Public outcry led Oakland councilman George Pardee, who later became Governor of California, to press the Contra Costa Water Company for a clean, reliable water system. Hyatt filters were installed along with pump houses and filtration basins to create one of the West’s first filtration systems, now part of a Historic Engineering Landmark. One of two large filtration basins once occupied the meadow here. Rapid filtration was a new innovation in 1884, patented by John Hyatt, and it remained in use at Lake Chabot for well over 50 years. In the basin, a coagulant was added to help clump and filter out mud and other particulates. Water from the basins was then forced through the Hyatt filters to further purify it, improving water quality for customers in Oakland and San Leandro. In the 1890s, water wars between the Contra Costa Water Company and a rival company led to verbal and physical clashes. One written attack on the Contra Costa Water Company appeared in an 1895 issue of the Oakland Tribune, calling the water stored in Lake Chabot and Lake Temescal “the perfume of the morgue.”