David M. Bryant; State Water Project Supporter

David M. Bryant, 72, who helped to bring the State Water Project to the San Joaquin Valley. As president of the Kern County Water Agency in 1963, Bryant negotiated the contract that brought 1 million acre-feet of state water each year to that county. He also won residents’ approval of the controversial contract in an election in 1963. Oil interests fought the ratification because of fears it would increase taxes. A veteran farmer, Bryant also worked with legislators to pass the Williamson Act of 1965, which gave growers a reduced tax assessment on agricultural land in return for setting aside open space. In the late 1970s, he successfully opposed construction of a nuclear power plant near Wasco, Calif., contending that it would divert water needed for irrigation. The plant was defeated in a 1977 Kern County ballot measure. On June 10 in Bakersfield of cancer.