Central Valley Project
Encyclopedia
The Central Valley Project (abbreviated as CVP) is a Bureau of Reclamation federal water project in the U.S.
state
of California
. It was devised in 1933 in order to provide irrigation and municipal water to much of California's Central Valley—by regulating and storing water in reservoirs in the water-rich northern half of the state, and transporting it to the water-poor San Joaquin Valley
and its surroundings by means of a series of canals, aqueducts and pump plants, some shared with the California State Water Project
. Many CVP water users are represented by the Central Valley Project Water Association
.
In addition to water storage and regulation, the system produces several thousand megawatts of hydroelectric power, provides recreation
, and promotes flood control
with its twenty dams and reservoirs. It has allowed major cities to grow along rivers in the Valley which previously would flood each spring, and transformed the semi-arid
desert
environment of the San Joaquin Valley into productive farmland. Freshwater stored in Sacramento River
reservoirs and released downriver during dry periods prevents salt water from intruding into the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta during high tide
. There are eight divisions of the project and ten corresponding units, many of which operate in conjunction, while others are independent of the rest of the network. California agriculture and related industries now directly account for 7% of the gross state product for which the CVP supplied water for about half.
Despite the benefits of the Project, many CVP operations have resulted in disastrous environmental and historical consequences. The salmon
population in four major California rivers have declined as a result, and many natural river environments, such as riparian zone
s, meander
s and sandbars no longer exist. Many archaeological and historic sites, as well as Native American
tribal lands, now lie submerged under reservoirs for the CVP, which has received heavy criticism for promoting high-water-demand irrigated industrial farming that in turn has polluted rivers and groundwater
. USBR has also been known to stretch the boundaries of many state and federal regulations in its operations of the CVP. The Central Valley Project Improvement Act, passed in 1992, intends to alleviate some of the problems associated with the CVP.
In recent years, a combination of drought
and regulatory decisions passed based on the Endangered Species Act of 1973 have forced Reclamation to turn off much of the water for the west side of the San Joaquin Valley in order to protect the fragile ecosystem in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta and keep alive the dwindling fish populations of Central Valley rivers.
and the California Coast Ranges, and passes about 7400000 acre.ft of water annually through its canals. Of the water transported, about 5000000 acre.ft goes to about 3000000 acres (12,140.6 km²) of irrigated agricultural fields, 600000 acre.ft supplies municipal uses, and 800000 acre.ft is released into rivers and wetlands in order to comply with state and federal ecological standards.
Two large reservoirs, Shasta Lake
and Trinity Lake
, are formed by a pair of dams in the mountains north of the Sacramento Valley
. Water from both of these lakes are released into the Sacramento River
, which flows to the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, at controlled rates. There, before it can flow on to San Francisco Bay
and the Pacific Ocean
, some of the water is intercepted by a diversion channel and transported to the Delta-Mendota Canal
, which conveys water southwards through the San Joaquin Valley, supplying water to San Luis Reservoir
(a SWP-shared facility) and the San Joaquin River
at Mendota Pool in the process, eventually reaching canals that irrigates farms in the valley. Friant Dam
crosses the San Joaquin River upstream of Mendota Pool, diverting its water southwards into canals that travel into the Tulare Lake
area of the San Joaquin Valley, as far south as the Kern River
. Finally, New Melones Lake
, a separate facility, stores water flow of a San Joaquin River tributary for use during dry periods. Other smaller, independent facilities exist to provide water to local irrigation districts.
, which drains the northern part, receives between 60-75% of the precipitation in the Valley, despite the Sacramento Valley covering less area than the much larger San Joaquin Valley, drained by the San Joaquin River
, which receives only about 25% of the rainfall. Furthermore, cities drawing water from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta faced problems in dry summer and autumn months when the inflowing water was low. In order to continue to sustain the valley's economy, there needed to be systems to regulate flows in the rivers and equally distribute water among the north and south parts of the valley.
In 1873, Barton S. Alexander
completed a report for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers that was the first attempt at creating a Central Valley Project. In 1904, the Bureau of Reclamation (then the Reclamation Service) first became interested in creating such a water project, but did not get far involved until a series of droughts and related disasters occurred in the early 1920s. The State of California passed the Central Valley Project Act in 1933, which authorized Reclamation to sell revenue bonds in order to raise about $170 million for the project. Unfortunately, because of insufficient money in the state's treasury and the coincidence with the Great Depression
, California turned to the national government for funding to build the project. This resulted in several transfers of the project between California and the federal government, and between Reclamation and the Army Corps of Engineers. The first dams and canals of the project started going up in the late 1930s, and the last facilities were completed in the early 1970s. Other features of the project were never constructed, some lie partly finished, or are still awaiting authorization.
Shasta Division consists of a pair of large dams on the Sacramento River
north of the city of Redding
. The Shasta Dam
is the primary water storage and power generating facility of the CVP. It impounds the Sacramento River to form Shasta Lake
, which can store over 4500000 acre.ft of water, and can generate 680 MW of power. Shasta Dam functions to regulate the flow of the Sacramento River so that downstream diversion dams and canals can capture the flow of the river more efficiently, and to prevent flooding in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta where many water pump facilities for San Joaquin Valley aqueducts are located. The Keswick Dam functions as an afterbay (regulating reservoir) for the Shasta Dam, also generating power.
The Sacramento Canals Division of the CVP takes water from the Sacramento River much farther downstream of the Shasta and Keswick Dams. Diversion dam
s, pumping plants, and aqueducts provide municipal water supply as well as irrigation of about 98000 acres (396.6 km²). The Red Bluff Diversion Dam diverts part of the Sacramento River into the 110 miles (177 km) Tehama-Colusa Canal, the Corning Canal and a small reservoir formed by Funks Dam. Five pump plants take water from the canal and feed it to the Colusa County
water distribution grid.
into the Sacramento River drainage downstream of Shasta Dam in order to provide more flow in the Sacramento River and generating peaking power in the process. Trinity Dam
forms Trinity Lake
, the second largest CVP water-storage reservoir, with just over half the capacity of Shasta and a generating capacity of 140 MW. Lewiston Dam, downstream of Trinity Dam, diverts water into the Clear Creek Tunnel, which travels to empty into a third reservoir, Whiskeytown Lake
on Clear Creek
, a tributary of the Sacramento River, generating 154 MW of power in the process. Whiskeytown Lake (formed by Clair. A Hill Whiskeytown Dam) in turn provides water to the Spring Creek Tunnel, which travels into the lowermost extreme of Spring Creek, a stream that flows into Keswick Reservoir, generating another 180 MW of electricity. From there the water from the Trinity River empties into Keswick Reservoir and the Sacramento River. In 1963, the Spring Creek Debris Dam was constructed just upstream of the outlet of the Spring Creek Tunnel, to prevent acid mine drainage
from the Iron Mountain Mine
from continuing downstream and contaminating the river.
The American River Division is located in north-central California, on the east side of the Great Central Valley. Its structures use the water of the American River
, which drains off the Sierra Nevada
and flows into the Sacramento River
. The division is further divided into three units: the Folsom, Sly Park and Auburn-Folsom South. The American River Division stores water in the American River watershed, to both provide water supply for local settlements, and supply it to the rest of the system. The dams also are an important flood control measure. Hydroelectricity
is generated at Folsom and Nimbus dams, and marketed to the Western Area Power Administration
.
The Folsom Unit consists of Folsom Dam
, its primary water storage component, and Nimbus Dam
, which serves as its downstream forebay. The Folsom Dam is located on the American River, and stores 1010000 acre.ft of water in its tailwater, Folsom Lake
. Folsom Lake covers 11550 acres (46.7 km²) and is located inside the Folsom Lake State Recreational Area. Eight additional earthfill saddle dams are required to keep the reservoir from overflowing. The dam also generates 200 MW from three generators. About 7 miles (11.3 km) downstream of Folsom Dam is the Nimbus Dam
, forming Lake Natoma
. The dam generates 7.7 MW from two Kaplan turbine
s on the north side of the river. The Nimbus Fish Hatchery is located downstream of Nimbus Dam, to compensate for the two dams' destruction of American River spawning grounds.
The Sly Park Unit includes Sly Park Dam
, Jenkinson Lake, the Camp Creek Diversion Dam, and two diversion tunnels. The Sly Park Dam and its similarilly-sized auxiliary dam form Jenkinson Lake, which covers 650 acres (2.6 km²). Jenkinson Lake feeds the Camino Conduit, a 5 miles (8 km) aqueduct
. The Camp Creek Diversion Dam diverts some water from Camp Creek into Jenkinson Lake.
The third unit is the Auburn-Folsom South Unit, consisting of several dams on American River tributaries. These include Sugar Pine Dam and Pipeline (supplying water to Foresthill
), and the uncompleted Folsom South Canal. The primary component of the unit, concrete thin-arch Auburn Dam
, was to be located on the North Fork of the American, but was never built because of the significant risk of earthquakes in the area, and general public opposition to the project. However, the high Foresthill Bridge
, built as part of the preliminary work for Auburn Dam, still stands. County Line Dam, about 10 miles (16.1 km) south of Folsom Dam, was also never built.
and diverts it south through a series of man-made channels, the Mokelumne River
, and other natural sloughs, marshes and distributaries. From there, the water travels to the C.W. Bill Jones Pumping Plant, which raises water into the Delta-Mendota Canal
, which in turn travels 117 miles (188.3 km) southwards to Mendota Pool on the San Joaquin River, supplying water to other CVP reservoirs about midway. A facility exists at the entrance of the pump plant in order to catch fish that would otherwise end up in the Delta-Mendota Canal. A second canal, the Contra Costa Canal
, captures freshwater near the central part of the delta, taking it 48 miles (77.2 km) southwards, distributing water to the Clayton and Ygnacio Canals in the process, and supplying water to Contra Loma Dam, eventually terminating at Martinez Reservoir.
—which has far less average flow than the Sacramento—in order to divert its water to southern Central Valley aqueducts. The Friant Dam
, completed in 1942, is the largest component of the Friant Division of the CVP. The dam crosses the San Joaquin River where it spills out of the Sierra Nevada, forming Millerton Lake
, which provides water storage for San Joaquin Valley irrigators as well as providing a diversion point for a pair of canals, the Friant-Kern Canal
and the Madera Canal
. The Friant-Kern Canal sends water southwards through the Tulare Lake
area to its terminus at Bakersfield
on the Kern River
, supplying irrigation water to Tulare
, Fresno
, and Kern
counties. The Madera Canal takes water northwards to Madera County
, emptying into the Chowchilla River
.
, a major tributary of the San Joaquin, lies the relatively independent East Side Division and New Melones Unit of the CVP. The sole component of the division/unit is New Melones Dam
, forming New Melones Lake
, which, when filled to capacity, holds nearly 2400000 acre.ft of water, about equal to the storage capacity of Trinity Lake. The dam functions to store water during dry periods and release it downstream into the northern San Joaquin Valley according to water demand. The dam generates 279 MW of power with a peaking capacity of 300 MW.
The CVP has a significant amount of facilities for storing and transporting water on the west side of the San Joaquin Valley, in the foothills of the California Coast Ranges. The West San Joaquin Division and San Luis Unit consist of several major facilities that are shared with the federal California State Water Project
(SWP). San Luis Dam
(or B.F. Sisk Dam) is the largest storage facility, holding 2000000 acre.ft of water.
Although called an offstream storage reservoir by BoR, the reservoir floods part of the San Luis Creek valley. San Luis Creek, however, is not the primary water source for the reservoir. Downstream of San Luis Reservoir is O'Neill Forebay
, which is intersected by the Delta-Mendota Canal
, a separate CVP facility. Water is pumped from the canal into the Forebay and uphill into San Luis Reservoir, which functions as an additional water source during dry periods. Water released from San Luis and O'Neill reservoirs feeds into the San Luis Canal, which ends at Kettleman City
, where it merges with the California Aqueduct
, a major SWP facility. The Coalinga or Pleasant Valley Canal is a major branch of the San Luis Canal. A pair of separate dams, Los Baños Detenton Dam and Little Panoche Detention Dam, provide flood control in the Los Baños
area. The San Luis Drain was a separate project by BoR in an attempt to keep contaminated irrigation drainage water out of the San Joaquin River, emptying into Kesterson Reservoir
where the water would evaporate or seep into the ground. Because of environmental concerns, the system was never completed.
The CVP also operates a San Felipe Division to supply water to 63500 acres (257 km²) of land in the Santa Clara Valley
west of the Coast Ranges. San Justo Dam stores water diverted from San Luis Reservoir through the Pacheco Tunnel and Hollister Conduit, which travel through the Diablo Mountains. A separate canal, the Santa Clara Tunnel and Conduit, carries water to the Santa Clara Valley.
Once, profuse runs of anadromous fish—salmon
, steelhead, and others—migrated up the Sacramento and San Joaquin Rivers to spawn in great numbers. The construction of CVP dams on the two rivers and many of their major tributaries—namely Friant Dam
and Shasta Dam
—mostly ended the once-bountiful Central Valley salmon run. From north to south, the Sacramento upriver of Shasta Dam, the American upriver of Folsom Dam, the Stanislaus upriver of New Melones Dam, and the San Joaquin upriver of Mendota
—have become inaccessible to migrating salmon. In three of these cases, it is because the dams are too high and their reservoirs too large for fish to bypass via fish ladder
s. The San Joaquin River, however, had a different fate. Almost 60 miles (96.6 km) of the river is dry because of diversions from Friant Dam and Millerton Lake
. Even downstream of Mendota, where the Delta-Mendota Canal
gives the river a new surge of water from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, irrigation runoff water, contaminated with pesticide
s and fertilizer
, has caused the river to become heavily polluted. To make matters worse, efforts by the California Department of Fish and Game
to route the San Joaquin run into the Merced River
in the 1950s failed because the salmon did not realize the Merced as their "home stream".
Not only on the San Joaquin River have CVP facilities wreaked environmental havoc. On the Sacramento River, Red Bluff Diversion Dam in Tehama County
, while not as large or as impacting as Friant Dam, also poses a barrier to the migration of anadromous fish. The fish passage facilities of the dam continually experienced problems from the beginning of operation in 1966, and introduced species that prey on young smolt
often gather at the base of the dam, ultimately reducing the population of juvenile salmon that makes it into the Pacific. Further upstream, Keswick and Shasta Dams form total barriers to fish migration. Even out of the Central Valley watershed, the CVP's diversion of water from the Trinity River
from Lewiston Dam into Whiskeytown Lake
has significantly hurt the Klamath River
tributary's salmon run. Over three-quarters of the river's flow is diverted through the Clear Creek Tunnel and away from the Trinity River, causing the river below the dam to become warm, silty, shallow and slow-flowing, attributes that hurt young salmon. Furthermore, the Trinity Dam
forms a blockade that prevents salmon from reaching about 109 miles (175.4 km) of upriver spawning grounds. In the early years of the 21st century, the Bureau of Reclamation finally began to steadily increase the water flow downstream from Lewiston Dam. While providing less water for the CVP altogether, the new flow regime allows operations to meet the line drawn by Reclamation itself in 1952 stating that at least 48% of the river's natural flow must be left untouched in order for Trinity River salmon to survive. The lack of flow in the Trinity up to then was also a violation of the authorization that Congress made over the operation of the dam. The "...legislation required that enough be left in the Trinity for in-basin needs, including preservation of the salmon fishery."
In the early years of the 21st century, the Bureau of Reclamation studied the feasibility of raising Shasta Dam. One of the proposed heights was 18.5 feet (5.6 m) greater than its current size, thus increasing the storage capacity of Shasta Lake by 636000 acre.ft. The agency also proposed a smaller raise of 6.5 feet (2 m) that would add 290000 acre.ft. Previously, a 200 feet (61 m) raise of the dam, increasing storage to 13890000 acre.ft, was considered, but deemed uneconomical. When Shasta Dam was first built, it was actually planned to be two hundred feet higher than it is now, but Reclamation stopped construction at its present height because of a shortage of materials and workers during World War II
. The raising of the dam would further regulate and store more Sacramento River water for dry periods, thus benefiting the entire operations of the CVP, and also generating additional power. However, the proposed height increase was fought over for many reasons. Raising the dam would cost several hundred million dollars and raise the price of irrigation water from Shasta Lake. It would drown most of the remaining land belonging to the Winnemem Wintu
tribe—90 percent of whose land already lies beneath the surface of the lake—and flood several miles of the McCloud River
, protected under National Wild and Scenic River
status. Buildings, bridges, roads and other structures would have to be relocated. The added capacity of the reservoir would change flow fluctuations in the lower Sacramento River, and native fish populations, especially salmon, would suffer with the subsequent changes to the ecology of the river.
New Melones Dam
has come under even greater controversy than Shasta Dam, mainly because of the project's conflicts with federal and state limits and its impact on the watershed of the Stanislaus River
. The original Melones Dam, submerged underneath New Melones Lake (hence the name New Melones Dam) is the source of one of these problems. The disused Melones Dam blocks cold water at the bottom of the lake from reaching the river, especially in dry years when the surface of the lake is closer to the crest of the old dam. This results in the river below the dam attaining a much higher temperature than usual, hurting native fish and wildlife. To solve this problem, Reclamation shuts off operations of the dam's hydroelectric power plant when water levels are drastically low, but this results in power shortages. Originally, after the dam was constructed, the State of California put filling the reservoir on hold because of enormous public opposition to what was being inundated: the limestone
canyon behind the dam, the deepest of its kind in the United States, contained hundreds of archaeological and historic sites and one of California's best and most popular whitewater rafting runs. Thus the reservoir extended only to Parrot's Ferry Bridge, 9 miles (14.5 km) below its maximum upriver limit, until the El Niño event of 1982-1983, which filled it to capacity within weeks and even forced Reclamation to open the emergency spillways, prompting the state and federal governments to repeal the limits they had imposed on the reservoir. Furthermore, the project allows a far smaller sustainable water yield than originally expected, and Reclamation calls the dam "a case study of all that can go wrong with a project".
In response to these environmental problems, Congress passed in 1992 the Central Valley Project Improvement Act (CVPIA), Title 34 of Public Law 102-575, to change water management practices in the CVP in order to lessen the ecological impact on the San Joaquin and Sacramento Rivers. Actions mandated included the release of more water to supply rivers and wetlands, funding for habitat restoration work (especially for anadromous fish spawning gravels), water temperature control, water conservation, fish passage, increasing the service area of the CVP's canals, and other items.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
state
U.S. state
A U.S. state is any one of the 50 federated states of the United States of America that share sovereignty with the federal government. Because of this shared sovereignty, an American is a citizen both of the federal entity and of his or her state of domicile. Four states use the official title of...
of California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
. It was devised in 1933 in order to provide irrigation and municipal water to much of California's Central Valley—by regulating and storing water in reservoirs in the water-rich northern half of the state, and transporting it to the water-poor San Joaquin Valley
San Joaquin Valley
The San Joaquin Valley is the area of the Central Valley of California that lies south of the Sacramento – San Joaquin River Delta in Stockton...
and its surroundings by means of a series of canals, aqueducts and pump plants, some shared with the California State Water Project
California State Water Project
The California State Water Project, commonly known as the SWP , is 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...
. Many CVP water users are represented by the Central Valley Project Water Association
Central Valley Project Water Association
The Central Valley Project Water Association represents water users that have long-term contracts with the Bureau of Reclamation and receive their water from the Central Valley Project, which operates many dams and canals in California....
.
In addition to water storage and regulation, the system produces several thousand megawatts of hydroelectric power, provides recreation
Recreation
Recreation is an activity of leisure, leisure being discretionary time. The "need to do something for recreation" is an essential element of human biology and psychology. Recreational activities are often done for enjoyment, amusement, or pleasure and are considered to be "fun"...
, and promotes flood control
Flood control
In communications, flood control is a feature of many communication protocols designed to prevent overwhelming of a destination receiver. Such controls can be implemented either in software or in hardware, and will often request that the message be resent after the receiver has finished...
with its twenty dams and reservoirs. It has allowed major cities to grow along rivers in the Valley which previously would flood each spring, and transformed the semi-arid
Semi-arid
A semi-arid climate or steppe climate describes climatic regions that receive precipitation below potential evapotranspiration, but not extremely...
desert
Desert
A desert is a landscape or region that receives an extremely low amount of precipitation, less than enough to support growth of most plants. Most deserts have an average annual precipitation of less than...
environment of the San Joaquin Valley into productive farmland. Freshwater stored in Sacramento River
Sacramento River
The Sacramento River is an important watercourse of Northern and Central California in the United States. The largest river in California, it rises on the eastern slopes of the Klamath Mountains, and after a journey south of over , empties into Suisun Bay, an arm of the San Francisco Bay, and...
reservoirs and released downriver during dry periods prevents salt water from intruding into the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta during high tide
High Tide
High Tide was a band formed in 1969 by Tony Hill , Simon House , Peter Pavli and Roger Hadden .-History:...
. There are eight divisions of the project and ten corresponding units, many of which operate in conjunction, while others are independent of the rest of the network. California agriculture and related industries now directly account for 7% of the gross state product for which the CVP supplied water for about half.
Despite the benefits of the Project, many CVP operations have resulted in disastrous environmental and historical consequences. The salmon
Salmon
Salmon is the common name for several species of fish in the family Salmonidae. Several other fish in the same family are called trout; the difference is often said to be that salmon migrate and trout are resident, but this distinction does not strictly hold true...
population in four major California rivers have declined as a result, and many natural river environments, such as riparian zone
Riparian zone
A riparian zone or riparian area is the interface between land and a river or stream. Riparian is also the proper nomenclature for one of the fifteen terrestrial biomes of the earth. Plant habitats and communities along the river margins and banks are called riparian vegetation, characterized by...
s, meander
Meander
A meander in general is a bend in a sinuous watercourse. A meander is formed when the moving water in a stream erodes the outer banks and widens its valley. A stream of any volume may assume a meandering course, alternately eroding sediments from the outside of a bend and depositing them on the...
s and sandbars no longer exist. Many archaeological and historic sites, as well as Native American
Indigenous peoples of the Americas
The indigenous peoples of the Americas are the pre-Columbian inhabitants of North and South America, their descendants and other ethnic groups who are identified with those peoples. Indigenous peoples are known in Canada as Aboriginal peoples, and in the United States as Native Americans...
tribal lands, now lie submerged under reservoirs for the CVP, which has received heavy criticism for promoting high-water-demand irrigated industrial farming that in turn has polluted rivers and groundwater
Groundwater
Groundwater is water located beneath the ground surface in soil pore spaces and in the fractures of rock formations. A unit of rock or an unconsolidated deposit is called an aquifer when it can yield a usable quantity of water. The depth at which soil pore spaces or fractures and voids in rock...
. USBR has also been known to stretch the boundaries of many state and federal regulations in its operations of the CVP. The Central Valley Project Improvement Act, passed in 1992, intends to alleviate some of the problems associated with the CVP.
In recent years, a combination of drought
Drought
A drought is an extended period of months or years when a region notes a deficiency in its water supply. Generally, this occurs when a region receives consistently below average precipitation. It can have a substantial impact on the ecosystem and agriculture of the affected region...
and regulatory decisions passed based on the Endangered Species Act of 1973 have forced Reclamation to turn off much of the water for the west side of the San Joaquin Valley in order to protect the fragile ecosystem in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta and keep alive the dwindling fish populations of Central Valley rivers.
Operations
The CVP stores about 13000000 acre.ft of water in 20 reservoirs in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada, the Klamath MountainsKlamath Mountains
The Klamath Mountains, which include the Siskiyou, Marble, Scott, Trinity, Trinity Alps, Salmon, and northern Yolla-Bolly Mountains, are a rugged lightly populated mountain range in northwest California and southwest Oregon in the United States...
and the California Coast Ranges, and passes about 7400000 acre.ft of water annually through its canals. Of the water transported, about 5000000 acre.ft goes to about 3000000 acres (12,140.6 km²) of irrigated agricultural fields, 600000 acre.ft supplies municipal uses, and 800000 acre.ft is released into rivers and wetlands in order to comply with state and federal ecological standards.
Two large reservoirs, Shasta Lake
Shasta Lake
Shasta Lake, also called Lake Shasta, is an artificial lake created by the construction of Shasta Dam across the Sacramento River in the Shasta-Trinity National Forest of Shasta County, California...
and Trinity Lake
Trinity Lake
Trinity Lake, previously called Clair Engle Lake, is a lake on the Trinity River formed by the Trinity Dam and located in Trinity County, California, The dam was built by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation. The lake has a capacity of , making it one of the largest reservoirs in California. The lake's...
, are formed by a pair of dams in the mountains north of the Sacramento Valley
Sacramento Valley
The Sacramento Valley is the portion of the California Central Valley that lies to the north of the San Joaquin-Sacramento Delta in the U.S. state of California. It encompasses all or parts of ten counties.-Geography:...
. Water from both of these lakes are released into the Sacramento River
Sacramento River
The Sacramento River is an important watercourse of Northern and Central California in the United States. The largest river in California, it rises on the eastern slopes of the Klamath Mountains, and after a journey south of over , empties into Suisun Bay, an arm of the San Francisco Bay, and...
, which flows to the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, at controlled rates. There, before it can flow on to San Francisco Bay
San Francisco Bay
San Francisco Bay is a shallow, productive estuary through which water draining from approximately forty percent of California, flowing in the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers from the Sierra Nevada mountains, enters the Pacific Ocean...
and the Pacific Ocean
Pacific Ocean
The Pacific Ocean is the largest of the Earth's oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic in the north to the Southern Ocean in the south, bounded by Asia and Australia in the west, and the Americas in the east.At 165.2 million square kilometres in area, this largest division of the World...
, some of the water is intercepted by a diversion channel and transported to the Delta-Mendota Canal
Delta-Mendota Canal
The Delta–Mendota Canal is a aqueduct in central California. It is part of the Central Valley Project and its purpose is to replace the water in the San Joaquin River that is diverted into Madera Canal and Friant-Kern Canal at Friant Dam. The canal begins at the C.W. Bill Jones Pumping Plant ,...
, which conveys water southwards through the San Joaquin Valley, supplying water to San Luis Reservoir
San Luis Reservoir
The San Luis Reservoir is an off-stream artificial lake in the eastern slopes of the Diablo Range of Merced County, California, approximately west of Los Banos on State Route 152, which crosses Pacheco Pass and runs along its north shore. The reservoir stores water taken from the San...
(a SWP-shared facility) and the San Joaquin River
San Joaquin River
The San Joaquin River is the largest river of Central California in the United States. At over long, the river starts in the high Sierra Nevada, and flows through a rich agricultural region known as the San Joaquin Valley before reaching Suisun Bay, San Francisco Bay, and the Pacific Ocean...
at Mendota Pool in the process, eventually reaching canals that irrigates farms in the valley. Friant Dam
Friant Dam
Friant Dam is a concrete gravity dam on the upper San Joaquin River in the Sierra Nevada foothills of Fresno County and Madera County near the town of Friant. The dam, completed in 1942, forms Millerton Lake and was built by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, which owns and operates the dam. The lake...
crosses the San Joaquin River upstream of Mendota Pool, diverting its water southwards into canals that travel into the Tulare Lake
Tulare Lake
Tulare Lake, named Laguna de Tache by the Spanish, is a fresh-water dry lake with residual wetlands and marshes in southern San Joaquin Valley, California...
area of the San Joaquin Valley, as far south as the Kern River
Kern River
The Kern River is a river in the U.S. state of California, approximately long. It drains an area of the southern Sierra Nevada mountains northeast of Bakersfield. Fed by snowmelt near Mount Whitney, the river passes through scenic canyons in the mountains and is a popular destination for...
. Finally, New Melones Lake
New Melones Lake
New Melones Lake is an artificial lake in the central Sierra Nevada foothills of Calaveras- and Tuolumne County, California near Jamestown. This reservoir created by the construction of the New Melones Dam across the Stanislaus River has a capacity with a surface area of...
, a separate facility, stores water flow of a San Joaquin River tributary for use during dry periods. Other smaller, independent facilities exist to provide water to local irrigation districts.
History
Despite the rich soils and favorable weather of the 42000 square miles (108,779.5 km²) Central Valley, inhabitants of the valley who were unfamiliar with its natural rainfall patterns and started to practice intense irrigated agriculture on the arid land soon found themselves troubled by frequent floods in the Sacramento Valley and a general lack of water in the San Joaquin Valley. The Sacramento RiverSacramento River
The Sacramento River is an important watercourse of Northern and Central California in the United States. The largest river in California, it rises on the eastern slopes of the Klamath Mountains, and after a journey south of over , empties into Suisun Bay, an arm of the San Francisco Bay, and...
, which drains the northern part, receives between 60-75% of the precipitation in the Valley, despite the Sacramento Valley covering less area than the much larger San Joaquin Valley, drained by the San Joaquin River
San Joaquin River
The San Joaquin River is the largest river of Central California in the United States. At over long, the river starts in the high Sierra Nevada, and flows through a rich agricultural region known as the San Joaquin Valley before reaching Suisun Bay, San Francisco Bay, and the Pacific Ocean...
, which receives only about 25% of the rainfall. Furthermore, cities drawing water from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta faced problems in dry summer and autumn months when the inflowing water was low. In order to continue to sustain the valley's economy, there needed to be systems to regulate flows in the rivers and equally distribute water among the north and south parts of the valley.
In 1873, Barton S. Alexander
Barton S. Alexander
Barton Stone Alexander was an American engineer commander during the American Civil War who rose to the brevet rank of brigadier general in the regular army. He was a graduate of the U.S...
completed a report for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers that was the first attempt at creating a Central Valley Project. In 1904, the Bureau of Reclamation (then the Reclamation Service) first became interested in creating such a water project, but did not get far involved until a series of droughts and related disasters occurred in the early 1920s. The State of California passed the Central Valley Project Act in 1933, which authorized Reclamation to sell revenue bonds in order to raise about $170 million for the project. Unfortunately, because of insufficient money in the state's treasury and the coincidence with the Great Depression
Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
, California turned to the national government for funding to build the project. This resulted in several transfers of the project between California and the federal government, and between Reclamation and the Army Corps of Engineers. The first dams and canals of the project started going up in the late 1930s, and the last facilities were completed in the early 1970s. Other features of the project were never constructed, some lie partly finished, or are still awaiting authorization.
Sacramento River
Sacramento River
The Sacramento River is an important watercourse of Northern and Central California in the United States. The largest river in California, it rises on the eastern slopes of the Klamath Mountains, and after a journey south of over , empties into Suisun Bay, an arm of the San Francisco Bay, and...
north of the city of Redding
Redding, California
Redding is a city in far-Northern California. It is the county seat of Shasta County, California, USA. With a population of 89,861, according to the 2010 Census...
. The Shasta Dam
Shasta Dam
Shasta Dam is an arch dam across the Sacramento River in the northern part of the U.S. state of California, at the north end of the Sacramento Valley. The dam mainly serves long-term water storage and flood control in its reservoir, Shasta Lake, and also generates hydroelectric power...
is the primary water storage and power generating facility of the CVP. It impounds the Sacramento River to form Shasta Lake
Shasta Lake
Shasta Lake, also called Lake Shasta, is an artificial lake created by the construction of Shasta Dam across the Sacramento River in the Shasta-Trinity National Forest of Shasta County, California...
, which can store over 4500000 acre.ft of water, and can generate 680 MW of power. Shasta Dam functions to regulate the flow of the Sacramento River so that downstream diversion dams and canals can capture the flow of the river more efficiently, and to prevent flooding in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta where many water pump facilities for San Joaquin Valley aqueducts are located. The Keswick Dam functions as an afterbay (regulating reservoir) for the Shasta Dam, also generating power.
The Sacramento Canals Division of the CVP takes water from the Sacramento River much farther downstream of the Shasta and Keswick Dams. Diversion dam
Diversion dam
A diversion dam is the term for a dam that diverts all or a portion of the flow of a river from its natural course. Diversion dams do not generally impound water in a reservoir...
s, pumping plants, and aqueducts provide municipal water supply as well as irrigation of about 98000 acres (396.6 km²). The Red Bluff Diversion Dam diverts part of the Sacramento River into the 110 miles (177 km) Tehama-Colusa Canal, the Corning Canal and a small reservoir formed by Funks Dam. Five pump plants take water from the canal and feed it to the Colusa County
Colusa County, California
Colusa County is a county located in the Central Valley of the U.S. state of California, northwest of state capital Sacramento. As of the 2010 census, its population was 21,419. The county seat is Colusa.-History:...
water distribution grid.
Trinity River
Trinity River Division is the second large CVP department for the northern Sacramento Valley. The primary purpose of the division is to divert water from the Trinity RiverTrinity River (California)
The Trinity River is the longest tributary of the Klamath River, approximately long, in northwestern California in the United States. It drains an area of the Coast Ranges, including the southern Klamath Mountains, northwest of the Sacramento Valley...
into the Sacramento River drainage downstream of Shasta Dam in order to provide more flow in the Sacramento River and generating peaking power in the process. Trinity Dam
Trinity Dam
Trinity Dam is an earth dam on the Trinity River that forms Trinity Lake near Weaverville, California. Trinity Lake was previously called Clair Engle Lake. The earthfill dam was built by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation. Construction was completed in 1962. Trinity Lake has a capacity of , making it...
forms Trinity Lake
Trinity Lake
Trinity Lake, previously called Clair Engle Lake, is a lake on the Trinity River formed by the Trinity Dam and located in Trinity County, California, The dam was built by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation. The lake has a capacity of , making it one of the largest reservoirs in California. The lake's...
, the second largest CVP water-storage reservoir, with just over half the capacity of Shasta and a generating capacity of 140 MW. Lewiston Dam, downstream of Trinity Dam, diverts water into the Clear Creek Tunnel, which travels to empty into a third reservoir, Whiskeytown Lake
Whiskeytown Lake
Whiskeytown Lake is a lake in Shasta County in northwestern California, about west of Redding. The lake is in the Whiskeytown Unit of the Whiskeytown-Shasta-Trinity National Recreation Area. It has a capacity of and is formed by Whiskeytown Dam on Clear Creek...
on Clear Creek
Clear Creek (California)
Clear Creek is a tributary of the Sacramento River. It is long and is the first major tributary downstream of the Shasta Dam. The creek originates between Shasta Lake and Trinity Lake and drains into Whiskeytown Lake, which is formed by Whiskeytown Dam. Past the lake, the creek continues south...
, a tributary of the Sacramento River, generating 154 MW of power in the process. Whiskeytown Lake (formed by Clair. A Hill Whiskeytown Dam) in turn provides water to the Spring Creek Tunnel, which travels into the lowermost extreme of Spring Creek, a stream that flows into Keswick Reservoir, generating another 180 MW of electricity. From there the water from the Trinity River empties into Keswick Reservoir and the Sacramento River. In 1963, the Spring Creek Debris Dam was constructed just upstream of the outlet of the Spring Creek Tunnel, to prevent acid mine drainage
Acid mine drainage
Acid mine drainage , or acid rock drainage , refers to the outflow of acidic water from metal mines or coal mines. However, other areas where the earth has been disturbed may also contribute acid rock drainage to the environment...
from the Iron Mountain Mine
Iron Mountain Mine
Iron Mountain Mine, also known as the Richmond Mine at Iron Mountain, is a mine near Redding in Northern California. Geologically classified as a "massive sulfide ore deposit", the site was mined for iron, silver, gold, copper, zinc, and pyrite intermittently from the 1860s until 1963...
from continuing downstream and contaminating the river.
American River
American River
The American River is a California watercourse noted as the site of Sutter's Mill, northwest of Placerville, California, where gold was found in 1848, leading to the California Gold Rush...
, which drains off the Sierra Nevada
Sierra Nevada (US)
The Sierra Nevada is a mountain range in the U.S. states of California and Nevada, between the California Central Valley and the Basin and Range Province. The Sierra runs north-to-south, and is approximately across east-to-west...
and flows into the Sacramento River
Sacramento River
The Sacramento River is an important watercourse of Northern and Central California in the United States. The largest river in California, it rises on the eastern slopes of the Klamath Mountains, and after a journey south of over , empties into Suisun Bay, an arm of the San Francisco Bay, and...
. The division is further divided into three units: the Folsom, Sly Park and Auburn-Folsom South. The American River Division stores water in the American River watershed, to both provide water supply for local settlements, and supply it to the rest of the system. The dams also are an important flood control measure. Hydroelectricity
Hydroelectricity
Hydroelectricity is the term referring to electricity generated by hydropower; the production of electrical power through the use of the gravitational force of falling or flowing water. It is the most widely used form of renewable energy...
is generated at Folsom and Nimbus dams, and marketed to the Western Area Power Administration
Western Area Power Administration
The Western Area Power Administration markets and delivers hydroelectric power and related services within a 15-state region of the central and western U.S. It is one of four power marketing administrations within the U.S...
.
The Folsom Unit consists of Folsom Dam
Folsom Dam
Folsom Dam is a concrete gravity dam on the American River in Northern California, about northeast of Sacramento. Folsom Dam is high concrete and long, flanked by earthen wing dams...
, its primary water storage component, and Nimbus Dam
Nimbus Dam
The Nimbus Dam is a base load hydroelectric dam on the American River near Folsom, California. Approximately of water is retained by the dam.- External links :* fact sheet - United States Bureau of Reclamation* - parks.ca.gov...
, which serves as its downstream forebay. The Folsom Dam is located on the American River, and stores 1010000 acre.ft of water in its tailwater, Folsom Lake
Folsom Lake
Folsom Lake is a reservoir in Northern California about northeast of Sacramento in Placer, El Dorado, and Sacramento Counties. The lake is formed by Folsom Dam, constructed in 1955 to control the American River. The dam and lake are part of the Folsom Project, which also includes the Nimbus...
. Folsom Lake covers 11550 acres (46.7 km²) and is located inside the Folsom Lake State Recreational Area. Eight additional earthfill saddle dams are required to keep the reservoir from overflowing. The dam also generates 200 MW from three generators. About 7 miles (11.3 km) downstream of Folsom Dam is the Nimbus Dam
Nimbus Dam
The Nimbus Dam is a base load hydroelectric dam on the American River near Folsom, California. Approximately of water is retained by the dam.- External links :* fact sheet - United States Bureau of Reclamation* - parks.ca.gov...
, forming Lake Natoma
Lake Natoma
Lake Natoma is an intermediate lake in between Nimbus Dam and Folsom Dam.It is a recreational lake for rowing, kayaking, and swimming. Powerboats are permitted with a 5 mph no wake restriction. Lake Natoma is also home to the Sacramento State Aquatic Center, and regularly hosts West Coast College...
. The dam generates 7.7 MW from two Kaplan turbine
Kaplan turbine
The Kaplan turbine is a propeller-type water turbine which has adjustable blades. It was developed in 1913 by the Austrian professor Viktor Kaplan, who combined automatically adjusted propeller blades with automatically adjusted wicket gates to achieve efficiency over a wide range of flow and...
s on the north side of the river. The Nimbus Fish Hatchery is located downstream of Nimbus Dam, to compensate for the two dams' destruction of American River spawning grounds.
Sly Park Dam
Sly Park Dam is located near Placerville, California in the United States. The dam impounds Sly Park Creek, a tributary in the Cosumnes River watershed, to form a , reservoir called Jenkinson Lake. It was constructed as part of the American River Division of the Central Valley Project to provide...
, Jenkinson Lake, the Camp Creek Diversion Dam, and two diversion tunnels. The Sly Park Dam and its similarilly-sized auxiliary dam form Jenkinson Lake, which covers 650 acres (2.6 km²). Jenkinson Lake feeds the Camino Conduit, a 5 miles (8 km) aqueduct
Aqueduct
An aqueduct is a water supply or navigable channel constructed to convey water. In modern engineering, the term is used for any system of pipes, ditches, canals, tunnels, and other structures used for this purpose....
. The Camp Creek Diversion Dam diverts some water from Camp Creek into Jenkinson Lake.
The third unit is the Auburn-Folsom South Unit, consisting of several dams on American River tributaries. These include Sugar Pine Dam and Pipeline (supplying water to Foresthill
Foresthill, California
Foresthill is a census-designated place in Placer County, California, United States. It is part of the Sacramento–Arden-Arcade–Roseville Metropolitan Statistical Area...
), and the uncompleted Folsom South Canal. The primary component of the unit, concrete thin-arch Auburn Dam
Auburn Dam
Auburn Dam was a proposed dam on the North Fork of the American River east of the town of Auburn, California in the United States, on the border of Placer and El Dorado Counties. Slated to be completed in the 1970s by the U.S...
, was to be located on the North Fork of the American, but was never built because of the significant risk of earthquakes in the area, and general public opposition to the project. However, the high Foresthill Bridge
Foresthill Bridge
The Foresthill Bridge over the North Fork of the American River is the highest bridge in the U.S. state of California. It is sometimes referred to as the Auburn-Foresthill Bridge or the Auburn Bridge....
, built as part of the preliminary work for Auburn Dam, still stands. County Line Dam, about 10 miles (16.1 km) south of Folsom Dam, was also never built.
Delta and canal system
One of the most important parts of the CVP's San Joaquin Valley water system is the series of aqueducts and pumping plants that take water from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta and send it southwards to supply farms and cities. The Delta Cross Channel intercepts Sacramento River water as it travels westwards towards Suisun BaySuisun Bay
Suisun Bay is a shallow tidal estuary at in northern California, USA. It lies at the confluence of the Sacramento and San Joaquin Rivers, forming the entrance to the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, an inverted river delta...
and diverts it south through a series of man-made channels, the Mokelumne River
Mokelumne River
The Mokelumne River is a river in Northern California. The Upper Mokelumne River originates in the Sierra Nevada mountain range and flows into Pardee Reservoir and then Camanche Reservoir in the Sierra foothills. The Lower Mokelumne River refers to the portion of the river below Camanche Dam...
, and other natural sloughs, marshes and distributaries. From there, the water travels to the C.W. Bill Jones Pumping Plant, which raises water into the Delta-Mendota Canal
Delta-Mendota Canal
The Delta–Mendota Canal is a aqueduct in central California. It is part of the Central Valley Project and its purpose is to replace the water in the San Joaquin River that is diverted into Madera Canal and Friant-Kern Canal at Friant Dam. The canal begins at the C.W. Bill Jones Pumping Plant ,...
, which in turn travels 117 miles (188.3 km) southwards to Mendota Pool on the San Joaquin River, supplying water to other CVP reservoirs about midway. A facility exists at the entrance of the pump plant in order to catch fish that would otherwise end up in the Delta-Mendota Canal. A second canal, the Contra Costa Canal
Contra Costa Canal
The Contra Costa Canal is a aqueduct in the U.S. state of California. It is part of the Central Valley Project managed by the United States Bureau of Reclamation to divert Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta water as far as Martinez, California in Central Contra Costa County. The Contra Costa Canal is...
, captures freshwater near the central part of the delta, taking it 48 miles (77.2 km) southwards, distributing water to the Clayton and Ygnacio Canals in the process, and supplying water to Contra Loma Dam, eventually terminating at Martinez Reservoir.
San Joaquin River
The CVP also has several dams on the San Joaquin RiverSan Joaquin River
The San Joaquin River is the largest river of Central California in the United States. At over long, the river starts in the high Sierra Nevada, and flows through a rich agricultural region known as the San Joaquin Valley before reaching Suisun Bay, San Francisco Bay, and the Pacific Ocean...
—which has far less average flow than the Sacramento—in order to divert its water to southern Central Valley aqueducts. The Friant Dam
Friant Dam
Friant Dam is a concrete gravity dam on the upper San Joaquin River in the Sierra Nevada foothills of Fresno County and Madera County near the town of Friant. The dam, completed in 1942, forms Millerton Lake and was built by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, which owns and operates the dam. The lake...
, completed in 1942, is the largest component of the Friant Division of the CVP. The dam crosses the San Joaquin River where it spills out of the Sierra Nevada, forming Millerton Lake
Millerton Lake
Millerton Lake is an artificial lake near the town of Friant about north of downtown Fresno. The reservoir was created by the construction of Friant Dam on the San Joaquin River which with the lake serves as much of the county line between Fresno County to the south and Madera County to the...
, which provides water storage for San Joaquin Valley irrigators as well as providing a diversion point for a pair of canals, the Friant-Kern Canal
Friant-Kern Canal
The Friant-Kern Canal is a Central Valley Project aqueduct managed by the United States Bureau of Reclamation in Central California to convey water to augment irrigation capacity in Fresno, Tulare, and Kern counties....
and the Madera Canal
Madera Canal
The Madera Canal is a aqueduct in the U.S. state of California. It is part of the Central Valley Project managed by the United States Bureau of Reclamation to convey water north to augment irrigation capacity in Madera County, California. It was also the subject of the United States Supreme...
. The Friant-Kern Canal sends water southwards through the Tulare Lake
Tulare Lake
Tulare Lake, named Laguna de Tache by the Spanish, is a fresh-water dry lake with residual wetlands and marshes in southern San Joaquin Valley, California...
area to its terminus at Bakersfield
Bakersfield, California
Bakersfield is a city near the southern end of the San Joaquin Valley in Kern County, California. It is roughly equidistant between Fresno and Los Angeles, to the north and south respectively....
on the Kern River
Kern River
The Kern River is a river in the U.S. state of California, approximately long. It drains an area of the southern Sierra Nevada mountains northeast of Bakersfield. Fed by snowmelt near Mount Whitney, the river passes through scenic canyons in the mountains and is a popular destination for...
, supplying irrigation water to Tulare
Tulare County, California
Tulare County is a county located in the Central Valley of the U.S. state of California, south of Fresno. Sequoia National Park is located in the county, as are part of Kings Canyon National Park, in its northeast corner , and part of Mount Whitney, on its eastern border...
, Fresno
Fresno County, California
Fresno County is a county located in the Central Valley of the U.S. state of California, south of Stockton and north of Bakersfield. As of the 2010 census, it is the tenth most populous county in California with a population of 930,450, and the sixth largest in size with an area of . The county...
, and Kern
Kern County, California
Spreading across the southern end of the California Central Valley, Kern County is the fifth-largest county by population in California. Its economy is heavily linked to agriculture and to petroleum extraction, and there is a strong aviation and space presence. Politically, it has generally...
counties. The Madera Canal takes water northwards to Madera County
Madera County, California
Madera County is a county of the U.S. state of California, located in the Central Valley and the Sierra Nevada north of Fresno County. It comprises the Madera-Chowchilla, CA Metropolitan Statistical Area. As of the 2010 census the population was 150,865...
, emptying into the Chowchilla River
Chowchilla River
The Chowchilla River is a river in central California and a minor tributary of the San Joaquin River. It flows for from the western side of the Sierra Nevada Range to the San Joaquin River system...
.
Stanislaus River
On the Stanislaus RiverStanislaus River
The Stanislaus River in California is one of the largest tributaries of the San Joaquin River. The river is long and has north, middle and south forks...
, a major tributary of the San Joaquin, lies the relatively independent East Side Division and New Melones Unit of the CVP. The sole component of the division/unit is New Melones Dam
New Melones Dam
New Melones Dam is an earth and rock filled dam across the Stanislaus River creating New Melones Lake. Situated between Calaveras and Tuolumne County, California in the Sierra Nevada foothills near Jamestown, the dam was completed in 1979 replacing the old Melones Dam.-Background:The dam was...
, forming New Melones Lake
New Melones Lake
New Melones Lake is an artificial lake in the central Sierra Nevada foothills of Calaveras- and Tuolumne County, California near Jamestown. This reservoir created by the construction of the New Melones Dam across the Stanislaus River has a capacity with a surface area of...
, which, when filled to capacity, holds nearly 2400000 acre.ft of water, about equal to the storage capacity of Trinity Lake. The dam functions to store water during dry periods and release it downstream into the northern San Joaquin Valley according to water demand. The dam generates 279 MW of power with a peaking capacity of 300 MW.
Offstream storage and aqueducts
California State Water Project
The California State Water Project, commonly known as the SWP , is 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...
(SWP). San Luis Dam
San Luis Dam
San Luis Dam is a dam that creates San Luis Reservoir, which serves as an off-stream reservoir for the California State Water Project and the Central Valley Project. It is also known as the B.F. Sisk Dam, after Bernie Sisk. The earth-fill gravity embankment dam is 305 feet tall and was completed...
(or B.F. Sisk Dam) is the largest storage facility, holding 2000000 acre.ft of water.
Although called an offstream storage reservoir by BoR, the reservoir floods part of the San Luis Creek valley. San Luis Creek, however, is not the primary water source for the reservoir. Downstream of San Luis Reservoir is O'Neill Forebay
O'Neill Forebay
O'Neill Forebay is a forebay to the San Luis Reservoir created by the construction of O'Neill Dam across San Luis Creek approximately west of Los Banos, California, on the eastern slopes of the Pacific Coast Ranges of Merced County.-Background:...
, which is intersected by the Delta-Mendota Canal
Delta-Mendota Canal
The Delta–Mendota Canal is a aqueduct in central California. It is part of the Central Valley Project and its purpose is to replace the water in the San Joaquin River that is diverted into Madera Canal and Friant-Kern Canal at Friant Dam. The canal begins at the C.W. Bill Jones Pumping Plant ,...
, a separate CVP facility. Water is pumped from the canal into the Forebay and uphill into San Luis Reservoir, which functions as an additional water source during dry periods. Water released from San Luis and O'Neill reservoirs feeds into the San Luis Canal, which ends at Kettleman City
Kettleman City, California
Kettleman City is a census-designated place in Kings County, California, United States. Kettleman City is located southwest of Hanford, at an elevation of 253 feet . It is part of the Hanford–Corcoran Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 1,439 at the 2010 census, down from...
, where it merges with the California Aqueduct
California Aqueduct
The Governor Edmund G. Brown California Aqueduct is a system of canals, tunnels, and pipelines that conveys water collected from the Sierra Nevada Mountains and valleys of Northern- and Central California to Southern California. The Department of Water Resources operates and maintains the...
, a major SWP facility. The Coalinga or Pleasant Valley Canal is a major branch of the San Luis Canal. A pair of separate dams, Los Baños Detenton Dam and Little Panoche Detention Dam, provide flood control in the Los Baños
Los Banos, California
Los Banos is a city in Merced County, California, near the junction of State Route 152 and Interstate 5. Los Banos is located southwest of Merced, at an elevation of 118 feet . The population was 35,972 at the 2010 census, up from 25,869 at the 2000 census...
area. The San Luis Drain was a separate project by BoR in an attempt to keep contaminated irrigation drainage water out of the San Joaquin River, emptying into Kesterson Reservoir
Kesterson Reservoir
The Kesterson Reservoir is the name of a former unit of the Kesterson National Wildlife Refuge which is part of the current San Luis National Wildlife Refuge...
where the water would evaporate or seep into the ground. Because of environmental concerns, the system was never completed.
The CVP also operates a San Felipe Division to supply water to 63500 acres (257 km²) of land in the Santa Clara Valley
Santa Clara Valley
The Santa Clara Valley is a valley just south of the San Francisco Bay in Northern California in the United States. Much of Santa Clara County and its county seat, San José, are in the Santa Clara Valley. The valley was originally known as the Valley of Heart’s Delight for its high concentration...
west of the Coast Ranges. San Justo Dam stores water diverted from San Luis Reservoir through the Pacheco Tunnel and Hollister Conduit, which travel through the Diablo Mountains. A separate canal, the Santa Clara Tunnel and Conduit, carries water to the Santa Clara Valley.
Controversy
Salmon
Salmon is the common name for several species of fish in the family Salmonidae. Several other fish in the same family are called trout; the difference is often said to be that salmon migrate and trout are resident, but this distinction does not strictly hold true...
, steelhead, and others—migrated up the Sacramento and San Joaquin Rivers to spawn in great numbers. The construction of CVP dams on the two rivers and many of their major tributaries—namely Friant Dam
Friant Dam
Friant Dam is a concrete gravity dam on the upper San Joaquin River in the Sierra Nevada foothills of Fresno County and Madera County near the town of Friant. The dam, completed in 1942, forms Millerton Lake and was built by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, which owns and operates the dam. The lake...
and Shasta Dam
Shasta Dam
Shasta Dam is an arch dam across the Sacramento River in the northern part of the U.S. state of California, at the north end of the Sacramento Valley. The dam mainly serves long-term water storage and flood control in its reservoir, Shasta Lake, and also generates hydroelectric power...
—mostly ended the once-bountiful Central Valley salmon run. From north to south, the Sacramento upriver of Shasta Dam, the American upriver of Folsom Dam, the Stanislaus upriver of New Melones Dam, and the San Joaquin upriver of Mendota
Mendota, California
Mendota is a city in Fresno County, California, United States. The population was 11,014 at the 2010 census. The State Routes 180 and 33 run through the agricultural city. Mendota is located south-southeast of Firebaugh, at an elevation of 174 feet ....
—have become inaccessible to migrating salmon. In three of these cases, it is because the dams are too high and their reservoirs too large for fish to bypass via fish ladder
Fish ladder
A fish ladder, also known as a fishway, fish pass or fish steps, is a structure on or around artificial barriers to facilitate diadromous fishes' natural migration. Most fishways enable fish to pass around the barriers by swimming and leaping up a series of relatively low steps into the waters on...
s. The San Joaquin River, however, had a different fate. Almost 60 miles (96.6 km) of the river is dry because of diversions from Friant Dam and Millerton Lake
Millerton Lake
Millerton Lake is an artificial lake near the town of Friant about north of downtown Fresno. The reservoir was created by the construction of Friant Dam on the San Joaquin River which with the lake serves as much of the county line between Fresno County to the south and Madera County to the...
. Even downstream of Mendota, where the Delta-Mendota Canal
Delta-Mendota Canal
The Delta–Mendota Canal is a aqueduct in central California. It is part of the Central Valley Project and its purpose is to replace the water in the San Joaquin River that is diverted into Madera Canal and Friant-Kern Canal at Friant Dam. The canal begins at the C.W. Bill Jones Pumping Plant ,...
gives the river a new surge of water from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, irrigation runoff water, contaminated with pesticide
Pesticide
Pesticides are substances or mixture of substances intended for preventing, destroying, repelling or mitigating any pest.A pesticide may be a chemical unicycle, biological agent , antimicrobial, disinfectant or device used against any pest...
s and fertilizer
Fertilizer
Fertilizer is any organic or inorganic material of natural or synthetic origin that is added to a soil to supply one or more plant nutrients essential to the growth of plants. A recent assessment found that about 40 to 60% of crop yields are attributable to commercial fertilizer use...
, has caused the river to become heavily polluted. To make matters worse, efforts by the California Department of Fish and Game
California Department of Fish and Game
The California Department of Fish and Game is a department within the government of California, falling under its parent California Natural Resources Agency. The Department of Fish and Game manages and protects the state's diverse fish, wildlife, plant resources, and native habitats...
to route the San Joaquin run into the Merced River
Merced River
The Merced River , in the central part of the U.S. state of California, is a -long tributary of the San Joaquin River flowing from the Sierra Nevada into the Central Valley. It is most well known for its swift and steep course through the southern part of Yosemite National Park, and the...
in the 1950s failed because the salmon did not realize the Merced as their "home stream".
Not only on the San Joaquin River have CVP facilities wreaked environmental havoc. On the Sacramento River, Red Bluff Diversion Dam in Tehama County
Tehama County, California
Tehama County is a county located in the northern part of the U.S. state of California. It is bisected by the Sacramento River. As of 2010 its population was 63,463, up from 56,039 as of 2000. The county seat is Red Bluff.-History:...
, while not as large or as impacting as Friant Dam, also poses a barrier to the migration of anadromous fish. The fish passage facilities of the dam continually experienced problems from the beginning of operation in 1966, and introduced species that prey on young smolt
Smolt
Smolt may refer to:* Spawn , a juvenile fish.* Smolt , a project aimed at hardware information collection....
often gather at the base of the dam, ultimately reducing the population of juvenile salmon that makes it into the Pacific. Further upstream, Keswick and Shasta Dams form total barriers to fish migration. Even out of the Central Valley watershed, the CVP's diversion of water from the Trinity River
Trinity River (California)
The Trinity River is the longest tributary of the Klamath River, approximately long, in northwestern California in the United States. It drains an area of the Coast Ranges, including the southern Klamath Mountains, northwest of the Sacramento Valley...
from Lewiston Dam into Whiskeytown Lake
Whiskeytown Lake
Whiskeytown Lake is a lake in Shasta County in northwestern California, about west of Redding. The lake is in the Whiskeytown Unit of the Whiskeytown-Shasta-Trinity National Recreation Area. It has a capacity of and is formed by Whiskeytown Dam on Clear Creek...
has significantly hurt the Klamath River
Klamath River
The Klamath River is an American river that flows southwest through Oregon and northern California, cutting through the Cascade Range to empty into the Pacific Ocean. The river drains an extensive watershed of almost that stretches from the high desert country of the Great Basin to the temperate...
tributary's salmon run. Over three-quarters of the river's flow is diverted through the Clear Creek Tunnel and away from the Trinity River, causing the river below the dam to become warm, silty, shallow and slow-flowing, attributes that hurt young salmon. Furthermore, the Trinity Dam
Trinity Dam
Trinity Dam is an earth dam on the Trinity River that forms Trinity Lake near Weaverville, California. Trinity Lake was previously called Clair Engle Lake. The earthfill dam was built by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation. Construction was completed in 1962. Trinity Lake has a capacity of , making it...
forms a blockade that prevents salmon from reaching about 109 miles (175.4 km) of upriver spawning grounds. In the early years of the 21st century, the Bureau of Reclamation finally began to steadily increase the water flow downstream from Lewiston Dam. While providing less water for the CVP altogether, the new flow regime allows operations to meet the line drawn by Reclamation itself in 1952 stating that at least 48% of the river's natural flow must be left untouched in order for Trinity River salmon to survive. The lack of flow in the Trinity up to then was also a violation of the authorization that Congress made over the operation of the dam. The "...legislation required that enough be left in the Trinity for in-basin needs, including preservation of the salmon fishery."
In the early years of the 21st century, the Bureau of Reclamation studied the feasibility of raising Shasta Dam. One of the proposed heights was 18.5 feet (5.6 m) greater than its current size, thus increasing the storage capacity of Shasta Lake by 636000 acre.ft. The agency also proposed a smaller raise of 6.5 feet (2 m) that would add 290000 acre.ft. Previously, a 200 feet (61 m) raise of the dam, increasing storage to 13890000 acre.ft, was considered, but deemed uneconomical. When Shasta Dam was first built, it was actually planned to be two hundred feet higher than it is now, but Reclamation stopped construction at its present height because of a shortage of materials and workers during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. The raising of the dam would further regulate and store more Sacramento River water for dry periods, thus benefiting the entire operations of the CVP, and also generating additional power. However, the proposed height increase was fought over for many reasons. Raising the dam would cost several hundred million dollars and raise the price of irrigation water from Shasta Lake. It would drown most of the remaining land belonging to the Winnemem Wintu
Winnemem Wintu
The Winnemem Wintu are a band of the Native American Wintu tribe originally located along the lower McCloud River, above Shasta Dam near Redding, California.-History:...
tribe—90 percent of whose land already lies beneath the surface of the lake—and flood several miles of the McCloud River
McCloud River
The McCloud River is a river that flows east of and parallel to the Sacramento River, long, in northern California in the United States. It drains a scenic mountainous area of the Cascade Range north of Redding...
, protected under National Wild and Scenic River
National Wild and Scenic River
National Wild and Scenic River is a designation for certain protected areas in the United States.The National Wild and Scenic Rivers Act was an outgrowth of the recommendations of a Presidential commission, the Outdoor Recreation Resources Review Commission...
status. Buildings, bridges, roads and other structures would have to be relocated. The added capacity of the reservoir would change flow fluctuations in the lower Sacramento River, and native fish populations, especially salmon, would suffer with the subsequent changes to the ecology of the river.
New Melones Dam
New Melones Dam is an earth and rock filled dam across the Stanislaus River creating New Melones Lake. Situated between Calaveras and Tuolumne County, California in the Sierra Nevada foothills near Jamestown, the dam was completed in 1979 replacing the old Melones Dam.-Background:The dam was...
has come under even greater controversy than Shasta Dam, mainly because of the project's conflicts with federal and state limits and its impact on the watershed of the Stanislaus River
Stanislaus River
The Stanislaus River in California is one of the largest tributaries of the San Joaquin River. The river is long and has north, middle and south forks...
. The original Melones Dam, submerged underneath New Melones Lake (hence the name New Melones Dam) is the source of one of these problems. The disused Melones Dam blocks cold water at the bottom of the lake from reaching the river, especially in dry years when the surface of the lake is closer to the crest of the old dam. This results in the river below the dam attaining a much higher temperature than usual, hurting native fish and wildlife. To solve this problem, Reclamation shuts off operations of the dam's hydroelectric power plant when water levels are drastically low, but this results in power shortages. Originally, after the dam was constructed, the State of California put filling the reservoir on hold because of enormous public opposition to what was being inundated: the limestone
Limestone
Limestone is a sedimentary rock composed largely of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of calcium carbonate . Many limestones are composed from skeletal fragments of marine organisms such as coral or foraminifera....
canyon behind the dam, the deepest of its kind in the United States, contained hundreds of archaeological and historic sites and one of California's best and most popular whitewater rafting runs. Thus the reservoir extended only to Parrot's Ferry Bridge, 9 miles (14.5 km) below its maximum upriver limit, until the El Niño event of 1982-1983, which filled it to capacity within weeks and even forced Reclamation to open the emergency spillways, prompting the state and federal governments to repeal the limits they had imposed on the reservoir. Furthermore, the project allows a far smaller sustainable water yield than originally expected, and Reclamation calls the dam "a case study of all that can go wrong with a project".
In response to these environmental problems, Congress passed in 1992 the Central Valley Project Improvement Act (CVPIA), Title 34 of Public Law 102-575, to change water management practices in the CVP in order to lessen the ecological impact on the San Joaquin and Sacramento Rivers. Actions mandated included the release of more water to supply rivers and wetlands, funding for habitat restoration work (especially for anadromous fish spawning gravels), water temperature control, water conservation, fish passage, increasing the service area of the CVP's canals, and other items.
See also
- Rivers and Harbors ActRivers and Harbors ActRivers and Harbors Act may refer to one of many pieces of legislation and appropriations passed by the United States Congress since the first such legislation in 1824. At that time congress appropriated $75,000 to improve navigation on the Ohio and Mississippi rivers by removing sandbars, snags,...
- CALFED Bay-Delta ProgramCALFED Bay-Delta ProgramThe CALFED Bay-Delta Program, also known as CALFED, is a department within the government of California, administered under the California Resources Agency. The department acts as consortium, coordinating the activities and interests of the state government of California and the U.S...
- Cadillac DesertCadillac DesertCadillac Desert, by Marc Reisner, is a 1986 book published by Viking about land development and water policy in the western United States. Subtitled The American West and its Disappearing Water, it gives the history of the Bureau of Reclamation and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and their struggle...
- California Department of Water ResourcesCalifornia Department of Water ResourcesThe California Department of Water Resources , is a department within the California Natural Resources Agency. The Department of Water Resources is responsible for the State of California's management and regulation of water usage...