WSP05117

• File Number: 8277.200.10
• Description: California's Central Valley Project
• State: CA
• Basin: Colorado Mainstem
• Date: 9/1/1943
• Title: California's Central Valley Project
• Water Supply Pro - Doc Type: Report/Study

ing plants on an exchange basis so that the pumping plants would be assured
of power at all times. That company also offered to make "firm" any power
which the Bureau may sell to public agencies for a cost no greater than if it
were made "firm" by a project steam plant. (1)

In response to a request from the Bureau, that company also made an
offer for delivery of power at Antioch, but since, in this case, the Bureau would
be required to provide transmission facilities which would be more expensive
and would have less use in a coordinated plan, the net return to the Govern-
ment was estimated to be $900,000 less. These offers and the estimates of
revenue were based on releases of water from Shasta reservoir agreed upon in
joint studies made by engineers of the company and the Bureau. The Bureau's
engineers set up the mandatory releases required for irrigation, navigation,
salinity, and for preservation of fish life and /Iood control. and gave prefer-
ence to all those purposes before assuming any water to be released for the
generation of power. Thus, the generation of power was treated as incidental
to the other purposes.

The Federal Reclamation law provides that preference as to use shall be
given to municipal or other public agencies in the disposal of power from
reclamation projects. No information is available as to any definite proposals
to purchase power from the Bureau by such agencies and therefore the poten-
tial revenues to the project from the alternative method of power disposal to
public agencies is a matter on which little or no factual information is avail-
able. Applications for power were made to the State Water Project Authority
in 1934 by two cities, and six irrigation or utility districts, but of these only the
cities of Lodi and Redding have any distribution facilities at present.

The expressed opinion of officials of the U. S. Bureau of Reclamation has
been that the construction of transmission lines from Shasta and Keswick
Dams to Antioch and to Oroville, and the construction of a 150,000 K.W.
capacity steam plant to "firm" the power at that point are essential to opera-
tion of the project in such a manner as to obtain the largest possible revenues
from power. They state that the construction and ownership of these distribu-
tion facilities by the Bureau of Reclamation is necessary in order to serve
public agencies or to offer the threat of competition, and thereby place it in a,
more independent position to bargain with the company in any contracts en-
tered into for coordinated operation.

In September, 1943, the Secretary of Interior signed a three to five year
contract with the Pacific Gas and Electric Company for the sale of a minimum
of 800 million K.W.H. of Shasta power and the lease of the transmission line
between Shasta sub-station and Oroville. The contract is expected to yield
approximately $3,000,000 in annual revenues, of which $2,700,000 is guaran-
teed. This yield is not comparable to the estimates quoted above because initial
power installation has been limited to 150.000 kilowatts. Ultimately it will be
450,000 kilowatts.

Distribution and Sale of Water
Some of the problems remaining for solution with regard to the distribu-
tion of water from the Central Valley Project are with regard to types of
agencies or organizations to which water will be sold, at what p'rices it should
be sold for agricultural, industrial, or municipal uses, as to what new lands

(l)Statements before Senate Committee on Appropriations in 1942, and before the House Committee on
Appropriations on April 6, 1943, by James Black, President, Pacific Gas and Electric Company.

should receive water, as to how the drilling of wells to irrigate more land from
the augmented underground storage shall be controlled, and as to modifi~ation
of the Reclamation law provisions with regard to "excess lands.H. There IS also
some question as to whether the Bureau should finance and bUIld laterals to
carry water from its main canals to prospective district or other purcha~ers of
the project water. The decision on this question will, in turn, have a beanng on
the price to be paid for the water.
The question of what types of agencies shall be sold water lik~wise has a
bearing upon the question previou~ly touched upon, as to .the. collectIOn of c~m-
tributions toward repayment of reImbursable costs from mdITe~t l?eneficlanes.
If this is to be done, one of the possible methods would be to IImlt the sale of
waters to counties or to super-districts taking in all lands benefitted. One ,?f
the methods of supplying supplemental water in the Southern S~n J oaqum
Valley would be to replenish underground storage. Such operatIOns .would
require both a method of measuring and assessing such benefits, and 1f p.os-
sible, controlling unrestricted pumping draft upon these augmented supphes.

Central Valley Project Studies
The U. S. Bureau of Reclamation has established under Dr. Harlan Bar-
rows an elaborate structure of committees for the study of the various prob-
lems indicated some 24 in alL Included on these study committees are repre-
sentatives fro~ some 40 public and private agencies and org.anizations, but
they are predominantly comprised of staff members and offiCials of Federal
and State Governmental agencies.
The scope of these studies and the Committees established to work on
them are as follows:
OUTLINE OF CENTRAL V ALLEY PROJECT STUDIES
A. Project Problems and the War Program
1. Guayule Rubber
2. Food and Fibers
3. Power for War Production Plants
4. Industrial and Municipal Water
5. Construction Program
B. Project Problems and Postwar Readjustments
6. War Production Plants in the Postwar Period
7. Further Stages in the Development of the Central Valley Basin
C. Other Problems Inherent in the Project
8. Allocation of Costs to Power and Irrigation
9. Allocation to Flood Control, Navigation, Salinity Repulsi~m,.and Natio.n~l Security
10. Means of Obtaining Equitable Payments from Beneficlanes of Sahmty Control
11 Allocation of Costs to Recreational Beneficiaries
12: Means of Obtaining Equitable Payments from Businesses, Industries, and Prop-
erty Owners Generally_Benefited . .
13. Legislative Measures Needed to Make AllocatlOns EffectIve
14. Means for Encouraging Distribution of Power by Public Agencies
15. Rates and Terms for Sale of Project Power
16. Prices of Water for Different Uses
17. Types of Agencies to Which Water .Shall Be Sold. . .
18. Government Construction or Financmg of Water Dlstnbutlon Systems
19. Statutory Limit to Size of Land Holdings
20. What Lands Shall Receive Project Water, .
21. Assessment of Beneficiaries of Underground Water Supphes
22. Control of the Drilling of New Wells
23. Recreational Use of Reservoirs and Shorelines
24. Economic and Social Readjustments

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