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.
In 1960, California voters approved financing for construction of
the initial features of the State Water Project (SWP).
The project includes some 22 dams and reservoirs, a Delta
pumping plant, a 444-mile-long aqueduct that carries water
from the Delta through the San Joaquin Valley to
Southern California.
A number of large population centers in California have developed
their own extensive water projects. The Hetch Hetchy
Project transports Tuolumne River water 156 miles
from the Central Sierra
Nevada to San Francisco and peninsula cities.
