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TEN THINGS YOU DIDN’T KNOW ABOUT OCEANSIDE’S WATER HISTORY: Learn the history of
TEN
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WORDS: KRISTI HAWTHORNE PHOTOS COURTESY OF OCEANSIDE HISTORICAL SOCIETY
Water is essential and vital to every living thing, and today water is more important than ever. As the new town of Oceanside was established in 1883 and began to grow, so did its urgent need of water.
Five million gallon reservoir at Morro Hill January 5, 1967.
Oceanside's original wooden reservoir.
1. In the earliest years, water was delivered to Oceanside residents via a large cart driven by Walter Myers, son of the city’s founder, Andrew Jackson Myers, who drew water from the San Luis Rey River. When Oceanside incorporated in 1888, one of its principal duties was “to acquire and maintain water works to supply water for the use of the city and its inhabitants.” In October of that year, the city leased the Myers waterworks for one year at a monthly rate of $75. Magnus Tait, Jr., was appointed the manager of the City’s water department.
2. In 1890, the City of Oceanside purchased its water system from the Oceanside Water Company for $4,500 which included a large wooden reservoir located near Third (Pier View Way) and Summit Streets. Its sides were lined with brick and the bottom was concrete.
3. A flume company was formed to bring the waters of the San Luis Rey River from Smith Mountain (present day Palomar Mountain) to Oceanside. The flume was an aqueduct of sorts and would purportedly bring water a distance of forty miles. W. D. Frazee wrote, “This flume will afford a large constant running stream, with a fall of several feet to the mile. It will be over forty miles in length and will irrigate the land from the mountains to the coast. This, with the railroad facilities, will make Oceanside, a business center, and, as it is at present, the second town in importance in the county.” He added, “When the Flume Company has completed its enterprise, untold wealth in the form of wood, lumber and farm products will flow into the lap of this growing town; and the water will not only supply Oceanside, but the country that lies between the mountains and the coast.” Despite the enthusiasm, the San Luis Rey Flume was never completed.
4.A new city well was dug in 1900 near the present-day Rosicrucian Fellowship, at a depth of 66 feet and it was reported it had a “good flow of water.” By 1913, Oceanside employed C.J. Elwood as engineer of the water department and a pumping plant was built on a five-acre tract of water bearing land in the San Luis Rey Valley about one mile east of downtown. The plant machinery was housed in a brick engine house. The Oceanside Blade reported: “On the whole Oceanside has a municipal water system of which she justly can be proud. The quality of the water is better than that at nine-tenths of the beach towns, the rates lower and the system in every way is in the front rank. In picturing the advantages of Oceanside to prospective settlers the magnificent municipal water system offers one of the strongest talking points.”
San Luis Rey Valley water plant, 1900.
credited with elevating the water system to one of the finest in California for a city of its size and class. Under his direction, a new reservoir was built in 1929 at Parnassus Park (renamed Buddy Todd Park year later).
6. In 1938, Robert A. Weese, a city employee since 1925, was appointed water superintendent after Duehren’s untimely death. First hired as a meter reader, Weese gained firsthand knowledge of the water system while reading and repairing every water meter in Oceanside for over ten years. As Water Superintendent, it was his responsibility to check the wells and the water table each week and chlorinate the water while continuing to expand the city’s water resources as demand grew. Weese's knowledge of the water and sewer department
E.T. Duehren Reservoir in Parnassus Park aka Buddy Todd Park, 1929.
Robert A. Weese
was so vast that he was known as “Mr. Water.” It was his foresight to divert sewer effluent, which had discharged for decades into the ocean, out to Whelan Lake. Weese also proposed a solution for saltwater intrusion: an underground barrier or dam at the mouth of the San Luis Rey River as a means of holding back the ocean during periods when the water table was pumped below sea level.
7. In 1950, the original reservoir located near Summit and Third (Pier View Way) was dismantled. After it was abandoned in 1929, it had been used as “small bore target practice.” It was torn down as a safety precaution because children “delighted in climbing on the roof” and therefore “might fall through and be injured.” 8. In 1956, the City of Oceanside enacted water restrictions due to the high demand of the growing city in the midst of a drought. The year prior, the Oceanside City Council approved bonds to build a large reservoir on Fire Mountain Drive. Water Superintendent Robert Weese oversaw construction of the three-million-gallon reservoir which began in May of 1956. Weese retired in 1968 after serving the city for 42 years. His life’s work was dedicated to maintaining clean and reliable water to Oceanside. The Robert A. Weese Filtration Plant was named in his honor. and pipes “across deserts, through mountains and under rivers,” bringing it to Oceanside.
10. Today the City of Oceanside Water Division operates and maintains twelve water reservoirs, nearly 600 miles of water lines, and two water treatment facilities, consisting of a reverse osmosis water purification facility and a filtration plant. The city reports that these plants provide up to 31 million gallons of water per day to the citizens of Oceanside.
9. By 1963, water was provided by two sources: five wells in the San Luis Rey Valley and water from the Parker Dam on the Colorado River, pumped a distance of 272 miles through canals, tunnels
