Foothill Municipal Water District

Foothill Municipal Water District was incorporated in January 1952 to help meet the increasing water needs of the rapidly growing foothill area following the end of World War II.

Water leaders, and ultimately, voters, saw the need to supplement local groundwater with water imported by the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California. At the time, Metropolitan had been delivering Colorado River water into the Southern California region for about 10 years through its Colorado River Aqueduct. Metropolitan also began receiving water from the California State Water Project in 1972.

The District officially joined Metropolitan in January 1953 and today is one of 26 Metropolitan member agencies. Director Jim Edwards represents Foothill on the MWD Board of Directors.

FMWD covers about 22 square miles in the foothills between Pasadena on the east and Glendale on the south and west. To the north are the San Gabriel Mountains. The District serves some 80,000 people through its own member agencies.

Most of these agencies pump local groundwater to meet demand and purchase additional water from Foothill to make up the difference between their groundwater supply and their demand from local residents and businesses. Foothill takes delivery of water from Metropolitan near the Rose Bowl and must pump it up into its service area to deliver to its member agencies. Before reaching Foothill, the water has been treated to drinking water quality by Metropolitan. While Foothill once provided only about 20 percent of the water needed in its service area, today it supplies more than half of the annual demand. A demand study in 1994 projected that Foothill would be delivering 9,522 acre-feet a year by 2004. Actual deliveries by Foothill in 2004 exceeded 13,000 acre-feet.

Categories: Services, Utilities