Modesto Irrigation District
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| District overview | |
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| Formed | 1887 |
| Type | Irrigation district |
| Headquarters | Modesto, California |
| Employees | 412 |
| Website | www |
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The Modesto Irrigation District (MID) is a special-purpose district that provides irrigation and drinking water, and electrical service, to customers in the San Joaquin Valley within Stanislaus County, California.
It was the second established irrigation district in California, using the resources of the Tuolumne River. The district now supplies irrigation water to 3,100 agricultural customers, electrical service to over 110,000 customers, and drinking water to the city of Modesto.
The Modesto Irrigation District was the second irrigation district to be established in California, in July 1887, under the Wright Act of 1887, which allowed the formation of special-purpose districts throughout California. The voters within the district's proposed boundaries were overwhelmingly in favor of the formation, but a determined opposition to the district's formation and taxing authority carried on a legal battle with the district until the US Supreme Court sided with the district in 1898. Anti-irrigationists continued to prevent the collection of taxes until 1901.
The district initially sought to divert water from the Stanislaus River, but ultimately decided that the Tuolumne River was a better source of water. In 1893, the La Grange Dam was completed, enclosing La Grange Reservoir. This small dam provided a diversion point for water delivered to the Turlock Irrigation District, which provided 2/3rds of the building cost. After a long delay caused by legal battles, the district finally started providing irrigation water in 1903.
Between 1904 and 1913 the Modesto Irrigation District, Turlock Irrigation District, and the city of San Francisco were embroiled in a dispute over the use of the Tuolumne River. San Francisco needed more drinking water, and the two districts wanted to continue exclusive use of the river. Despite opposition from John Muir and the Sierra Club, San Francisco ultimately prevailed with the passing of the Raker Act, which authorized construction of the O'Shaughnessy Dam on the Tuolumne River, and eventually turned the Hetch Hetchy Valley into the Hetch Hetchy Reservoir. By 1940, San Francisco and the two districts had become allies to protect and development the Tuolemne River watershed.
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