Imperial Irrigation District

Imperial Irrigation District (IID) describes itself as having two core businesses and one overarching mission — to keep the lights on and the water flowing. Its energy customers expect reliable electricity, while the district's agricultural, municipal and industrial water users depend on IID to deliver water without fail. IID frames what it provides to its water and energy customers as reliability and predictability, and describes itself as a public service agency. Its workforce is comprised of over 1,400 employees working in professional, technical, skilled and non-skilled jobs throughout the Imperial and Coachella Valleys.

IID's own history page frames the founding of IID as a story about triumph over struggle for the public good, describing how generations of rugged individuals, a century ago, braved the region's harsh conditions to sustain life in the desert. The page recounts early exploration of the area: Juan Bautista de Anza, a captain in the Spanish army, found only desert when he led an expedition across the area in the 18th century, and Father Hermengildo Francisco Garces searched in vain for water in the desert. As early as 1850, a few men of vision realized the area could be made productive with an assured water supply. William P. Blake, a geologist with a railroad survey party who had passed through the desert in 1853, noticed the ancient shoreline at the foot of the mountains, proving there had once been an inland sea where now there was desert; his barometric readings proved the desert lay below sea level and could be irrigated by a gravity-flow canal diverting from the Colorado River. Dr. Oliver M. Wozencraft, who crossed the area during the gold rush of 1849, hired an engineer in 1861 to take a survey.

A public service agency providing reliability and predictability in water and energy service.

Product categories. electricity · water delivery

1. 1Imperial Irrigation District | Homeiid.com
2. 2IID History | Imperial Irrigation Districtiid.com
3. 3About IID | Imperial Irrigation Districtiid.com
4. 4Careers | Imperial Irrigation Districtiid.com