An explanation of how the California water system works, its Dams, Pumps, Aqueducts and Rivers

I have lived in many areas of the State of California since I arrived here in 1969. I lived in Lemoore and Hanford neighbor cities in the heart of the great San Joaquin Valley. During 1973 I worked with a water well drilling crew, during that time we drilled wells throughout the "west side". The first job I went on was where Highway 198 and 41 intersect at the Southwest corner of the intersection, near the town of Lemoore. I jumped out of the pickup we were in and immediately sunk one foot into the alkali, the ground was covered with it as far as I could see. I was told the reason we were there is a well was needed at that spot to enable the farmer to flood the fields and flush the salt from the soil (Selenium). Eventually, the water and salts went through the "drain" all the way North to the Kesterson Wildlife reserve, where it remains to this day. I will attempt to write this without adding any environmental impact comments, or how water is a political football in this state. It's one of those issues that are hotly debated every place I have lived in California, which is one of the problems. All of the opinions are wrong because one story is told in Southern California, a different one is discussed among the Central Valley Farmers, and a Third completely different version is repeated in Northern California, where I now live. The problems will never be solved until all of the stories are the same, and we begin to have an honest discussion about water in this State.

Typical large water well drilling rig.

A logical place to begin is explaining where the water in California comes from, who uses it, and how it is stored.

The rainy season in California begins in November and ends in April, 200 million acre-feet fall during most drought-free years. Storing the water until it is needed is one of the challenges this state faces, it is one of the most engineered water environments in the world. The majority of rain falls in the Sierras from the center of the state including all of the northern parts of the state. It's a distance from the major urban and farming centers. Closing that distance the central valley project was created, storing the water and transporting it during the times it is needed, there are over 1400 dams in operation making up storage for the California Aqueduct. The engineered watershed runs uphill from the Northern Border as far South as Mexico, it goes right through the Coachella Valley, the Great California Desert. On the project are two major pumping stations, one North of the city of Tracy at the Clifton Forebay and the other North of Tejon pass South of Bakersfield. Splitting into three streams, one forms Lake Cachuma in Santa Barbara County, another to Castaic Lake in Los Angelos, and the final leg is sent to Silverwood Lake in San Bernadino County. San Luis Reservoir is an "off-stream" storage which backs up behind the San Luis Dam, it's a huge dam on the Eastern slope of the Diablo Range of mountains due West of the City of Los Banos. It has the distinction of being the largest "off-stream" water storage reservoir in the United States.

The Eastern Slope of the Diablo Range has no natural streams, it does get some seasonal rain mostly causing erosion, as enough doesn't fall to create a viable flow. All of the water behind San Luis Dam originates in the San Joaquin/American rivers Delta, 100 miles to the North delivered by the project. A hydro-electric generator is powered by the water being held back, the Giannelli power plant generates123,480 megawatts (total 2009 output). The further South we travel the drier the landscape becomes, along the entire distance of the Diablo Range is mostly desert, 300 miles. It's a desert in the North also, I have a bay window that faces the bone-dry terrain.

San Luis Reservoir, the Dam is the white line.

One-half of the 200 million acre-feet that falls on the state evaporates, is absorbed into the ground, or used by wild vegetation during its hundreds of miles of travel. Some of the water from the river system is used to form a Hydraulic Dam on the Delta at the Cartenize Straights, between Martinez and Vallejo in the Bay Area. Estimates claim 50% of the water in the Delta is sent to the ocean, it very well is although it's not a constant 50%, the pressures from the ocean dictates how much is needed to guard the system against being overrun by sea water.  One of the arguments in the Central Valley is that water should go to the Farmers, it could be done however the salt water would flow into the Central Valley Project to be spread on the fields destroying them forever. If the salt water were to continue south to the three diversions all of them would fill will salt water also, corrupting the water supply for nearly all of California.

A Dam at the Straights would also be a poor choice, the river system carries an enormous amount of silt and debris along with it on it's journey from the hills to the ocean. A Dam in that spot of the river, it is downstream of the confluence of the San Joaquin and the American, would stop the silt, creating a mud flat more than a mile wide and 3 miles long. Continual dredging would be in order, many ocean cargo ships pass there on the way to Cities as far away as Stockton and Sacramento. The silt is contaminated with mercury making disposal tricky at best, the heavy metal is just now making its way into the Delta's waterways (1500 miles of river) originating in the gold fields the 49er's worked on in the middle of the 19th century. Dams silt up no matter where they are, water carries' dirt.

A map of the California Delta.

Our Dams store 42 million acre-feet, underground aquifers contain somewhere between 150 million acre-feet and 1.45 billion acre-feet depending on how it is measured. (I have a feeling no one knows how much is under the surface.) One acre-foot of water will cover one acre one foot deep, containing 43,560 cubic feet, 325,851 U.S. gallons, or exactly 1233.48184 cubic meters. One foot deep over one acre is easier for some of us to understand, myself included. One acre-foot will keep 8 farm workers employed, or 8,000 workers in factories in urban areas, farming adds 3% to the States yearly gross product putting to use as much as 80% of the usable water sources.

The Bay Area receives its water from several sources, the State Water Project, the Central Valley project (separate from the State Water Project), Hetch Hetchy, and the Mokelumne Aqueduct system. Los Angelos depends on the Colorado River Aqueduct, the State Water Project, the Los Angeles Aqueduct and the Central Valley Project. Agriculture uses water from several water projects, the Central Valley Project counts for 1/3 of the water irrigating the San Joaquin Valley, and the Sacramento Valley. Kern County receives its water from the Central Valley Project and the State Water Project. Colorado River water supplies the Imperial Valley through the "All American Canal".  Let's take a brief look at the main water projects in the State.

* The largest of the Bureau of Reclamation Projects is the Central Valley project delivering 7 million acre-feet for farming, urban and wildlife uses. 1 million people depend on it for drinking water, and 3 million acres are farmed with it.

* Operated by the California Department of Water Resources the State Water Project sends 2.3 million acre-feet from Northern California to the San Francisco Bay Area, the Southern San Joaquin River, and Southern California. 750,000 acres are irrigated with this water and provides water for as many as 23 million people.

* The Los Angelos Water System is the first built in California, 105 years ago, 1913, it is owned and operated by the Los Angelos Department of Water and Power. All of its 200,000 acre-feet is used within the City limits.

* Hetch Hetchy Water and Power Systems operated by the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission delivers 330,000 acre-feet per year from across the Valley in the Sierra Nevada's located on the Tuolumne River watershed. Conveying it to San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Clara, and Alameda Counties.

* The Mokelumne Aqueduct is under the East Bay Municipal Utilities District supplying water to 1.4 million people and 35 Cities. Oakland, Berkeley, Richmond, Alameda, and Contra Costa Counties are among them.

* The Colorado River System supplies 4.4 million acre-feet to the Imperial Valley, Coachella Valley, and Southern California supplemented with All American Canal water.

O'Shaughnessy Dam, Hetch Hetchy Reservoir backs up behind it.

It's a complicated arraignment we have with water in this State, everyone, I mean everyone has an opinion about it, almost as if it's in our genetic makeup. Water storage is at the top of the debate list, in fact, a bond has been passed to build more dams, and improve the infrastructure. It is my opinion we should build more "off-stream" reservoirs, allowing for the Salmon fisheries to return. A conveyance system by-passing the Delta with 30-foot diameter tunnels has been a battleground since the 1970's when it was billed as the "peripheral canal". There is the Wishon-Courtright project, built in the 1980's, it is a Hydro-Power generator located deep inside a mountain, a huge tunnel was built between the two reservoirs located many miles from each other and at different elevations. Electricity is generated during the day, then at night when demand is down Diablo Canyon Nuclear Reactor supplies power to turn the generators into pumps. Overnight the water is pumped back up the hill to fill the supplier. (I don't know where the electrical power to serve that project will come from after Diablo is shut down. I worked on both projects as an Ironworker.)

The water battle is political and it's not, some of our elected representatives have tried to make it so, however it is a battle of region, culture, and misinformation. I live on the Delta, the opinion here is Southern California is on a water grab, farmers in the Central Valley claim we are being stingy with the water and go so far as to dump half of it into the ocean, oh and the minnows, Southern California believes it should all belong to them because they have 1/2 of the population of the state. We are all wrong, it starts at the 100th parallel, and should be managed from that point West, and East by one government entity.

The 100th Meridian, wet to the right, dry to the left. 

There is so much to this water system of ours, there are so many water districts, systems, and States affected we should have a system to regulate it that is modern, not one that was set up in the 1800's as a one size fits all arrangement.

Thanks for reading and sharing, I have my opinions about water, as does everyone else. I could ramble on for a long time on this subject but I must stop, I do however recommend to everyone I talk with about water to read the book "Cadillac Desert". Every person in the United States should read it, I'm in California and the water that flows by my house on the Delta affects my Sister who lives on Lake Superior in Minnesota.



jacquesandkate  emergencykitsplus.com