Rainbow Water History

The establishment of Rainbow Municipal Water District is rich with history and fascinating stories of the challenges faced in its foundational years, the commitment and involvement of the community and their numerous accomplishments.  Bill Hitt, who was about 6 years old when his parents purchased land in Rainbow, is one of the community members who shared his stories with us in an interview with our Executive Secretary back on June 29, 2010.  We have printed excerpts of this in the past but we wanted to share it again.

In this interview Mr. Hitt recalled how severely a drought had impacted San Diego County and his community in the early 1940’s and how in 1944 the Federal Government authorized building a pipeline to get Colorado River water to San Diego via the Metropolitan Water District.   In light of the wartime needs of the military, pipelines were being designed by the Bureau of Reclamation and constructed by the United States Navy.

Later in life Bill joined the United States Navy and also became a member of the Rainbow Grange.   Bill recalls that it was at the regular Grange meetings where discussions took place regarding the water situation.   These discussions included finding an alternate means of getting water since the Temecula Creek and San Luis Rey River were out of the question.  The aqueduct currently under construction being built right through Rainbow was the only option; however, one of the Grange members as he recalled was very opposed to utilizing this water source due to the high salt content claiming it may ruin the soil.  Most other members were focused on simply having enough water available to the local community.