se agricultural interests was largely concentrated against the U.S. Department of the Interior, which had pushed a bill through Congress in 1902 which established two projects intended to keep Los Angeles supplied with water from the valley. These protests died down, however, as the city's own project, the aqueduct, was completed. It was hoped that the aqueduct would benefit the valley as well as the city, providing valley farmers with adequate water for irrigation. Negotiations concerning this point were undertaken between 1913 and 1920, but valley interests received no concessions from the city (Walton 198-201).
The drought years of the early 1920s proved that this supply was not enough to continue supporting Los Angeles' growing population. Consequently, Mulholland convinced the city to make large land purchases further upstream in the Owens Valley in order to divert groundwater to the aqueduct. These purchases affected valley farmers and other residents more directly than the earlier project and were contested in a much stronger fashion. This st
...