South Bay history: How Torrance established its own water distribution system
Jared Sidney Torrance had a lot on his plate as he prepared to establish the city that bears his name in 1911. After his initial purchase of $3,500 acres of land from the Dominguez family, he needed to provide something, and fast, that both prospective residents and the large companies he hoped to attract to the new city couldn’t survive without: water. Initially, the city hooked itself up to the Dominguez Water Company, which had formed in February 1911 as a division of the Dominguez Estate Co. The company was created not just to provide water to Torrance, but also to all the communities and agricultural operations in the Rancho San Pedro area. Dominguez Water began drilling from water wells near Carson Street and Alameda Avenue in present-day Carson, just south of Dominguez Hill, and established its main pumping plant there.