General

The Central Valley Project, one of the Nation’s major water conservation developments, extends from the Cascade Range in the north to the semi-arid but fertile plains along the Kern River in the south. Initial features of the project were built primarily to protect the Central Valley from crippling water shortages and menacing floods, but the CVP also improves Sacramento River navigation, supplies domestic and industrial water, generates electric power, conserves fish and wildlife, creates opportunities for recreation and enhances water quality.

The CVP serves farms, homes and industry in California's Central Valley as well as major urban centers in the San Francisco Bay Area; it is also the primary source of water for much of California's wetlands. In addition to delivering water for farms, homes, factories and the environment, the CVP produces electric power and provides flood risk reduction, navigation, recreation and water quality benefits.

This multiple-purpose project plays a key role in California's powerful economy, providing water for 6 of the top 10 agricultural counties in the nation’s leading farm state. It has been estimated that the value of crops and related service industries has returned 100 times Congress' $3 billion investment in the CVP. About 60 percent of the cost of the CVP was allocated to irrigation and municipal and industrial water with the remainder to other beneficial uses. In 1997, irrigation sales produced $60 million in income, municipal and industrial water revenues were $19 million, and hydroelectric power sales yielded $34 million, for total CVP revenues of $113 million.

The CVP:

• Reaches some 400 miles, from the Cascade Mountains near Redding in the north to the Tehachapi Mountains near Bakersfield in the south.
• Consists of 20 dams and reservoirs, 11 powerplants, and 500 miles of major canals, as well as conduits, tunnels and related facilities.
• Manages some 9 million acre-feet of water.
• Annually delivers about 7 million acre-feet of water for agricultural, urban and wildlife use.
• Provides about 5 million acre-feet for farms -- enough to irrigate about 3 million acres, or approximately one-third of the agricultural land in California.
• Furnishes about 600,000 acre-feet for municipal and industrial use--enough to supply close to 1 million households with their water needs each year.
• Generates 5.6 billion kilowatt hours of electricity annually to meet the needs of about 2 million people and counting.
• Dedicates 800,000 acre-feet per year to fish and wildlife and its habitat, and 410,000 acre feet to state and federal wildlife refuges and wetlands, pursuant to the Central Valley Project Improvement Act.

History

The state Legislature passed the Mid-Pacific Region California Central Valley Project Act in 1933. The act authorized the sale of revenue bonds to construct the project, but during the Great Depression, bonds didn't sell.

With the Rivers and Harbors Act of 1935, the federal government assumed control of the project and its initial features were authorized for construction by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Funds for construction of the initial features of the Central Valley Project were provided by the Emergency Relief Appropriation Act of 1935 (49 Stat. 115).

The project was authorized by a finding of feasibility by the Secretary of the Interior and approved by the president Dec. 2, 1935, for construction by Reclamation. 

When the Rivers and Harbors Act was reauthorized in 1937 (50 Stat. 844, 850), Reclamation took over CVP construction and operation, and the project became subject to Reclamation law under the 1937 act, the CVP's dams, powerplants, canals, and other facilities had three purposes, to:

1. Regulate rivers and improve flood control and navigation
2. Provide water for irrigation and domestic use
3. Generate power

Under later reauthorizations and legislation for specific project additions, additional project purposes were added--recreation, fish and wildlife enhancement, and water quality improvements. Additional authorizations were made under the Rivers and Harbors Act of Oct. 17, 1940 (54 Stat. 1198, 1199) and:

• American River features were authorized under the act of Oct. 14, 1949 (63 Stat. 852).
• The Sacramento Valley Canals were authorized under the act of Sept. 26, 1950 (64 Stat. 1036)
• Trinity River Division was authorized by Public Law 386, 84th Congress, first session, approved Aug. 12, 1955
• The San Luis Unit, West San Joaquin Division, was authorized as a part of the Central Valley Project June 3, 1960, Public Law 86-488 (74 Stat. 156).
• The Auburn-Folsom South Unit of the American River Division was authorized by Public Law 89-161 (79 Stat. 615) Sept. 2, 1965.
• The Tehama-Colusa Canal enlargement, under the Sacramento River Division, was authorized in Public Law 90-65 (81 Stat. 167), Aug. 19, 1967.
• San Felipe Division features were authorized by Public Law 90-72 (81 Stat. 173), signed Aug. 27, 1967.
• The Allen Camp Unit, Pit River Division, was authorized Sept. 28, 1976, by Public Law 94-423 (90 Stat. 1324).
• The New Melones Unit, East Side Division, was officially transferred to Reclamation from the Corps by Public Law 87-874 in November 1979.

Construction

Construction of the initial units of the Central Valley Project began in October 1937 with the Contra Costa Canal. The entire canal was completed in 1948. First delivery of water was made Aug. 16, 1940. A contract for the construction of Shasta Dam, keystone of the Central Valley Project, was awarded July 6, 1938; work was started in 1938 and was essentially complete in 1945. Storage of water began in January 1944, and the first power was delivered in June 1944.

Plan

The Central Valley Project facilities include reservoirs on the Trinity, Sacramento, American, Stanislaus and San Joaquin Rivers. Water from Trinity River is stored and re-regulated in Clair Engle Lake, Lewiston Lake and Whiskeytown Reservoir, and diverted through a system of tunnels and powerplants into the Sacramento River for the Central Valley. Water is also stored and reregulated in Shasta Lake and Folsom Lake. Water from all of these reservoirs and other reservoirs owned and/or operated by the State Water Project and local water rights holders, flows into the Sacramento River.

Some of CVP contractors divert water directly from or immediately below the dams' outlet works. Other CVP contractors, Sacramento River water rights contractors, and water rights holders divert water directly from the Sacramento and American Rivers. The Sacramento River carries water to the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta. The Tracy Pumping Plant at the southern end of the Delta lifts the water into the Delta Mendota Canal. This canal delivers water to CVP contractors and exchange contractors on the San Joaquin River and water rights contractors on the Medota Pool.

The CVP water is also conveyed to the San Luis Reservoir for deliveries to CVP contractors through the San Luis Canal. Water from the San Luis Reservoir can also be conveyed through the Pacheco Tunnel to CVP contractors in Santa Clara and San Benito counties. The CVP also serves water from the Friant Dam on the San Joaquin River to CVP contractors located near the Madera and Friant-Kern canals. Water is stored in the New Melones Reservoir for water rights holders in the Stanislaus River watershed and CVP contractors in the northern San Joaquin Valley. Lake Oroville stores and re-regulates State Water Project (SWP) water.

The SWP contractors and SWP water rights settlement contractors divert water from the Feather River and Sacramento River. The SWP water flows in the Sacramento River to the Delta and is exported from the Delta at the Banks Pumping Plant. The Banks Pumping Plant lifts the water into the California Aqueduct, which delivers water to the SWP contractors and conveys water to the San Luis Reservoir. SWP contractors are in the southern San Joaquin Valley, Central Coastal area and Southern California. The SWP also delivers water to the Cross-Valley Canal, when the systems have capacity, for CVP water service contractors. Because both the CVP and the SWP convey water in the Sacramento River and the Delta, facility operations are coordinated based on the Coordinated Operating Agreement, the Bay-Delta Plan Accord, and many other agreements.

The Central Valley Project reservoir operations are coordinated to obtain maximum yields and deliver water into the main river channels and canals of the project in the most efficient and economical manner. Irrigation and municipal water is delivered from the main canals in accordance with long-term contracts negotiated with irrigation districts and other local organizations. Distribution of water from the main canals to the individual users is the responsibility of the local districts. Irrigation distribution systems use lateral canals and pipelines to convey water from the main canals to individual farms. Reclamation administers loans under Public Law 84-130 that allow water users to build their own distribution systems.

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Overview

The Central Valley Project began as the jewel in Reclamation’s crown. The project plans encompassed 35 counties in an area about 500 miles long and 60 to 100 miles wide, making it the largest Reclamation project. The CVP contains some of the country’s largest dams, Shasta and San Luis among them. Reclamation intended Auburn Dam, on the American River, to be the largest on the CVP, but political turmoil left the dam incomplete and in limbo.

The Central Valley contains three-quarters of the irrigated land in California, and one-sixth of the irrigated land in the United States. The Central Valley’s annual farm production exceeds the total value of all the gold mined in California since 1848. The CVP ranks first among Reclamation projects in value of flood damage prevented between 1950 and 1991. During that time period the CVP prevented more than $5 billion in flood damage.

The CVP is a complex operation of interrelated divisions. Shasta Dam, at one time considered the key to the CVP, acts as a flood control dam for the Sacramento River. Shasta Lake stores water for controlled releases downstream. The Trinity River Division diverts surplus water from the Trinity River, in the Klamath River Basin, into the Sacramento River. Water from the Trinity River Division enters the Sacramento at Keswick Reservoir in the Shasta Division. Downstream from Shasta Division, the Sacramento River Division supplies Sacramento River water to Tehama, Glenn, Colusa, and Yolo Counties for irrigation. Releases from Shasta Division help control salinity in the Delta Division.

The American River Division provides flood control on the American and the Sacramento Rivers. The division supplies irrigation water along the Folsom South Canal. The American River Division’s Sly Park Unit, essentially operates independently from the rest of the Division, irrigating parts of Placer County.

The Friant Division impounds or diverts the entire flow of the San Joaquin River, except for flood control and irrigation releases. Friant Dam sends irrigation water south through the Friant-Kern Canal, and north through the Madera Canal. The Army Corps of Engineers built New Melones Dam and Powerplant on the Stanislaus River from 1966 to 1979. The Corps turned the dam over to Reclamation in 1979. The dam primarily operates as a flood control and power facility, but Reclamation has contracts to supply water to two water districts in the area.

The Delta Division is the hub around which the CVP rotates. This Division contains the facilities for transporting water from the Sacramento River to the San Joaquin Valley and to farm land in the Delta Division. The Delta Cross Channel diverts water from the Sacramento River to the Tracy Pumping Plant, the Contra Costa Pumping Plants, and the intakes of the Contra Costa and Delta-Mendota Canals, sending the much needed water south into the San Joaquin Valley.

The San Luis Unit provides storage for the CVP for dry seasons. The Unit is a joint venture between Reclamation and the California Department of Water Resources. The William R. Gianelli Pumping-Generating Plant, one of the joint facilities, pumps surplus water from runoff and melting snow from the Delta-Mendota Canal and the California Aqueduct into San Luis Reservoir, the largest offstream storage reservoir in the United States. When water flow through the Delta Division becomes too low, water is released from San Luis into the Delta-Mendota Canal and the California Aqueduct. The San Felipe Division diverts water from San Luis Reservoir into lands west of the Coastal Mountain Range, south of the San Francisco Bay.