Its construction authorized by the Rivers and Harbors Act of
1937, the massive Central Valley Project
(CVP) encompasses 20 reservoirs with a combined storage capacity
of 11 million acre-feet, eight power plants, two
pumping-generating plants and some 500 miles of major canals and
aqueducts. In a normal year, the CVP delivers 7 million acre-feet
of water to about 3 million acres of farmland in the Central
Valley.