SECTION NEWS
A Century of PROGRESS BY LYNN LIPINSKI
1920
California Section is created.
It includes Hawaii and
Western Nevada.
First meeting is held in
October 1920 in San
Francisco. 75 people attend
the one-day event.
1988
The Section holds its first
Pipe Tapping competition.
14 SOURCE spring 2020
1921
Among the water pioneers
of the American West who
spoke at early Section meet-ings
were William Mulhol-land,
chief engineer for the
City of Los Angeles, in 1921,
and Michael O’Shaughnessy,
San Francisco city engineer
responsible for the Hetch
Hetchy Reservoir, in 1924.
1931
Arizona joins the California
Section.
1941
The U.S. enters World War
II following the Japanese
bombing of Pearl Harbor.
Section conferences during
wartime are called Share the
Information meetings and
focus on practical matters,
such as camouflaging
facilities for protection and
substitutions for now-scarce
materials like ammonia.
1947
Arizona leaves the California
Section to form its
own Section.
1989
Congress adopts the
Surface Water Treatment
Rule, requiring water utilities
delivering surface water to
major cities to filter drinking
water or prove it doesn’t
need filtration.
1990
Carol Hermann Tate becomes
the Section’s first female
Chair.
SOURCE magazine is
published for the first time.
The first issue includes a
profile of California Governor
Pat Brown.
1991
The Section holds its first Top
Ops Competition at the spring
meeting. The Rancho Santa
Fe Water District Badgers win
the competition, styled after
the game show Jeopardy.
Water For People is founded
to help impoverished people
obtain safe drinking water.
1992
An AWWA survey finds a
resurgence in the use of
chloramination, largely due to
new regulatory requirements
for disinfection by-product
control.
SPECIAL THANKS
to Steven Dennis
for his research and
photo contributions.