Purissima Hills Water District
Fifty Years of Service

Introduction.

Purissima Hills Water District is a County Special District serving approximately 6,400 residents and 10 institutional customers in Los Altos Hills. The District is governed by an elected Board of Directors. A general manager oversees District operations performed ably (and cheerfully) by a two-person office staff, a part-time conservation coordinator, and a five-person field crew.

Inception.

In the early 1950’s, there were about 350 homes and small ranches in an area west of Los Altos known as Purissima Hills. Some residents had private wells; other residents had organized themselves into small mutual water associations (Stonebrook and Toyon) which distributed water obtained from community wells or, in the case of three such mutual water associations (Purissima, Robleda, and Blanco Rancho), from California Water Service Company. In 1952, there was a drought in the land and in response to the water shortage, a group of citizens formed the “Purissima Hills Association”. The Association engaged the services of an engineer to study the water situation and to prepare a report recommending the means and cost of providing water for area residents.

The report, completed in 1953, recommended that the residents form a County Water District and that it purchase water from the San Francisco’s Hetch Hetchy system. The District was incorporated April 26, 1955, and a Board of Directors was installed.

The Board retained an engineer to design a water system and began planning for its construction and financing. Plans and specifications for the original water system were prepared, and on August 1, 1956, the District sold $350,000.00 general obligation bonds to finance construction that was started in August 1956 and completed before the end of the year. The work included two 100,000-gallon redwood tanks—one on Ascencion at an elevation of about 250 feet and one on La Cresta at an elevation of about 450 feet. Water was delivered to the lower tank via pipeline from the Hetch Hetchy pipes near Foothill Expressway and Arastradero Road. Two 25 horsepower pumps lifted the water from the lower tank to the upper tank.

Growth.

This system served some 50 homes along Fremont, Concepcion, Manuela, Page Mill, and Arastradero Roads. Between 1956 and 1960, many homeowners, and small and large developers dissatisfied by the water quality and/or production of their wells sought annexation to the District. In 1960, the District constructed the 500.000-gallon Elena tank on Vista del Valle Court (near Taaffe) to provide additional storage capacity to supply newly completed Foothill College. The fledgling community college district participated in financing construction of the tank and connecting pipelines.

In the summer of ’61, water shortages were once again in the land. The wells supplying two mutuals (Stonebrook and Toyon) south of Foothill College would no longer allow them to meet the demands of their customers. The District stepped to the breech and provided temporary supply…followed by annexation of the area served by the two mutual companies. Over the next ten years, as the growth in Los Altos Hills’ population exceeded the ability of the remaining three mutual water associations (Purissima, Robleda, and Blanco Rancho) to supply their customers, the District annexed (sequentially) the areas served by them. During this period (1961-1970), the District constructed five tanks adding over three (3) million gallons of storage capacity to the system and installed a second connection to the Hetch Hetchy system pipeline.

Since 1970, the population served by the District has grown from about 3,400 to about 6,400. Two tanks, each having 3.0 million gallons of storage capacity, have been added to the system, and the one million gallon La Cresta tank, constructed in 1962, which failed during the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, was replaced with similarly sized tank in 1992. The District now has eleven tanks and a storage capacity of almost 10 million gallons. All the tanks, as well as their inlet-outlet piping, have been evaluated for resistance to earthquake shaking and retrofitted, where necessary, to bring them to current standards for aseismic design. The District and California Water Service Company have an emergency water supply connection on Stonebrook (near the old Vidovich quarry).

Epilogue.

The District has played an important role in the growth of the Town of Los Altos Hills by supplying plentiful, high-quality water to its residents. The challenge for the District is to maintain this function in the face of increasing demands on the Hetch Hetchy system from population growth, not just within the District, but, more importantly, in the entire area served by the Hetch Hetchy System. The District is one of 29 agencies —27 public agencies, one private company (California Water Service Company), and a private university (Stanford)—served by Hetch Hetchy. Under a contract drawn in 1981 amongst the agencies and with San Francisco Public Utilities Commission (the operator of the Hetch Hetchy System), each agency is allotted a certain amount of water determined by a formula allowing for its size and some (small) growth and limited by the system’s capacity. The District currently exceeds its allotment by 30-40% and is pursuing conservation measures to reduce water use (or the growth in use). Additional sources of water are being sought and an emergency water supply connection is available for such emergencies as a supply interruption, say, from a large earthquake.

The District takes pride in its history in Los Altos Hills and looks forward to continuing to serve its residents in the years ahead.

Ernest Solomon, Director
Purissima Hills Water District
November 2012.