Water district pioneer remembered for her contributions locally

By John Loesing Acorn Staff Writer

Elizabeth Hughes

The family of Elizabeth Hughes, a longtime Agoura resident who was instrumental in the formation of Las Virgenes Municipal Water District, presented valuable documents to LVMWD officials last week that traced the long history of the water agency and many of the land development issues that still affect residents today.

Hughes passed away last summer in Carmel, Calif. at the age of 82.

Among her contributions to the area, Hughes also helped form the

Agoura/Las Virgenes Chamber of Commerce.

In the ceremony at LVMWD headquarters, Hughes’ daughter Valerie Hunken presented the district with stacks of old letters, memoirs and historical information that Hughes had compiled during her many years of pioneering work for the water district and the chamber.

Hughes was a 1940 graduate of Emory University in Atlanta and a graduate of the first class of Wave military officers at Smith College in 1942. She moved to Los Angeles County in 1946 with her first husband and lived in the county for 30 years.

In 1954, Hughes and Robert Boyd, Agoura’s first postmaster, formed a chamber of commerce water committee to investigate bringing potable water to the Las Virgenes area. The pair entered talks with the Metropolitan Water District about running a pipeline to the community, and in 1958, LVMWD was formed.

A member of the district’s first board of directors, Hughes was instrumental in the passage of millions of dollars in water infrastructure bonds that provided the foundation for the many pumps and pipelines that currently crisscross the 122 square-mile water district.

"I’m terribly in awe of my mother," said Hunken. "She was a courageous woman in a man’s world."

The area’s assessed valuation at mid-century was only $10 million, including all of Hidden Hills, leading Hughes to write in her memoirs, "Our assessed valuation was so low that they [potential water district partners such as Calleguas Municipal Water District] just decided we would be more of a hindrance than a help.

   "They voted in the water district," Hughes went on to say, "but we never knew what to expect from these people—they were rugged individualists, all those people in Las Virgenes—and they liked their privacy as much as they wanted water, especially water for the fire department."

   Hughes drew the first map of where she thought the main pipeline should go.

"My grandfather told her she had water on the brain; if she could, she would turn the Ventura Freeway into the Ventura River," Hunken said.

Satisfied that water was available to the Las Virgenes area, Hughes turned to her passion for real estate. She was responsible for the sale of many of the large ranches in the area and some of her clients included prominent local landowners Bob Hope and Ronald Reagan.

After moving to Carmel in 1982, Hughes continued to use her water expertise by helping solve some of the conservation problems that have plagued the Monterey Peninsula over the years.

"Elizabeth was a gutsy person who forced huge issues," recalled Ann Dorgelo, the current LVMWD president.

To view the Elizabeth Hughes history in its entirety, contact the Las Virgenes Municipal Water District at (818) 251-2100.