Early Beginnings

Around 800 B.C., Hohokam Indians used stone and wooden tools to dig canals and build dams to manage the flow of water. But “modern” history tells the story of how technology, as well as human perseverance, now allow 1.5 million Phoenix, Arizona customers to live with a safe drinking water supply and reliable wastewater services.

Just following the civil war in the latter half of the 1800s, many people with a pioneering spirit entered the Salt River valley and began to settle the area. One man, Jack Swilling, a former confederate soldier, came to the Salt River valley, and along with his friend, Darrell Duppa, gave Phoenix its name.

Not long after his arrival, Swilling set out to start his own irrigation company by making better use of the roughly constructed canals previously established by the Hohokams.

With plentiful irrigation water to provide growth for crops and to water cattle, the population of Phoenix grew and so did the economy.

The city of Phoenix was officially incorporated in 1881; just one year after a census of the city pegged the population at a whopping 1,708 citizens. Initially the citizen’s demand for drinking water was satisfied by enterprising business owners, such as bars, hotels, laundries, barber shops, and bathhouses, who installed wells on their property as a means of drawing business and, if necessary, fighting fires. But as the population grew, so did a strong need for a larger water supply to quench the needs of the growing economy and its residents.

In April 1889, several wells were drilled near 9th Street and Van Buren to make up what was then the first privately organized water company, known as the Phoenix Water Works Company. The new system could provide two-million gallons a day, through an eight-mile system of pipes.

However, a severe drought hit the Salt River Valley between 1898 and 1904, and during this time, pressure on city officials to raise the issue of municipal ownership of the water utility began to build.

In January 1899, the first of several failed bond elections took place. But in December 1903, the voters approved the bonds to create a municipal water system. And although the voters had approved the funding, three-and-a-half more years would pass before the political and legal red-tape was removed so the city could purchase of what was now known as the Phoenix Water Company for a cost $150,000. And, on July 1, 1907, the city officially took over operation of the utility.

Last modified on 12/19/2007 09:24:11