PUB00022

• Year: 2000
• Title: Layperson's Guide to California Water
• CWCB Section: Interstate & Federal
• Author: California Water Education Foundation
• Description: Layperson's Guide to California Water
• Publications - Doc Type: Other

President Theodore
Ro()serelt (left) {Jlld John
lvl/lir pose together high
abo\'e Yosemite Valley ill
/903. Muir helped
influence Roose\'clt to
preselTC the \'alley as a
park, but he could IlOt halt
the .f7oodill~ (~lflearby
Herch Hetchy Valley.

~

The development of California's surface water
resources has been a diverse process performed
by private companies and local. state and federal
agencies, providing a variety of benefits and
probiems. On the plus side. the state has greatly
improved its navigable waterways and provided water
for homes, farms, industry, recreation and wildlife
areas. Flood control projects have prevented billions
of dollars' worth of damage and countless lost lives.
Hydropower, a relatively pollution-free source of
electricity, has helped lessen our dependence on oil,
gas and coal. The ability to deliver millions of gallons
of fresh water to the semi-arid Central Valley and
southern California has spurred great agricultural
and industrial productivity.

FIRST PROJECTS

Early on, Calitornia's two major population centers,
the Los Angeles and San Francisco Bay areas, rec-
ognized the need to augment local water supplies
and were the first to develop faraway sources.

In 1905. the city ot Los Angeles filed for water rights
on the Owens River in the eastern Sierra Nevada,
250 miles away. Under water chiet Mulholland.
municipal crews began work on a 233-mile aqueduct
capable of delivering four times more than the city
then required. The Los Angeles
Aqueduct was completed in
1913 and with the availability
of this firm water supply the
city grew. By 1920. Los Ange-
les was as populous as
San Francisco. In order to
protect its rights. Los Angeles
began purchasing land and
accompanying water rights in
the Owens Valley and convert-
ing cropland to a less water-
intensive use: cattle grazing.
Irrigated acreage in the valley
dropped from about 75.000
acres in 1920 to 23,625 acres
in 1940. Area ranchers and
businessmen feared for the
valley's agricultural future and
dynamited the aqueduct in a
futile attempt to stop the water
from flowing south.

8

The negative side of the development is that
some of California's rivers and streams, marsh-
lands and valleys. and the wildlife inhabiting these
areas, have been significantly altered or destroyed.
When the Tuolumne River was dammed in 1923
to provide water for the city of San Francisco, a
valley rivaling nearby Yosemite Valley in beauty
was lost. With stream channelization, 90 percent
of the state's original wetlands have disappeared.
Dams and agricultural diversion on the Sacramento
and San Joaquin river systems have blocked
salmon spawning migrations and reduced stream
flow eliminating salmon runs in some stretches
and threatening the continued survival of others.

With Los Angeles as landlord. the Owens Valley
developed into a recreation area with leased rather
than owner-occupied farms. Today. Los Angeles
controls nearly all the land on the valley floor. Until
recent court decisions reduced the amount of
exported water. valley water provided up to 75
percent of the city's annual supply. After years of legal
battles, Inyo County and the city of Los Angeles came
to an agreement in 1991 to jointly manage the valley's
water resources and regulate the amount of exported
water based on environmental effects. Particulates
from the dried lake bed have been shown to cause
health concerns for those in the region. In 1998. a
basin re-watering plan was instituted to reduce
particulates and improve air quality.

At the turn of the century. San Francisco was looking
at available water resources. It chose, as a
supply. the Tuolumne River that flows through the
western slopes of the Sierra Nevada. The Hetch
HetchyValley in Yosemite National Park was selected
as a dam site. Controversy over developing this
magnificent, pristine valley into a reservoir brewed
for decades. John Muir, the great conservationist and
founder of the Sierra Club. led the fight against
development. Nevertheless, a series of bond
measures was approved to build the system. and in
1913 Congress passed the Raker Act, authorizing
the Hetch Hetchy project while attempting 10 placate
conflicting interests. In 1923, with the completion of
O'Shaughnessy Dam, the Hetch Hetchy Valley was
flooded.