California State Water Project & MWD Tours

The Issue…..  The vast majority of water in the State of California falls in the top 1/3 of the state (north of Sacramento) and is used by the bottom 2/3 (SF to San Diego)

 As a result of this, there are two water agencies/programs that supply drinking and irrigation water to Southern California.

The Two Projects…..  The Colorado River Water Project is run by the MWD and brings water to SoCal via the Colorado River Aqueduct.  The State Water Project is administered by the Department of Water Resources and brings water from the Sacramento River Delta to SoCal via the California Aqueduct.

Southern California gets…  One-third from State Water Project  One-third from Colorado River Water Project  One-third from groundwater

Beverly Hills Gets….  90% of water from MWD  10% from groundwater  We are the MOST dependent member agency.

In Beverly Hills, we use….. 65% of our water for landscaping 20% of our water for residential Only 2% of the water is consumed!

MWD: Metropolitan Water District  MWD is the water-broker system that supplies drinking water for Southern California.  It is a consortium of 26 cities. It was established in 1928 by the California legislature. Beverly Hills was a founding city.

Colorado River Aqueduct  Yes… this is your drinking water!

Colorado River Aqueduct  The system contains 242 miles of aqueducts  The channels are about 35 feet wide and 20 feet deep.

More Aqueduct Photos

The State Water Project!  This project brings water from the Sacramento River Delta (the Sacramento River, San Joaquin River and Mokelumne River).  This project is not run by MWD, but is run by DWR (and MWD buys the water from them).

We started at the State Capitol…..

Me, Ms. Utley, and Ms. Hashempour

Oroville Dam… the start of the State Water Project! The Orville river has a capacity of 3.5 million acre-feet This last year, due to dry conditions and low snow pack, the storage was less than 1 million acre-feet In addition to storing water, it generates electricity, and plays a role in fishery and wildlife enhancement.

A Turbine! This is the part of the dam that is used to generate the electricity.

It is one talllllllll dam!

The water moves 444 miles from L. Oroville to L. Perris

Feather River Hatchery

 There are two anadromous (leave sea water to breed) fish on these rivers.  The Chinook Salmon (which spawns in Spring and Fall)  The Steelhead Trout (which spawns in Winter).  The Salmon spawns and dies and the Trout does not die.

 80% of the Chinook Salmon spawn downstream of Oroville and only 20% want to spawn past the dam.  Therefore, the fish ladder is used for only the 20% that spawn past the dam.

20,000-22,000 Salmon enter the hatchery!

The Fish Ladder

The fish go into this tray where they bubble CO 2 to calm them down.

The 7,000 eggs (per female) are fertilized and stored here for 50 days

The facility has a 17 million egg capacity!

Interesting Fact….  The trout are “milked” for roe and milt and returned alive to the river.  The dead Chinook Salmon are given to homeless, Senior Citizens, and Native Americans.

Banks Pumping Station (to pump the water against a gradient)

The turbine and impeller

It is important that fish do not get sucked into the pumping plant so they are diverted.

Then into here…..

Into here……

And fifty miles to here.

Most of the Delta is now below sea-level…..

And the water is held back by levees.

Other screens keep the fish out of the canals.

Canals

Dredging the Canal to keep it open.

The Teachers on the Trip!

The End!!!!!!!!