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Health & Fitness

History Blog: Water Wars

Water from Alvarado was piped to Oakland and started a water war with another water company.

In the early days of Alvarado, pioneers discovered an aquifer below Alvarado that when drilled into, created artesian wells. This provided a wealth of water for local farmers and residents.

In 1895, William Dinge purchased land around the old landings on Alameda Creek and drilled 35 wells, ranging from 72 to 500 feet. With this source of water, he founded the Oakland Water Company. The company ran a pipeline from Alvarado, north across the marshes and salt flats, to Oakland, where they needed additional water for a growing population.

Oakland was already served by the Contra Costa Water Company, founded by Anthony Chabot in 1866, and used reservoirs to capture and store water for serving Oakland. When the Oakland Water Company started providing water to Oakland, the Contra Costa Water Company did not like the competition and looked for ways to get rid of them.

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In August, 1895, the Contra Costa Water Company was determined to put the Oakland Water Company out of business. They leased land next to the existing artesian wells and drilled their own well. They pumped the water from these wells directly into Alameda Creek and the bay. The purpose was to drain the underlying aquifer.

The Oakland Water Company arranged to have a number of well-known Oakland residents come to Alvarado to see for themselves the fresh water dumping. The residents reported back to the Oakland press and the following news headlines were seen in the papers:

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ALVARADO WATER ROBBERY DENOUNCED WITH FERVOR

CALLED A DASTARDLY OUTRAGE

George Baker, a “prominent Oakland attorney,” had this to say about this trip to Alvarado:

“I went to Alvarado yesterday not only free of all bias favorable to the Oakland Co. and devoid of prejudice against the Contra Costa Co., but utterly disbelieving the newspaper reports concerning the actions of the latter company and the allegation that their agents were endeavoring to deplete their rival's water supply by pumping from wells tapping the same source and running the water obtained wastefully and wantonly into the marshes. I say that I did not believe, for I considered such methods too contemptible for honest men and beneath the dignity of businessmen under any stress of business rivalry.”

The negative press forced the Contra Costa Water Company to stop the unnecessary dumping of fresh water from the aquifer.

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