History of Tucson Water not so dry

Before that yawn grows any wider, did you know that Tom Jeffords - famed Indian scout and blood brother to Cochise - made the first stab at trying to bring piped water to the citizenry here?

Me neither, 'til I met up with Lynn Baker, a 27-year veteran of the utility who's also its unofficial historian.

For years he's pored over yellowing papers and stared at revolving spools of microfilm.

Gathering up, bit by bit, the history of what is, after all, the lifeblood of this town.

Sure, money is power. But try drinking it sometime. This, city honchos understood.

"If you wanted water connected to your house, you went before mayor and council and made a request," says Baker. "That went on until 1931."

A couple of hundred years ago, Tucsonans filled up at El Ojito, or Little Eye Springs, down in the barrio.

Vendors crying agua for sale plied the precious stuff from swollen leather bags slung across burros.

By the 1870s, wooden carts were doing the hauling, with water selling for a nickel a bucket.

Obviously precious little was wasted on luxuries such as landscaping - or bathing.

The first efforts to pipe in the stuff came in 1881 when the city awarded Jeffords the franchise.

Though he sunk 25 grand into the venture, his artesian well never delivered.

Former Mayor Robert Leathwood wound up with the franchise instead.

He brought in - and soon sold his rights to - out-of-towner Sylvester Watts.

Watts set up shop at the Santa Cruz River near what is now west Valencia Road.

From there, sheet metal pipes coated with tar carried river water to town.

"We've found some of those old pipes in the Santa Cruz and they're still in surprisingly good condition," says Baker.

On Sept. 16, 1882, a valve on Main Street was opened and a 6-inch stream "came bursting forth," reported the next day's Star.

What progress!

First the railroad, then gas lamps, now water, crowed the Star. Water to "make pleasant homes surrounded by shrubbery, lawns and gardens."

Soon, dusty streets were getting a regular daily sprinkling - escalating by 1893 to 5,000 gallons in the winter, 10,000 gallons in the summer.

Coincidentally, that same year saw a "Beat the Peak" precursor of sorts, with customers asked to water only between the hours of 6 p.m. and 4 a.m.

Little wonder the caliche was greening up fast. "The fee was $2 a month, and the water wasn't metered," says Baker.

Trouble in paradise wasn't far off. From the Star, June 11, 1893:

"Complaints against the water company are becoming numerous. Many people say there has been no water to be had before 8 o'clock for several days past."

On July 24, 1900, the city bought out Tucson Water Company for $110,000.

At the time, it was serving a mere 625 customers within a 2-square-mile boundary.

Over the years, other companies - some with names like "We Three" and "Catalina Poultry Acres" - sprang up outside the city limits.

As the city expanded, those companies were bought up - 132 in all - at a cost of more than $26 million.

Old or new, customers were also getting meters by the mid-'30s.

Today, what began with tin pipes stuck in the Santa Cruz is worth $826 million and counts about 200,000 customers, says Baker.

Incidentally, Tucson Water sucked more than 37 billion gallons of water out of the aquifer last year.

Bucket by bucket, we're using it up.

* Contact Bonnie Henry at 434-4074 or at bhenry@azstarnet.com or write to 6781 N. Thornydale Road, Suite 239, Tucson, AZ 85741.