STORIES FROM THE PAST
50 years ago
A 15-year-old girl, fishing from the embankment, watched in horror as an automobile swerved out of control and plunged into the Central Main Canal, two miles southwest of Heber, at 6:50 p.m. Wednesday.
By 8:25 p.m., Imperial County sheriff’s deputies, California Highway Patrolmen and volunteer workers had recovered the body of the motorist, Felix Nuñez Gonzales, 43, of Mexicali. Gonzales, whose driver’s license listed his address in El Centro, was trapped in his car and drowned.
“I saw the car coming down the road,” said Janet Thompson, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Ream Thompson, who was fishing in the canal in front of her home.
“There was a big bang, a screaming of wheels,” she said. “The car went off the road, then it crossed over and went straight into the canal.
“It seemed like it was going pretty fast.”
The Central Union High School freshman, sole witness to the fatal mishap, said the car went into the water and slowly reversed its direction as it sank. “I didn’t hear anything, she said.
Quickly she summoned some men loading hay near the house, and they drove to Heber for help.
SCUBA Divers Vern Clendenin and El Centro police officer Hugh Poole went into the swift-moving water to hunt for the sunken auto.
40 years ago
Senate hearings into proposed amendments of the 1901 Reclamation Act got underway in Washington, D.C., today with Sen. Barry Goldwater, R-Ariz., calling for repeal of the “antiquated” 70-year-old law and Congressman Clair Buregener stating that Imperial Valley should be legislatively exempted from its provisions.
The hearings, held by the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, are the opening round in the amendment process to relax the Reclamation Act.
Whatever bill is finally adopted, the old 160-acre restriction will be needed and residency requirements will be changed.
The Carter administration is expected to call for a 1,280-acre per family allowance, through a combination of ownership and leases, as well as a relaxation of residency requirements which would allow a family to live any distance from their land until it is sold.
30 years ago
The Metropolitan Water District last year spent more money on lobbying the Legislature and state agencies than any other entity, according to the Fair Political Practices Commission.
In its annual report on lobbying expenditures, the commission reported that Metropolitan spent $1,857,427 on state lobbying during 1987. These expenditures were complemented by $816,187 spent by the State Water Contractors, the organization that represents customers of the state Water Project. Metropolitan is the single largest user of state project water.
The Imperial Irrigation District, which is locked in heated negotiations with MWD for the transfer or sale of conserved water, spent $30,736 on lobbying last year, the FPPC reported. This money was paid to Heron, Burchette, Ruckert & Rothwell, a Sacramento lobbying firm the IID hired to tell its side of the water transfer story.