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FOREWORD Water conservation is fundamental to the future development of Califor- nia. The Central Valley Project will have so important an effect upon the post- war economy of this State that it warrants public attention now, even though most thought is concentrated upon the primary job of winning the war. In fact, the early completion of some of its irrigation features are being urged properly as a necessary part of the war production effort. One significant point not widely understood is the interdependence of the various individual units or features of the project, and the necessity that their development move forward together as a part of one great unit. Any extensive diversion of stored waters of the San Joaquin River at Friant Dam to other drainage basins, for example, must be predicated upon the transfer of water from the Sacramento drainage basin to replace the supplies thus diverted and the completion of the facilities for that purpose. Some months ago our Central Valley Committee called the attention of the Board of Directors of the California State Chamber of Commerce to some of the problems and issues of concern to the citizens of this State, and recom- mended that a factual report be prepared which would set forth the history of the project, the water problems it was intended to solve, the present status of its various features as to appropriations and construction, and the problems with regard to its construction and operation which re~ain to be studied and solved. The Research Department of the Chamber was requested to make this study. Their report has been reviewed and approved for publication by this Committee and by the Board of Directors of the California State Chamber of Commerce. It is presented on the following pages. FREDERICK J. KOSTER, Chairman ROBERT GoRDON SPROUL CHARLES H. SEGERSTROM C entrat Valley Committee Tf:JZOQ (2) L ! ,. i j THE CENTRAL VALLEY PROJECT I I , Historical Background California's water conservation problems have received attention throu~h. out most of the history of the State, beginning with t!]e report of a commisslOr appointed by the Secretary of War in 1873, headed by Lt. Co!. B. S. Alexan- der, and the study of water resources begun in 1878 by State Engineer Hall , A conservation project for the great central valley region of the Sacramentc and San Joaquin River drainage basins was given impetus by Colonel Robert . Marshall, Chief Hydrographer of the U. S. Geological Survey, who submitted ! to the Governor in 1919 the "Marshall Plan" of coordinated development of storage reservoirs and canals. In 1921 the State Legislature approved an ap- propriation and an act directing the State Engineer to determine a comprehen- sive plan of conservation, control, and distribution of the water resources of the State. These investigations were extended over a period of ten years, under I renewed appropriations. The final phase of this series of studies began in 1929 when the Legisla- ture appropriated $390,000 for a study and report by the State Division of Water Resources, and was concluded by a report to the Legislature of 1931 on a State Water Plan, recommending as initial units for development the major dam and canal units which now comprise the Central Valley Project. Concur- rent studies and reports were made by a Joint Federal-State Water Resources Commission and by a Legislative Committee on Water Resources. Aside from the general needs for flood control and improvement of navi- gation on the Sacramento River, there are two great immediate problems of water shortage, which, in the judgment of these official investigating bodies,. called for early action in order to save some of the most valuable and highly developed farming areas of the State from reverting to salt marsh or desert. One of these areas was in the upper San J oaquin Valley where some 400.000 acres of developed farms, principally in Tulare and Kern Counties, and to a lesser extent in Madera County, where imperiled by the overdraft of underground water supplies and could be saved from serious loss only by importation of supplemental water supplies from streams in other watersheds. The other was the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta region where some 400,000 acres of highly developed farm lands have been damaged or endangered by incursion of salt water from the San Francisco Bay, due to reduced flow of water in the Sacramento River during relatively dry years, intensified in effect by increased diversions of irrigation water by upstream water users. The compelling need for the adoption of a coordinated State plan of water development, and the construction of such initial units thereof as the Shasta Dam, the Contra Costa Canal, and the Friant Dam and Madera and Kern Canals, was to provide the supplemental water supplies necessary to maintain existing farm and industrial developments, according to these official reports. Without commitment of the State to future construction of the Delta Cross Channel and othe~ pumping and canal facilties .to transfer surplus water from th~ Sacramento RIver to the holde~s of ~ater nghts on the upper San Joaquin RIver, there was no practtcal way III whIch any current surplus waters in that stream could be stored and dive.ted to replenish supplies in the Tulare and Kern areas. (3)