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Show 42 ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF WATER DEVELOPMENT who has been a director and Controller of the District since 1935, and Blair Richardson, Chairman of the District's Board of Directors. We mention these facts in passing because they are an example in practice of one of the basic concepts of the Metropolitan Water District of Salt Lake City- continuity of service, of experience, responsibility and interest, and because they indicate also the close relationship between the Association and the Water District, its largest stockholder. THE METROPOLITAN WATER DISTRICT IDEA District Engineer E. O. Larson in his 1931 report suggested the formation of a Metropolitan Water District modeled upon the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California- not entirely for the reasons which afterwards led to that result, but primarily as a project subscriber representing the several and common interests of " East Salt Lake Valley" users, then proposed to include not only Salt Lake City but also Midvale and Sandy and " East Valley" agricultural interests. But there were other reasons which prompted that result. It soon became evident to the " Ways and Means" Committee composed of W. R. Wallace, John D. Rice, C. C. Parsons, and Fisher Harris, that there were insuperable legal obstacles to the making of a subscription to the project by Salt Lake City and that to serve its purpose some new public entity would have to be created. They agreed upon a public corporation of the nature suggested by Mr. Larson. This decision coincided with the crystallization of a public sentiment which had been expressed by both The Salt Lake Tribune and The Deseret News some months before: " The Salt Lake Tribune doubts the feasibility of any . . . water program and its proper operation under existing organization. We believe an independent water board, with a majority membership which holds 61. Henry H. Blood, Governor of Utah from 1932 to 1940, who was active in aid of the Provo River Project and the Metropolitan Water District of Salt Lake City. S. L, Tribune |
