By Jim Lessenger

WHAT IS NOW BENICIA WAS ONCE TREELESS, except for a small area that is now the State Recreation Area. Early drawings and photographs show hills of grass and no year-round water supply. Native-American tribes seldom ventured from the Suisun area into what is now Benicia because of a lack of water. Water has been a problem from the very inception of the city.

The city’s earliest resident, Robert Semple, probably took water from the Carquinez Strait that ran clear and fresh until the rivers of the east slope of the Sierra Nevada Mountains were dammed in the latter half of the 20th century. William Tustin, the first settler and undoubtedly the man who built the second dwelling in Benicia after Semple’s reed hut, ran a short pipeline from an intermittent spring, probably the one that still runs in East Benicia.

Many early dwellings used storage tanks and cisterns for water from the intermittent springs, rains and drafts from the Strait.

The Benicia Barracks, Arsenal and Quartermaster Depot, operated separately until 1922, struggled to provide water for its operations and personnel. The Army finally settled on a series of tanks to store water drafted from the Strait or collected from intermittent springs. One such system can be seen at the Benicia Historical Museum, where a spring behind Building 7 was tapped and an iron pipe laid to a cistern under the old Guardhouse (Building 8), from which it was pumped to other buildings. Many attempts to dig a well at the Arsenal failed to produce anything but bubbling sulphurous water until a fresh-water well was finally sunk near the Commanding Officers’ Quarters.

In the second half of the 19th century, several industries moved into Benicia, including packing sheds, tanneries and lumber yards, all requiring large amounts of water. On Oct. 10, 1879, a group of businessmen organized and incorporated the Benicia Water Company and capitalized it with $30,000. The BWC acquired water rights on Paddy Ranch Creek and Sulphur Springs Creek, northeast of Benicia, and secured a right-of-way across agricultural land to the site of the city’s first reservoir atop what was then known as Kaiser Hill, purchased from a Mr. Kaiser for $50.

The same year, 1879, the BWC hired a Mr. Delaney to build the Sulphur Spring Dam, a pumping plant, the pipeline and the reservoir on Kaiser Hill. Construction began in January 1880, and by summer of that year water was flowing into distribution pipes laid under the streets and alleys of the city. The original pipes were made of redwood panels, joined with mortise and tendon seams, wrapped in wire and covered with asphalt. The system came on line on June 25, 1880. One of these pipes is on display at the Benicia Historical Museum.

The Kaiser Hill lot, at East Third and W streets, was purchased in 1880 and a reservoir was quickly constructed. By 1958 it had a capacity of 1.5 million gallons. It was torn down in 1965 as part of the reorganization of the water system and is now a weed-choked vacant lot at the end of a short lane off Corte Dorado Street.

Just two years later, in 1882, the BWC experienced its first dry season when the Sulphur Springs Creek ran dry. Two wells were sunk just below the dam, and the water requirements were met for the remainder of the year.

Additional land was purchased in November 1883 from the D. N. Hastings Ranch along Paddy Ranch Creek, and construction was begun on the Paddy Dam the following year. Paddy Creek Dam was located about five miles northeast of Lake Herman and held back a reservoir of 52 million gallons. It was used until 1965.

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THE CITY GREW IN POPULATION and industrial water use. The dry seasons of 1882-83 and 1887-88 again found the city short of water. The lack of water became so acute in the spring of 1889 that it became necessary to barge water from the San Joaquin River. During these years, a new steam-powered pumping station was constructed and new cast-iron pipes were laid from Paddy Reservoir to the pumping plant and city reservoir on Kaiser Hill.

In the last five years of the 19th century, more water pipes were laid and an intake tower was constructed at the Paddy Reservoir. The construction required considerable amounts of money and created debt. As a result, a new company, The Benicia Water Works Inc., was organized on April 27, 1901, with a capitalization of $200,000. The equipment, dams, reservoirs and pipes were owned by the BWC.

Water use projections were made on the population and industrial requirements of water for the city. Surveys were made and property for a new reservoir was purchased. Herman Schussler, a highly respected San Francisco engineer, designed the dam and reservoir named after him. Completed in 1905, it had a capacity of 424 million gallons of water.

Again, it was realized that the Benicia Water Company was undercapitalized — not enough money was available for the planned projects. So a third company was organized and incorporated on January 24, 1905, and capitalized at $500,000. It took the name of the original company, the Benicia Water Company, and assumed ownership of the waterworks consisting of dams, reservoirs, pumping stations and miles of cast-iron pipes. Herbert Kullman, a partner of the Kullman, Salz and Company Tannery, was the first president. Five years later, in 1910, Ansley Salz became president and remained so for many years.

In 1906, a 12-inch wood stave pipeline was constructed from Lake Herman to the pumping plant. Two years later, the steam pumping plant was enlarged with the addition of new boilers. In the fall of 1913, another dry season befell the city and by Jan. 3, 1914, water barges from the San Joaquin were again employed. That same year, new gates were installed on the spillway of Lake Herman and water meters were installed for all customers, a proven water-saving measure. By 1916, chlorination plants were installed at the city reservoir on Kaiser Hill to make the water potable, and in 1917 more land was acquired in the Lake Herman watershed with the acquisition of the Frank Dotta Ranch.

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IN 1918 THE FIRST WORLD WAR caused an increase in activity at the Arsenal, and Benicia’s population swelled to accommodate the additional work. That year the Pometta wells were sunkwest of Lake Herman and connected to the grid by pipes. In the following three years, increased demand and a dry season necessitated the barging of more water from the San Joaquin River. During the dry periods of 1921, water was pumped directly from the Carquinez Strait. The use of barges became so frequent that in 1922 the water company purchased the barge “Seminole” and installed sand filtering equipment on the waterfront to provide water to the industries and populace. In 1923, a new electrical pump system was installed to replace the steam units.

Benicia was not immune from the Depression that gripped the nation during the third decade of the 20th century. In 1930 the BWC experienced financial problems as the industrial plants closed or scaled back production. The BWC was purchased by the California Public Utilities Company that year. In the following decade some of the packing houses and lumber mills closed, and the tannery and Yuba Manufacturing scaled back. The biggest shock came with the opening of the railroad bridge from Army Point in Benicia to Martinez and the discontinuation of the two gigantic, steam-driven ferries that had run since 1878 from the base of First Street across the Strait to Port Costa. The industries, hotels, brothels — called “bawdy houses” in The Herald — bars and stores on First Street that depended on the railroad immediately felt the loss of business. The population of Benicia decreased from 2,913 to 2,419.

The Second World War changed all of that again. By 1944 the civilian population swelled to 8,368, and the industries — especially Yuba Manufacturing, which manufactured howitzers — swung into full production. Water use exceeded Lake Herman’s storage capacity and in 1943 the earth-fill dam was raised by 14 feet, requiring 40,664 cubic feet of excavation. A new concrete spillway was also built and the storage capacity was increased, at a cost of $100,000, from 424 million to 840 million gallons. The high priority of water service in the important Benicia war production area allowed the CPUC to secure all the necessary supplies without delays despite widespread wartime restrictions.

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AFTER THE WAR, Benicia’s population stabilized around 7,200, primarily because the Arsenal was still in partial operation, accepting equipment back from the Pacific and Europe and reconditioning it for shipment to NATO and other countries.

The increased population and industrial use, coupled with three dry years of 1946 to 1948, caused the CPUC to search for more water. A source was secured from the Suscol Wells on the north side of Suscol Creek, north of Vallejo. The wells had long been a source of water for Vallejo. A pipe was run east from the wells to Highway 29, then south to Highway 37 and east to Lake Herman. The pipeline and an associated pumphouse cost $150,000. This source of water was used from July 1948 to June 1950.

In the spring of 1950, negotiations between the CPUC and the city of Napa resulted in a 20-year contract to connect Napa’s 31,000-acre-feet Conn Lake Reservoir, in the mountains above Rutherford, to the city system. There was already a water supply line to Napa from Conn Lake, so an additional $110,000 was spent running a pipeline from Napa. The line ran to Shipyard Acres, then south to the State Hospital at Imola and on to the point where the Suscol Wells line turned south adjacent to Highway 29. By December of that year, the pipeline was operational. For the first time in its history, Benicia had a stable water supply — but only for its current industry and population.

A pressure of 65 pounds was maintained throughout the system, except for the West Manor and Highlands subdivisions, where the pressure was lower. Because the water from Conn Lake, Paddy Reservoir and Lake Herman was cheaper than the water from Vallejo and the Suscol Wells, a rate decrease of 5 to 25 percent was declared.

In 1950, the census was 7,275 persons, twice the number of 1940, but the bulk of the water usage was in agricultural and industrial applications. The Korean War was on, and the Army raised Pine Lake by 8 feet. The CPUD at that time supplied 75 percent of the water to the Arsenal, as new rules limited the use of drafted water from the Strait.

By 1952 the city was confronted with requirements of the Air Pollution Board to remediate the lack of sewage treatment for the city and Arsenal, and the Army and State Attorney General had begun a campaign against “vice” in the city. Sewage treatment would require more water, and the elimination of the brothels and gambling houses would undermine the tax base of the city.

By March 1953, the CPUC was collecting $139,783 to deliver water to 1,802 customers in Benicia. But there were a lot of complaints. Customers didn’t like the fact that the water company would occasionally cut delivery to whole sections of the town without notice. The City Council and city businessmen’s organizations fretted about the cycles of drought. Everyone complained about the bills. Particularly distressing was when a large company with a large payroll couldn’t come to town because the CPUC couldn’t deliver the 250,000 gallons of water a day it required to operate.

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THE CITY COUNCIL FRETTED and dithered for 10 years over the issue, which was complicated by the threat of litigation from the state if the city didn’t build a sewage treatment system. Another problem: constant issues with the police department and the fact that chiefs had a tendency to get fired or go to prison. Additionally, the houseboats — called arks — that discharged raw sewage into the Bay had to be remediated. In 1953, Benicia was the only city in the entire Bay system that didn’t have a sewage treatment system.

But there was an opportunity on the horizon. That year construction began on the Montecito Dam, a potential source of water for the city. In 1955 the city opened negotiations with the CPUC and was faced with a price of $1,200,000 for the water system and an additional $280,000 for its Napa properties —mainly a water line shared with Napa to Conn Lake. By the next year, the CPUC had lowered its asking price to $875,000, with the Napa pipeline thrown in. The City Council put forward a bond issue of $1.1 million, which included the sale price and a reserve fund.

The water bond vote failed on April 4, 1957, and again on May 16 the same year. But the sewer bonds passed the following November, and a site was selected on East Fifth Street. Perhaps as a guide to follow with the water bonds, the city had sweetened the sewer bond vote by negotiating a deal with the Army to participate in the sewer construction and operation.

By May 1958 the city and state were at war with the ark owners, threatening them with legal action. The ark owners, described in one Herald article as a bunch of rapscallions, responded with various obscene gestures.

In June 1961, city officials again rolled out a water bond vote. The landscape had changed. The sewer system was up and running and the arks were gone. The city had shown the voters that it could follow through on a large civic improvement project. The price was the same, but Watchie Builders, which was buying up ranches north and east of Benicia for what would become the Southampton subdivision, had cut a deal with the city. Watchie would pay half of the bond price, $500,000, for CPUC land that wasn’t needed for watershed, thus cutting the debt in half. In addition, the State Department of Water Resources had set a deadline for the city to participate in the massive state water program. On Sept. 21, 1961, the water bond issue was approved.

Over the following year, a Chicago investment firm purchased the bonds for 3.7252 percent, and the legal process of purchasing the water system from the CPUC progressed. It was long and tedious, but by the end of 1963 the water system belonged to the city.

But by then the landscape had changed again. The Arsenal was closing, people were leaving the city, the industrial park was being developed and a major oil firm was thinking of coming to town.

Dr. Jim Lessenger is a docent at the Benicia Historical Museum and the author, most recently, of “Commanding Officer’s Quarters of the Benicia Arsenal.”