The California State Water Project, commonly known as the SWP, is one of the world's largest publicly built and operated water and power development and conveyance system. The SWP was designed and is operated by the California Department of Water Resources. The original purpose of the project was to provide water for arid Southern California which lacks adequate local water resources to provided for the growth the region has experienced. Today, the SWP provides drinking water for over 23 million people. The California Department of Water Resources is responsible for the management of water resources in California. ... Downtown Los Angeles Skyline Southern California, also colloquially referred to as SoCal, is an informal name for the megalopolis and nearby desert that occupies the southern-most quarter of the U.S. state of California. ...

Construction began in the late 1950s, with major funding approved in a 1960 bond measure. The vote on the bond split along North-South lines, as Northern Californians opposed the measure as a boondoggle and an attempt to steal their water resources. Most of the water (roughly 80%) generated by the project is in fact used for agriculture, primarily in the San Joaquin Valley, as pumping the water over the Tehachapi Mountains is costly and Southern California has other sources of water such as the Owens River, tributary creeks to Mono Lake and the Colorado River. A bond measure is a proposal to sell bonds for the purpose of acquiring funds for various public works projects, such as research, transportation infrastructure improvements, and others. ... Northern California, sometimes referred to as NorCal, is the northern portion of the U.S. state of California. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... Tehachapi Mountains The Tehachapi Mountains are a short transverse range in southern California in the United States, running SW-NE to connect the Coast Ranges on the west with the southern end of the Sierra Nevada mountains on the east. ... Owens Valley The Owens River is a river in eastern California in the United States, approximately 120 mi (193 km) long. ... Mono Lake is an alkaline and hypersaline lake in California, United States that is a critical nesting habitat for several bird species and is one of the most productive ecosystems in North America[citation needed]. // Satellite photo of Mono Lake Mono Craters to the right of the image are rhyolitic... The Colorado River from the bottom of Marble Canyon, in the Upper Grand Canyon Colorado River in the Grand Canyon from Desert View The Colorado River from Laughlin The Colorado River is a river in the southwestern United States and northwestern Mexico, approximately 1,450 mi (2,330 km) long...

Primary features of the project include Oroville Dam, San Luis Reservoir, and the California Aqueduct. In dry years, water pumped from the Sacramento River Delta creates a hazard to spring-run salmon, as the currents that the salmon spawn normally follow to the Pacific Ocean go to the pumps instead. This and other water use and environmental problems led to the creation of the California Bay-Delta Authority or CALFED in 1994. Oroville Dam is on the Feather River above the city of Oroville in Butte County, California. ... San Luis Reservoir The San Luis Reservoir is a water-storage reservoir located in the eastern part of the Diablo Range in west-central California, approximately 32 miles southeast of the city of San Jose. ... The California Aqueduct is the concrete-lined aqueduct that transports water from Northern California to Southern California. ... The San Joaquin-Sacramento Delta. ... Illustration of a male Coho Salmon The Chinook or King Salmon is the largest salmon in North America and can grow to 1. ... 1994 (MCMXCIV) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar, and was designated as the International Year of the Family and the International Year of the Sport and the Olympic Ideal by United Nations. ...

List of SWP facilities

• Antelope Dam on Indian Creek in Plumas County, California

Plumas County is a county located in Californias Sierra Nevada. ...

References

Cadillac Desert, Marc Reisner, (1993) ISBN 0-14-017824-4 Cadillac Desert by Marc Reisner is a 1986 book (ISBN 0140178244) about land development and water policy in the western United States. ... Marc Reisner (September 14, 1948 - July 21, 2000) was an American environmentalist and writer best known for his groundbreaking book Cadillac Desert, a history of water management in the American West. ...

External links

• California Department of Water Resources State Water Project overview
• CALFED