFOB (Room 1471) – Hybrid / In-Person Zoom
August 13, 2025
Guest Speaker: Tim O’Conner, Executive Director and Ratepayer Advocate, OPA
Topic: New Role and Vision for the Office of Public Accountability
Location: JFOB (Room 1471) – Hybrid / In-Person Zoom
📝 Recaps of Past Meetings & Guest Talks
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Click HERE to view summaries of past Board Meetings and guest presentations.
🏛️ Visit Our Virtual Museum
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📸 Pictured above: November 5, 1913 — Opening day celebration of the Los Angeles Aqueduct. The man rising just above the flag is William Mulholland.
Explore how Water and Power shaped the growth of Los Angeles. From early aqueduct construction to electrifying the city, our Virtual Museum offers a curated experience through time.
Click HERE to visit our Virtual Museum.
🖼️ Historical Photo Archive
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Step into the past through our expansive collection of historical photographs showcasing the transformation of Greater Los Angeles into the nation's second-largest metropolis.
From horse-drawn carriages to sprawling freeways, these vintage images chronicle more than a century of change.
Click HERE to browse the Historical Photo Collection.
🔍 New Museum Search Index
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We’ve added a powerful SEARCH INDEX to help you navigate more than 100 sections and 20,000 images across our Virtual Museum and Photo Archive.
Try it out and discover new perspectives on L.A.’s infrastructure, people, and development.
Click HERE to explore the Search Index.
📸 Featured: A Visual Journey Along LA’s Aqueducts
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In the summer of 2024, photographer Brandon Tauszik traveled from Los Angeles through the Owens Valley to document the city’s 400-mile network of aqueducts and hydropower plants. When Tauszik originally looked for photographs of this system, many of the images he found were from over a century ago, when it was all still new. His own images, echoing the formal style of those earlier ones, capture a strange bifurcation in time: the machines have remained the same, but the present they inhabit has changed. The photos are in color, the population of L.A. has multiplied by an order of ten, and it’s drier out there in the desert. The question of water and power looms with a different kind of urgency from before. In this context, Tauszik’s photographs perform their own kind of maintenance on the system, keeping the conduit open between the public imagination and these otherwise forgotten sites. View the online story in Distillations Magazine HERE. |
💡 Featured Section: Let There Be Light!
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This section traces the evolution of Los Angeles streetlights—from the flicker of gas lamps to today’s efficient LEDs.
It also showcases the beautiful and iconic designs that have illuminated the city for over a century.
Click HERE to see more in our Early Streetlights section.
🚰 Featured Section: Water in Early Los Angeles
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The early Pueblo relied almost entirely on the Los Angeles River for survival. Crude dams, water wheels, and ditches formed the first lifelines of a growing city.
In 1860, the City completed its first municipal water system through a lease with the LA Water Works Co.
Click HERE to explore Water in Early Los Angeles.
🆕 Recent Museum Additions
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The Hollywood sign is barely visible through the smog in this photo taken from above Lake Hollywood in Cahuenga Pass.
We’re always expanding! Some of our newest sections include:
📌Smog in Early Los Angeles - How far has air quality come since the 1940s?
📌Historical LADWP Facts & Firgures - A timeline of key events
Also, check out some of our more recent addtions:
❓ Mystery History
Test your knowledge of Los Angeles history:
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On March 30, 1916, the raising of a single pole in Highland Park (pictured above) inaugurated a distribution system that within just 20 years would become the dominate electric utility business of Los Angeles.
The first power supplied to the above distribution system came from a nearby power plant in Pasadena. However, just one year later, the Los Angeles Bureau of Power and Light had developed enough electric energy from its newly constructed power plants to sell its excess energy to Pasadena using these same lines. What major power plant constructed by LA’s Bureau of Power and Light made this possible?
Click HERE to visit our Mystery History Section
🎙️ Special Collections & Oral Histories
In our Virtual Museum Section, we offer a collection of oral histories covering the growth and development of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (DWP) as seen by the participants – its employees. The collection preserves the stories of distinctive and diverse individuals whose historical experiences have shaped the collective memory of DWP.
🗃️ Archival Collections:
We also have links to special collections, papers and databases that provide unique and diverse perspectives into the history of the municipal water system in Los Angeles during the 20th century.
These collections, hosted by the CSUN Oviatt Digital Library and sponsored by Metabolic Studios, offer researchers insight into the unique history of urban development and the evolution of the municipal water system in Los Angeles. Records in the collections chronicle the roles played by politicians and local politics; private business and industry; civic organizations; and local, state, and federal governmental agencies invested in providing water to the city’s rapidly growing population.
We've added a collection of Commission Reports that highlights significant events in the history of the municipal water and power system in Los Angeles. Featured are early reports related to the Los Angeles Aqueduct, Owens Valley and the St. Francis Dam disaster.
🎤 Featured Historical Interview
For rare insights into the Owens Valley-Los Angeles relationship post-Aqueduct construction, read the powerful three-part interview between historian Steve Erie and Rober V. Phillips, former DWP Chief Engineer and General Manager (1972–75).
Both Phillips and his father worked directly with William Mulholland and H.A. Van Norman.
🏛️ New LADWP Historical Exhibit on Olvera Street
A new Water Exhibit has been approved for development in the Hammel Building at El Pueblo de Los Angeles (Olvera Street).
This expanded exhibit will:
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Relocate the former (now closed) DWP History Exhibit
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Include ADA-compliant access
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Feature an exposed section of the historic Zanja Madre
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Cover early water systems, sustainability efforts, and rotating displays on modern challenges
With over 2,600 sq. ft. of exhibit space, this will become a new focal point for the public understanding of L.A.’s water history.
Click HERE for more background information.
NOTE: This project has been put on hold since the Department of Building and Safety recently determined that the historic Hammel Building, intended to house the museum, requires extensive seismic retrofitting—estimated to cost several million dollars. 😞
📬 Have Something Historical to Share?
Do you have items to share? We would welcome photos of old buildings, early city views, correspondence, newspapers, early sports teams, and events that pertain to the History of Water and Electricity and/or the History of Los Angeles and Southern California in general. If you would like to retain the originals, we would be happy to scan the items and return them to you.
Take a look in your attics, and think of what you can help us collect for future generations to enjoy! If interested, please contact us at: webmaster@waterandpower.org.
❤️ Help Support Our Cause
Help us continue to document, preserve, and share the critical history of water and energy in Southern California.
Make a donation via PayPal to Water and Power Associates, Inc.--a 501(c)(4) nonprofit.
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