1603 Carmel River named by the Spanish Vizcaino expedition.
1770 Padre Junipero Serra used Carmel River to irrigate mission fields.
1878 Railroad baron Charles Crocker, with friends, the "Big Flour", Huntington, Stanford and Hopkins, incorporates the Pacific Improvement Co .and builds Hotel Del Monte.
1883 Pacific Improvement Co. needs water for their resort, builds dam on Carmel River.Monterey hooks up to the Hotel water system, and becomes reliant on a privately held water system owned by out of town investors.
1900 Pacific Improvement Co. opens Peninsula's first golf course.
1915 Pacific Improvement Co. sold to Del Monte Properties Co.
1921 Del Monte Properties builds San Clemente Dam upstream from the old Pacific Improvement Co. dam to provide water to their new subdivisions.
1930 Del Monte Properties Co. sells water system to Chester H. Loveland. Deal includes preferred rates to Del Monte Properties for 50 years. Water rates go up.
1935 Public takeover organized but defeated at the polls.
1935 Loveland transfers ownership of the water system to another company he controls, California Water & Telephone Co. (CW&T).
1939 California Water and Telephone selling water to 5 golf courses.
1948 CW&T builds Los Padres Dam, to accommodate for continuing growth and water needs of the sardine canneries. Rates go up 15%.
1950 CW&T asks PUC for 43% rate hike. Public outcry-especially over public subsidy of water for Del Monte Properties.
1952 PUC grants 25% increase to CW&T instead of 43% because unfair deal with Del Monte Properties Co.
1956 CW&T gets another 16.6% rate hike.
1958 1. People vote to form a water district for the purpose of buying out CW&T.
2. CW&T would not sell and will take steps to make transaction prohibitively expensive.
3. PUC begins process of evaluating worth of CW&T holdings so that they may be taken over by public through eminent domain.
1964 After years of interminable delay at the PUC a value is finally placed on the CW&T holdings.
1965 With no rate increases since the 1950's, the takeover movement has lost momentum. Voters reject a bond issue, necessary for buying out CW&T. The Herald is strongly opposed to public ownership of the water system.
1966 CW&T, which would not sell to the public, sells out to Cal-Am.
1970 Cal-Am announces plans to flood the Cachaqua valley with a new dam.
1971 In the face of public outcry, Cal-Am drops Cachaqua Dam and announces they will build a 40,000 Acre Foot "Super San Clemente Dam" instead. Army Corps. of Engineers asks Cal-Am to put these plans on hold while they look into building an even bigger dam.
1973 PUC orders Cal-Am not to extend water mains to new development, because Cal-Am's transmission lines lack the capacity to keep up with demand.
1974 Cal-Am asks PUC for 22% rate hike-to pay for building new transmissions lines. The Herald flip-flops again and begins editorializing in favor of a public takeover.
1974 State Department of Water Resources releases a report concluding that if it is safe to pump 1500 AF per year from Carmel River Aquifer.
1976 Dry weather and lack of transmission capacity leads to rationing. The Herald reports that 80% of the people in California are served by publicly owned water systems and continue to agitate for a public takeover.
1976 Cal-Am says they will not build new pipelines unless the PUC grant them a 20% rate hike.
1977 PUC orders Cal-Am to stop paying dividends and stop transferring funds to their parent, American Waters Works Co. until completion of the pipeline. Stop giving discounts to large water users.
1977 Continued drought lends to more serious rationing. Many people discover that their water meters are deeply buried obviously not read in years. Cal-Am denies all-insists that they have never simply made up figures when billing their customers.
1977 Herald denounces Del Monte Properties Co., which has just changed its name to Pebble Beach Corp. and suggests cutting off water to the golf courses.
1977 PUC grants Cal-Am a 4.7% rate hike.
1978 Citizens vote to form a Water Management District
1980 Army Corps of Engineers, announces that a $200 million 118,000 AF multipurpose dam is the best solution to the Peninsula's water problems.
1987 Advisory voter (non-binding election) for idea of continuing studying a new San Clemente Dam.
1993 Election-Desal project not passed.
1995 State Water Resource Control Board require Cal-Am and MPWMD to restore the Carmel River habitat and find replacement for the 10,730 AF of water Cal-Am had been pumping from the river without a legal permit.
1995 Vote Against dam.
1997 Cal-Am says they will build a dam, despite the vote of the people.
1999 Voters elect anti-dam majority on MPWMD for first time in history.
Source: "Water Over The Dam: The Carmel River and the Monterey Peninsula" 1999 By Keith Vandervere