Incubator escapee wiki

Central Valley Project

Article Discussion

Template:Short description Template:Good article Template:Use mdy dates {{#invoke:Infobox|infobox}}Template:Template other

The Central Valley Project (CVP) is a federal power and water management project in the U.S. state of California under the supervision of the United States Bureau of Reclamation (USBR). 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 northern half of the state (once considered water-rich but suffering water-scarce conditions more than half the year in most years), 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 (SWP). Many CVP water users are represented by the Central Valley Project Water Association.

In addition to water storage and regulation, the system has a hydroelectric capacity of over 2,000 megawatts, and provides recreation and flood control with its twenty dams and reservoirs. It has allowed major cities to grow along Valley rivers 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.

Many CVP operations have had considerable environmental consequences, including a decline in the salmon population of four major California rivers in the northern state, and the reduction of riparian zones and wetlands. Many historical sites and Native American tribal lands have been flooded by CVP reservoirs. In addition, runoff from intensive irrigation has polluted rivers and groundwater. The Central Valley Project Improvement Act, passed in 1992, intends to alleviate some of the problems associated with the CVP with programs like the Refuge Water Supply Program.

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 Northern and Central California rivers. In 2017 the Klamath and Trinity rivers witnessed the worst fall run Chinook salmon return in recorded history, leading to a disaster declaration in California and Oregon due to the loss of the commercial fisheries. The recreational fall Chinook salmon fishery in both the ocean and the Trinity and Klamath rivers was also closed in 2017. Only 1,123 adult winter Chinook salmon returned to the Sacramento Valley in 2017, according to a report sent to the Pacific Fishery Management Council (PFMC) by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW). This is the second lowest number of returning adult winter run salmon since modern counting techniques were implemented in 2003. By comparison, over 117,000 winter Chinooks returned to spawn in 1969.

OverviewEdit

OperationsEdit

The CVP stores about Template:Convert of water in 20 reservoirs in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada, the Klamath Mountains and the California Coast Ranges, and passes about Template:Convert of water annually through its canals. Of the water transported, about Template:Convert goes to irrigate Template:Convert of farmland, Template:Convert supplies municipal uses, and Template:Convert is released into rivers and wetlands in order to comply with state and federal ecological standards.<ref name="cvp">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

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 Shasta Lake flows into the Sacramento River which flows to the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta and water from Trinity Lake flows into the Trinity River which leads to the Pacific Ocean. Both lakes release water 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.<ref name="cvp"/><ref name="historyoverview"/>

BackgroundEdit

The Central Valley Project was the world's largest water and power project when undertaken during Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal public works agenda. The Project was the culmination of eighty years of political fighting over the state's most important natural resource - Water. The Central Valley of California lies to the west of the Sierra Nevada Mountains with its annual run-off draining into the Pacific Ocean through the Sacramento–San Joaquin River Delta. It is a large receding geological floodplain moderated by its Mediterranean climate of dry summers and wet winters that includes regular major drought cycles. At the time of its construction, the project was at the center of a political and cultural battle over the state's future. It intersected with the state's ongoing war over land use, access to water rights, impacts on indigenous communities, large vs. small farmers, the state's irrigation districts and public vs. private power. Its proponents ignored environmental concerns over its impacts, other than the outcome not damage the major stakeholders at that time.

The Central Valley of California has gone through two distinct culturally driven land use eras. The first was the indigenous tribal period that lasted for thousands of years. Then came the arrival of Europeans, first by the Spanish colonial model of Catholic missions and ranchos (1772–1846) was then followed by the current United States era. Due to its Mediterranean climate, the first cultural period was hunter-gatherer based. The Spanish missions' ranching and tanning business was based on the forced labor of Las Californias tribes. Spain's model of land use with the grazing of livestock for meat, wool and leather started along Alta California's coast eventually spreading inland. The U.S. era evolved from primarily ranching to large-scale plantations or more commonly known today as corporate farming that turned the Central Valley into the breadbasket of the U.S.

Following the 1848 California Gold Rush, large numbers of U.S. citizens came into the region and made attempts to practice rainfed agriculture, but most of the Central Valley land was taken up by large cattle ranchers like Henry Miller who eventually controlled 22,000 square miles of land.<ref name="Miller">Template:Cite news</ref> The large-scale levee construction by Chinese workers along the Delta was where limited irrigation for orchards first started.

Following the arrival of the Transcontinental railroad, immigration from Asia and the rest of the U.S. led to growing numbers of settlers in the region. Despite the rich soils and favorable weather of the Template:Convert Central Valley, immigrants to the valley who were unfamiliar with its seasonal patterns of rainfall and flooding began to take up irrigation practices. Farmers soon found themselves troubled by frequent floods in the Sacramento Valley and a general lack of water in the San Joaquin Valley.<ref name="historyoverview"/> The Sacramento River, which drains the northern part, receives between 60 and 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.<ref name="historyoverview">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

HistoryEdit

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.<ref name="historyoverview"/> 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.<ref name="historyoverview"/> 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.<ref name="historyoverview"/>

TimelineEdit

Template:Collapse top

  • pre-western arrival – Tribal culture - seasonal migratory locations between the Tulares and Sierra foothills<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref>

  • 1493 – The Papal Bull known as the Discovery Doctrine, in Latin titled the "Inter Caetera", gave Spain the right to take land and convert the indigenous occupants to Christianity in areas west of the Inter Caetera's line of demarcation, which divided the Western Hemisphere<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref>

|CitationClass=web }}</ref> of tribal lands via land grants or Ranchos to former Spanish citizens of Californio

|CitationClass=web }}</ref> after failing to buy it

  • 1846 - Yerba Buena land grant takes its name from local Catholic mission and becomes San Francisco<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref>

|CitationClass=web }}</ref>

|CitationClass=web }}</ref>

|CitationClass=web }}</ref>

  • 1850 Swamp Act - Enables Henry Miller to eventually own over 1 million acres of land in the Central valley
  • 1853 - Americans cut Mother of the Forest causing international uproar<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref>

|CitationClass=web }}</ref>

  • 1860 - San Francisco beats U.S. Government in Supreme Court over land claims<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref>

|CitationClass=web }}</ref> to railroad barons

  • 1862 - Homestead Act allows adults who never took up arms against the government the right to claim 160 acres
  • May 14 - California legislation permits the formation of canal construction companies<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref>

  • 1866 - San Francisco wins Supreme Court case and all illegal land takings<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref>

|CitationClass=web }}</ref>

  • 1872 - Desert Land Act allows irrigation and lands in the west
  • 1872 - California Irrigation Act passed by the state legislature allowing for cooperative water irrigation development.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref>

  • 1872 - US Mining Act
  • 1873 - Congress sets up the Alexander Commission to design an irrigation system for the Central Valley.
  • 1874 - Alexander Commission report sent to congress in March<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref>

  • 1878 - Workingmen's Party takes control of state government on an anti-railroad campaign
  • 1878 - William Hammond Hall obtains $100,000 to produce statewide irrigation plan - project collapses
  • 1879 - New Constitution for state passed by workingmen bans Southern Pacific R.R. lobbying<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref>

|CitationClass=web }}</ref>

|CitationClass=web }}</ref>

  • 1898 - San Francisco passes Charter that calls for public ownership of transit, telephones, water and power<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref>

|CitationClass=web }}</ref>

  • 1911 - Constitutional Act - California Railroad Commission takes over regulatory role of cities for electric rates<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref>

  • 1913 - Water Commission Act attempts to sort out the state's water rights
  • 1913 - The Raker Act passes, permitting San Francisco to build a public water and power system at Hetch Hetchy
  • 1915 - State Water Problems Conference set up holding hearings the following year - decision Riparian rights the problem
  • 1915 - California Irrigation Act declared unconstitutional by state supreme court<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • 1917 - California Hawson Bill provides relief to water appropriator claims from Riparian Rights lawsuits
  • 1918-20 - State suffers severe drought
  • 1919 - Chief Hydrographer of the USGS Robert Bradford Marshall<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref> sends report titled the "Irrigation of Twelve Million Acres in the Valley of California"<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> to Governor William Stephens<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Marshall is considered the father of the Central Valley Project<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

  • Jan 14 - The city of Oroville Ca. moves ahead with plan to purchase PG&E gas and power operations<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • Feb 3 - U.S. presidential candidate Senator Hiram Johnson is in favor of public ownership of electric utilities<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • Feb 18 - Glenn County Ca. considers formation of an Irrigation district to take advantage of planned Iron Mountain dam<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Template:Collapse bottom

Template:Collapse top

|CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Template:Collapse bottom

Template:Collapse top

|CitationClass=web }}Template:Dead link</ref>

Template:Collapse bottom

Template:Collapse top

|CitationClass=web }}</ref>

  • 1929 - $390,000 authorized to investigate state's water resources
  • 1930 - Federal-State Water Resources Commission report proposes federal project
  • 1931 - state water plan legislature report proposing new CVP plan<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref>

  • Jan 30 - The Hoover-Young Commission report estimate that state water plan will cost $374 million<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Template:Collapse bottom

Template:Collapse top

  • 1933 Mar. 4 - Franklin D. Roosevelt sworn in as president includes major public works projects
  • July 8 - Bureau of Reclamation (USBR) okays funding for Central Valley Act (CVP)<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • Jul 15 - Details of CVP legislation announced with plan to cooperate with USBR<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • Jul 20 - CVP bill stalls in legislature when rules committee blocks it<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • Jul 22 - CVP legislation revived in state senate after federal support promised<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • July 27 - California Legislature votes for CVP Act assembly passing it 58-9 senate passes vote 23-15.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • Aug - PG&E funds petition drive for referendum that was run by a company lawyer named Aherne<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
  • Aug 5 - Governor signs $170 million CVP Act into law<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
  • Dec 15 - Local state representative urges a yes vote on CVP while large PG&E opposed is to the right of article<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • Dec 15 - SF Chamber of Commerce openly opposes CVP Act<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • Dec 17 - CVP special election debate pros and cons along with map of project<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • Dec 19 - Voter Information Guide for Proposition One - CVP special election
  • Dec 19 - CVP referendum to go ahead wins 459,712 for to 426,109<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
  • Dec 21 - Great Water Project vote increases CVP vote status<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • CVP victory due to dead Catalina cow with Slovenian community vote over fisherman's felony conviction<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
  • 1933 - SF Labor Council obtains PG&E political expenditures report to state
  • 1933 - PG&E spent $275,737.18 on political and other donations according to State Railroad Commission
  • 1934 Nov 6 - Sacramento, CA votes to form Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD) and purchase PG&E properties with $12 million in bonds<ref name="smud v pge">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref>

  • 1935 Jan 2 - PG&E files suit to try to overturn the formation of SMUD and its buyout of PG&E<ref name="smud v pge"/>
  • Aug 30 - Rivers and Harbors Act authorizes $12 million funding by Army Corps of Engineers for CVP - never happens<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
  • Dec 2 - USBR takes over CVP, loans $4.2 million - new estimate increases to $228 million source 1942 CVP Writers Project<ref name="archive51">Template:Cite book</ref>

Dec 2 - USBR regulations stipulate that water only be given out to farmers with 160 acres of land or less - see 4-7-1944

  • 1936 June 22 - Sacramento and San Joaquin Flood Control Studies okayed by Rivers and Harbors Act 1936
  • Sept 12 - Ceremonies at Kennett for Shasta Dam
  • Oct 19 - Contra Costa Canal Work begins
  • Oct 22 - Governor hears $477 million CVP plan<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • 1938 Mar 2 - State water authority commissioner opposed to agreement between PG&E and SMUD<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • Jul 6 - contract $35.9 million for Shasta reservoir given<ref name="archive51"/>
  • Sept 8 - Shasta Construction work starts<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
  • 1939 - Fortune Magazine Map of PG&E territory<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Template:Collapse bottom Template:Collapse top

  • 1940 - US v. San Francisco Interior Sec. Ickes wins case to force San Francisco via the Raker Act to stop its sale of Hetch Hetchy water to PG&E
  • Jan 7 - California legislature blocks Governor Olson proposal to unfreeze $170 CVP Bonds<ref name="autogenerated1940"/>
  • Jan 19 - Central Valley association spokesperson opposed to $50 million CVP bonds is actually a PG&E lobbyist<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • Jan 22 - Interior Sec. Ickes advises state to set up Public utility market for Shasta at half PG&E prices<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • Jan 24 - The Water Project Authority of California votes to delay Olson $50 million bond proposal until new study is done<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • Jan 27 - Governor Olson opens legislative session with request for CVP Power bonds<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • Jan 30 - Madera Irrigation District calls for vote about governor Olson's $50 million CVP bond proposal<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • Feb 14 - Governor Olson and CVP senate supporters fail to get $50 million funding out of committee<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • Feb 28 — State Water Project Authority creates four new jobs along with survey money from legislature allotment<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • Mar 12 - U.S. Senate approves $5 million for CVP<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • May 3 - Federal request for $191 million, including over $25 million to California for flood control following wet winter<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • July 8 - First concrete poured at Shasta Dam<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
  • Jul 22 - Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers diverted as work on CVP dams get underway<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • Aug 20 - CVP Contra Costa canal delivers first water to city of Pittsburg<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • Sep 25 - CVP will irrigate 3 million acres and allow for increased Central Valley population<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • Oct 5 - Madera Tribune posts photo of USBR's Friant Dam construction<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • Oct 19 - President Roosevelt signs rivers and harbors authorization bill (HR9972)with funds for CVP but includes limitation<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • Nov 27 - Governor Olson goes to Washington to propose federal takeover of CVP due to state funding opposition<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • Dec 6 - Another CVP dam proposed south of Shasta dam near Iron Mountain<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • Dec 19 - Governor Olson obtains support for his CVP plan after meeting with president Roosevelt<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • Dec 21 - State water commission requests a federal delay on PG&E's request for hyro work near Shasta dam<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • 1941 Jan 8 - state senate proposal to expand the size of the CVP project to include Sacramento Valley<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • Jan 20 - Congressional oversight of $446 million CVP project based on TVA model is ready<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • Feb 14 - CVP contracts have helped companies in 40 different U.S. states<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • Feb 21 - $50 million CVP federal funding in exchange for PG&E Feather River power<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • Mar 20 - The state water authority budgets $200,000 for CVP work, including cooperative federal projects<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • Apr 17 - Interior Secretary Ickes prepares legislation for federal oversight of the CVP<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • Apr 30 - Congress approves a $34.7 million budget for CVP<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • May 22 - State legislature agrees to include funding for CVP electricity<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • Jul 28 - The CVP project is made a national defense priority with sped up on Keswick Dam contracts to start in August<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • July 30 - Central Valley Indian Lands Acquisition Act promised to pay for all Wintu lands covered by Shasta dam
  • Jul 31 - FDR signs CVP legislation that takes tribal lands that will be submerged by Shasta and Friant dams<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • Aug 12 - First major contract for the $12.5 million Keswick dam awarded<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • Sep 17 - CVP statistical report says 1.7 million acre feet of water being diverted from Sacramento River<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • Oct 22 - $319,802 contract for 6 miles of Contra Costa Canal awarded<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • Dec 30 - Regional director of the USBR, Charles E. is Carey selected by Ickes to develop market search for CVP power customers<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • 1942 Jan 8 - CVP Shasta and Friant are the 2nd and 4th world's largest dams and rapidly being completed for the war<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • Feb 26 - CVP's chief engineer gives detailed status report on CVP to Madera citizens<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • Mar 20 - PG&E offers to buy all CVP power during House Appropriation Committee hearings<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • Mar 25 - House committee deletes $15 million for transmission lines and CVP steam plant<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • Mar 26 - Rep. Voorhis exposes prominent reason PG&E is behind blocking CVP power lines as Sacramento wants to break away from PG&E and buy power at a cheaper rate<ref name=":1">Template:Cite book</ref>
  • Mar 26 - PG&E gets permission from Federal Power Commission to build steam plant to block USBR's Antioch facility<ref name=":1"/>
  • Aug 20 - The Madera Tribune congratulates Bertrand W. Gearhart on his role in promoting the CVP<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • Nov 13 - Shasta dam nearly ready - construction work photo<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • Nov 21 - Major segments of the CVP project halted by the War Production Board including transmission lines and Friant Dam<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> PG&E allowed to take over CVP power at Shasta
  • Nov 27 - state railroad commission sets price of PG&E electric property in Sacramento at $11.6 million<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • Dec 22 - Ag Association spokesperson threatens city over city's push to buy power from CVP<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • 1943 Jun 9 - $30.9 million funds sought for CVP as war power needs expanding<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • Jun 19 - War Powers Board okays CVP Friant-Kern Canal funding<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • Jul 20 - CVP Shasta to Oroville power line bids opened<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • Sep 2 - Interior Secretary Ickes' order to build CVP transmission line attacked by Rep. Carter who represents Tulare county but lives in Oakland<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • Sep 8 - San Francisco sends resolution to War Production Board calling for urgent completion of Friant-Kern Canal<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • Sep 24 - CVP coordinator announces operational schedules including Friant dam diversion to start in 1944<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • Sept 28 - Ickes announces PG&E contract to buy all Shasta dam power agreed to<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • Dec 29 - War Production Board refuses to fund the CVP's Friant-Kern Canal<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • 1944 Jan 14 - 90 year dream - Shasta reservoir is filling up<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • Apr 7 - CVP coordinator will follow federal law and block big farms from obtaining CVP water<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • Apr 14 - Madera Tribune calls Interior Secretary Ickes "Little Harold" over CVP following federal water use rules<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • May 2 - Madera Tribune attacks "Oakies" and Interior Secretary "Little Harold" Ickes as a Czarist for retaining 160 acre water limit<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • May 12 - President Roosevelt supports 40 year old 160 acre federal rule that CVP water will only go to small farmers<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • Jun 8 - State Senate committee wants 160 acre limit lifted<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • June 26 - Shasta dam starts producing Power from two generators<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
  • Jul 20 - Quarter page PG&E Ad promotes its takeover of CVP power<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • Jul 24 - Hearings begin on the federal 160 acre water limit campaign by wealthy farmers<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • Jul 25 - PG&E starts taking Shasta dam power for resale<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • July 26 - Sacramento phase of hearings end. Federal laws will not be broken say federal authorities - for wealthy interests<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • Jul 30 - Week long CVP hearings in Bakersfield held by Senate subcommittee on irrigation - 160 acre water limit attacked<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • Oct 11 - War Production Board reverses itself and delays work on Friant-Kern Canal<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • Elliot Amendment to the Harbors and Rivers Act attempts to remove 160 acre water limit of the 1902 Reclamation Act fails<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Template:Collapse bottom Template:Collapse top

  • 1945 Jan 2 - USBR proposes spending $600 million for CVP<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • Mar 22 - Rural congressional representatives want more control over CVP but don't want to pay for the system<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • Apr 12 - USBR proposes spending $836 million on CVP<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • Jun 4 - The state Chamber of Commerce promotes the takeover of the Central valley project when completed<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • Jun 8 - Chairman of the Central Valley Project Congress advocates cheap power development for San Joaquin Vallery farmers<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • Jul 18 - state water authority funded to evaluate possibility of purchasing the $340 million CVProject<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • Sep 6 - New 300 page CVP report calls for dramatic $527 million increase to project for total of $735 million (map)<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • Sep 27 - The wartime ban on construction will end in October with $15 million available to start on Friant Dam<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • Oct 30 - Attack on federal limits to CVP water for farms less than 160 acres is actually 320 leaving out only giant operations<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • Nov 24 - USBR introduces CVP plan to Congress with 38 proposed dams<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • Nov 26 - CVP funding ends up in hostile subcommittee that cuts all transmission and power funding<ref name=":0">Template:Cite news</ref>
  • Nov 27 - U.S. House appropriations committee cuts budge for transmission lines for CVP<ref name=":0"/>
  • Nov 28 - SF Chronicle fails to mention $5 million cut on transmission line budget, only mentions $780,000 left<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • Nov 29 - Chamber of Commerce hears claim that federal control over the CVP is totalitarian<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • Nov 30 - SF Chronicle promotes Mendota 42,000 acre family farmer's opinion that employs 400 regular and 1,000 Mexican migratory workers<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • Dec 7 - Two day statewide water conference begins with fighting over 160 acre ban<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • Dec 8 - The first statewide water conference in 18 years is moderated by Governor Warren - the war of big vs. small farmers<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • Dec 26 - Madera Tribune's attempt to be neutral about the 160 acre fight<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Template:Collapse bottom Template:Collapse top

  • 1946 Apr 5 - small town newspaper uses front group to call Dept. of Public Works communistic for funding CVP project<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • Apr 9 - 96,000 acre feet of Friant dam water released in March 1946 for irrigation of valley<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • May 3 - President Truman announces plan to expand scope of CVP<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • Jun 18 - CVP obtains $20 million funding for most of its projects<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • Jun 22 - Sacramento Municipal Utility District $10.5 million in bonds to purchase PG&E vote agreed to<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • Jun 26 - U.S. Senate funding for CVP reduced from $225 million to $12.5 million<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • Sep 24 - PG&E announces $160 million budget to expand power output<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • Nov 30 - Interior Sec. Krug says need for water and power from CVP being held up by "one or two large corporations"<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • 1947 Jan 6 - Republican control of state legislature results in funding for only a CVP study<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • Jan 6 - Democrats push investigation of monopolist takeover of CVP<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • Feb 14 - President Truman requests $30 million including $5 million for CVP transmission lines for the next fiscal year<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • Feb 19 - If the 160 acre law is banned 20 giant Central Valley companies will get water monopoly<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • Feb 20 - Small farmers and labor oppose repeal of CVP 160 acre water limit<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • Feb 27 - 61% of $384 million CVP costs will be paid by electric sales<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • Mar 17 - Senator introduces bill to exempt CVP from USBR's 160 acre ban<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • Jun 3 - Sixteen day 160 acre ban hearing by Senate ends, no action taken<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • Jul 28 - $29 million CVP budget split between Army Corps and U.S.B.R. with $1.5 million for transmission lines<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • Sep 18 - CVP project funding and speed to increased with hope to complete entire project by 1950<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • Dec 3 - Governor Warren seeks emergency CVP funding<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • Dec 23 - $11.4 million emergency funds for CVP project granted as senator tries to get CVP head fired over 160 acre ban<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • 1948 Jan 12 - President Truman submits a $42 Million CVP budget for next year<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • Jan 15 - Proposal to expand CVP to American River<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • Jan 22 - San Joaquin Valley farmers sign 19 contracts for 320,000 acre feet of water<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • Feb 25 - with another drought, the Stale Water Project authority requests $55.6 million for CVP<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • Mar 5 - USBR will seek Truman veto if California republican try to overthrow 160 acre ban<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • Mar 18 - two farm groups on opposite of the 160 acre debate<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • Jun 5 - Governor Warren supports CVP transmission system - see confusion headline<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • Jul 6 - CVP budget for 1948-49 year set at $68.5 million<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • Jul 19 - New CVP work to include expansion of Shasta dam power Klamath River and Santa Barbara projects<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • Aug 6 - $50 million fund sought to buy up large farms and resell them to small farmers<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • Oct 7 - Chamber of Commerce threatens legal fights over CVP's reclamation laws<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • Oct 13 - Interior Secretary Krug warns farmers that California electric companies are blocking CVP project<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • Nov 30 - State Water Project Authority urges 160 acre law removal<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • 1949 - Map of Central Valley Cotton producers<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref>

  • Mar 30 - Major Congressional victory as subcommittee okays transmission lines as part of CVP $53.5 million budget<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • Jul 2 - Cal. Assembly funds study to buy CVP<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • Jul 9 - 15,000 attend Governor Warren's release of Friant dam water into San Joaquin valley<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • Jul 11 - Media says 100 years in the making as 20,000 people attend opening of $58 million Friant-Kern Canal<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • Jul 13 - US Senate boosts CVP annual funding to $60.8 million<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • Jul 21 - Senator Downey (R-CA) demands investigation of USBR and it continued 160 acre ban<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • Aug 2 - Congress tentatively agrees to fund two more CVP canals for $20–40 million<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • Aug 25 - Madera Tribune writes highly manipulative article suggesting Public Power advocates had increased funding yet story details how Senator Knowland (R-Ca) amendment stripped transmission funding<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • Aug 30 - President Truman proposes $1 billion CVP expansion for 38 dams and 25 power facilities<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • Sep 27 - Friant dam is fourth largest dam in world - details of history and construction<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • Sep 27 - U.S. Senate okays CVP addition of $110 million for American River development<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • Nov 14 - USBR plans to begin moving water from Sacramento Valley into the San Joaquinn Valley in 1951<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • Dec 2 - CVP deal contract with Madera Irrigation District almost settled<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Template:Collapse bottom Template:Collapse top

  • 1950 Feb 3 - Gov Warren supports $69 million CVP budget for 1951<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • Mar 16 - California house members cut $4 million of power project out of CVP budget<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • Apr 14 - The Agricultural Council of California calls the USBR's public power operations socialist<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • May 8 - Warning that government should withdraw from CVP if 160 acre ban on water rights removed<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • Jun 17 - PG&E attacked by Governor Warren for blocking CVP projects during Shasta Dam dedication<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • Sep 19 - Detailed overview of how CVP works and impacts to Madera Irrigation District<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

1951 Jan 3 - CVP and state agree to keep grasslands flooded to protect migratory birds<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

  • Apr 20 - $18.3 of the $33.8 million CVP annual budget earmarked for Friant-Kern Canal<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • May 13 - Friant-Kern Canal completed<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • Jul 5 - The California legislature passes legislation to build the Oroville dam and power facilities as part of the CVP system<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • Aug 1 - Shasta Dam starts sending water into CVP canals<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • Aug 8 - Friant dam ceremony exposes new rift as state court orders excess water released as tactic to flood aquifer<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • Sep 13 - PG&E advertisement claim that 55% of all Central Valley water comes from aquifers by electric pumps<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • Sep 25 - Madera Tribune does extended coverage of CVP as major milestone in project is completed with historic map<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • Sep 25 - History of the Reclamation Act as part of Madera Tribune celebration issue<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • Sep 25 - Unnamed (big) farmers take Madera Irrigation District water contract with USBR to court<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • 1952 Feb 23 - USBR proposes CVP Power plan that would takeover local PG&E project and spark major growth in Fresno<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • Mar 1 - USBR reports 1951 income of $8 million from water sales for 1951<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • Mar 21 - $34.9 million budget okayed by congress for construction activities<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • May 2 - Sixteen large farmers representing 14,000 acres agree to take CVP water and eventually abide by 160 acre rule<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • Dec 13 - SMUD makes contract to buy CVP power from USBR<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • California legislature appropriated $10 million for investigation into state purchase of CVP
  • 1953 Jan 9 - President Truman asks for $83 million for CVP construction<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • Jan 10 – 110 foot coffer dam at CVP's $58 million Folsom dam breached - no deaths from flooding<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • Jan 24 - Madera Tribune enraged that USBR signs a long term contract to sell 17% of CVP excess power to the Sacramento Municipal Utility District<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • Jan 28 - Lawsuit to stop all major water diversions a threat to the CVP<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • Apr 23 - House Committee headed by Ca. representatives cuts $7 million from $19 million CVP budget, all from power projects<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • May 20 - USBR request to senate that it reinstates $7 million pulled from CVP's power and transmission budget<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • May 28 - State legislature tries to block irrigation district contracts with USBR<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • Sep 26 - Full details of the size and cost of Friant dam - the 4th largest concrete dam in world<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • Dec 28 - Republicans, corporate farms and state Chamber of Commerce push for state to buy CVP from Interior Dept.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • 1954 BR report: Four dams, five canals and other systems have been completed at a cost of $435.4 million
  • Jan 21 - President Eisenhower asks for $70.4 million CVP budget<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • May 4 PG&E offers to buy CVP power and facilities for $130 million cash<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • Aug 27 - Central Valley Project Act Reauthorization<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref>

  • Sep 10 - Proposal for $230 million San Luis segment of the CVP announced includes map<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Template:Collapse bottom

Template:Collapse top

  • 1955 Feb 21 - PG&E makes proposal to buy CVP power from Trinity dam for $3.5 million a year<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • Apr 14 - US BR ignores PG&E's proposal to take over the electric system of the $219 million Trinity dam<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • Jul 14 - Urgent need for more water results in Trinity project moving ahead as San Luis project not ready<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • Jul 16 - CVP $15 million budget for 1956 will be to complete Folsom Dam and being work on Trinity Dam<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • 1956 May 21 - Congress appropriates $83 million for irrigation with $20 million going to Central Valley projects including a Tulare Lake dam<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • Jul 19 - US BR announces plans to construct the Glen Canyon Dam and $42 million for five CVP projects for 1957<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • 1957 - Fear based 28 minute video pushing to expand state expansion of water project<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref>

  • Feb 20 - PG&E attacks republican senators opposition to PG&E's proposal for joint construction of Trinity Dam project<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • Jun 13 - $88 million for California was given but excluded all funding for transmission systems<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • Oct 14 - U.S. Supreme Court agrees to hear the USBR's 160-acre ban on big water users<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • Oct 29 - 5 million acre feet a year being extracted from Central Valley's aquifer<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • Nov 1 - CVP's Feather River project considered world's largest engineering project<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • 1958 Jan 23 - PG&E agrees to renegotiate rates it charges for CVP power after report discloses company's rate manipulation<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • Feb 5 - Interior Secretary Fred A. Seaton recommends that PG&E be allowed to takeover Trinity Dam power<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • Mar 5 - CVP Plan to add 2 million acre feet of water in San Joaquin Valley endorsed<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • May 26 - Proposal for San Luis Canal project and 500,000 acres of land in western Merced, Fresno and Kings counties<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • Jun 9 - Congress okays $42 million budget for coming CVP's next fiscal year<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • Jun 23 - U.S. Supreme Court reverses state supreme court in upholding the 160-acre ban on USBR water to large users<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • Oct 15 - Total of 444,000 Kilowatts of CVP power being transfer to PG&E<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • 1959 Feb 13 - PG&E plan to build "cream skimmer" transmission lines between Bonneville and CVP attacked<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • Mar 18 - representative James B. Utt introduces legislation to turn all Trinity Dam power over to PG&E<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • Apr 27 - Two more dams proposed for CVP project<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • May 12 - Governor Brown releases breakdown on where $1.75 billion funding for State Water Project will go to<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • Jun 3 - Congress okays $103 Million with $43 to USBR and $59.8 to Corps of Engineers for state irrigation and flooding<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • Oct 21 - California Grange opposed to state takeover of Oroville Dam and giving PG&E control of Trinity Dam electricity<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • Jul 9 - Governor Brown signs $1.75 billion state water bond law that includes 735 foot high Oroville Dam<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • Sep 30 - Interior Department signs two new contracts with PG&E for 629,000 Kilowatts of CVP electricity from four dams<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • Sep 30 - Madera Irrigation District opposed Fresno plan to take San Joqauin River surplus water<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • Sep 30 - Interior Department extends PG&E contracts for CVP Power up to April 1971<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Template:Collapse bottom Template:Collapse top

  • 1960 State and USBR cooperation Agreement<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref>

  • Jul 1 - Congress okays $61 million CVP budget<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • 1961 Feb 2 - State takes first step in $400 State Water Project<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • Aug 10 - History of EBMUD and the November 1959 $1.7 billion state water project vote<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • 1962 - May 17 - $27 million joint CVP funding project proposed<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • 1963 - Corps of Engineers dredges the Sacramento Deep Water Ship Channel to the port of Sacramento.
  • Jan 18 - Congress to propose $106 million annual CVP Budget<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • Mar 2 - Governor Brown Announced $325 Million plan to fund state water project<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • May 24 - State Senate votes against Governor Brown's proposal to fund state plan with bonds<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • June 11 - Attempts by Republicans to kill the sale of $325 million in bonds for state water project fails<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • Dec 15 - Extended summary of all the state's new water plans laid out in series of articles by agency<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • 1964 Jan 13 - SMUD, EBMud and growing construction of dams background story on state water expansion<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • Jan 21 - Utility Districts across the state will benefit from expansion of the state water project (map of state plan)<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • Jan 22 - $112 million annual CVP budget proposed to congress with state to include $42 million for San Luis<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • 1965 - Inter-agency Delta Committee recommendation for Peripheral Canal and Delta facilities<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref>

  • Jan 14 - City of Santa Clara asked LBJ for direct access to CVP vs. PG&E power<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • July 23 - $5 billion San Luis Reservoir segment of the CVP begins construction<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • Aug 4 - PG&E Hydro-electric project connects 3 rivers near Shasta<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • Aug 6 - Auburn-Folsom Project goes before congress for funding<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • Sept 16 - Governor Brown request $188 million for CVP funding<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • 1966 Jan 25 - President Johnson asks Congress for $100 million CVP annual budget<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • Mar 11 - 21st Century water shortage predicted if system not expanded<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • Apr 3 - State water project good until 1990 but won't handle predicted 54 million population expected by 2020<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • Apr 26 - State seeks $164 million from feds for CVP's 1967 fiscal year<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • 1967 Jan 13 - CVP produces record 5.3 billion kilowatts hours of electricity in 1966<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • Jan 25 - President Johnson withholds $34 million for CVP's San Luis project<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • Oct 6 - State Water Project's Oroville Dam and Reservoir are completed<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • Oct 18 - State Assemblyman seeks $600 million in Bonds for the state's water project<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • 1968 Feb 8 - State budgets $425 million for state's water project<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • Apr 19 - CVP's San Luis Reservoir dedicated<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • May 16 - $468 million cut to<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> proposed on CVP's Auburn Dam project
  • Dec 28 - Interior Dept. okays new CVP plan along east side of valley<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • 1969 - State Water Project obtains emergency loan from state treasury as inflation rates have dried up funding from bond sales<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • 1969 - The Harvey O. Banks Delta Pumping Plant and John E. Skinner Fish Facility are completed by DWR

Template:Collapse bottom Template:Collapse top

|CitationClass=web }}</ref>

  • 1972 Jan 20 - Labor Leader says 45 corporations with 3.7 million acres gets illegal USBR water subsidies<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • May 25 - Proposition 9 ban on nuclear development will endanger CVP says California Water Resources Association<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • Aug 10 - $4.9 million CVP contract for 25 of 188 mile long San Luis drain awarded<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • Dec 7 - GAO study says big landowners received $1.5 billion CVP water subsidy<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • 1973 - legislation funds new Delta levees<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref>

  • Feb 9 - Nixon administration blocks $2 million in CVP funds okayed by Congress<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • 1974 Feb 14 - History of Peripheral canal plan dates to 1964<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • Jul 11 - 29,000-acre Giffen Inc. broken up and sold to comply with 160-acre USBR rules<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • Sept 25 - Environmental review for 43 mile long Peripheral canal released<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • 1975 Sept 4 - Healdsburg joins 10 NCPA other cities to obtain its own electricity<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • 1976 Jan 28 - USBR says there will be enough water for the year as drought continues<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • Mar 24 - 59 farmers file $33 million lawsuit against CVP and SWP for 1974 flood damages<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • Apr 22 - Eight mile Pacheco tunnel from San Luis reservoir to Santa Clara started<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • 1977 - Department of Water Resources supports Peripheral Canal as best way move water to the Delta<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref>

  • Feb 8 - USBR announces plan to cut CVP water by up to 75% due to drought<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • Feb 25 - Westland's Land Dynamics Inc. pleads guilty and fined $10,000 for conspiracy to violate land sale rules<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • Apr 17 - President Carter stops 15 water projects including review of CVP<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • Apr 21 - Salyer Land and J.G. Boswell Cos. (cotton growers) propose buying $45 million Pine Flat Dam to bypass 160-acre rule<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • Sept 15 - Assembly votes 56-22 in favor of SB 346 Peripheral Canal legislation<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • Sept 16 - Senate votes down Governor Brown's $4.2 billion Peripheral Canal proposal<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • Oct 6 - USBR lost $74 million between 1971 and April 1976 for underpricing electricity sold to PG&E<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • Nov 5 - 529 page federal report says USBR has failed to breakup corporate ownership in Westlands over 160 acre limit on water subsidies<ref name="Fres Bee Report">Template:Cite news</ref>
  • Nov 5 - Government task force report documents $2.7 billion water subsidy to CVP farmers at taxpayers expense<ref name="Fres Bee Report"/>
  • Nov 5 - Report documents how the USBR's 197 mile long San Luis drain (Kesterson) in the Westlands went from $7 million to $542 million<ref name="Fres Bee Report"/>
  • Nov 30 - Roberts Farm Inc's 8,100 acre operations in Kern county goes bankrupt and sold for $21.5 million<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • Dec 11 - The Chandler family's L.A. Times caught in conflict of Interest over newspaper's attack on 160-acre limit as family owns major investments in Tejon Ranch and J.G. Boswell Company<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • Dec 19 - California v. U.S.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref> Supreme Court case over control of discharge rights<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

|CitationClass=web }}</ref>

  • Jan 6 - Call for one year moratorium over 160-acre ban ruling and Interior Dept decision<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • Jan 26 - CVP water rates too cheap as study shows project will be $8.8 billion in debt by 2037<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • Feb 8 - PG&E making 800% profit on CVP power it buys<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • Feb 20 - Federal Land Bank of Sacramento ignores 160-acre CVP rlimit rule when issuing loans to large farmers<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • Mar 18 - Sec. of Interior urges cooperative operations - state charges $22 vs. CVP charging $3.50 per acre foot of water<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • July 4 - US Supreme Court rules in favor of state over right to enforce environmental regulations<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • Sep 20 - Lobbyists for Salyer Land and J.G. Boswell Cos. who own 150,000-acres of cotton lands paid $165,000 to fight 160-acre limit<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • Nov 8 - Fish and Wildlife Improvement Act of 1978 (16 U.S.C. 742l; 92 Stat. 3110) -- Public Law 95-616 updates CVP Act<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref>

  • Nov 21 - Westlands Irrigation District legal Budget for 1979 set at $549,000 to fight the federal government<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • 1979 Jan 3 - Dept. of Interior agrees to abide by state's environmental quality rules<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • Jan 16 - Bill to allocate $50 Million for state water project including money for Peripheral canal introduced<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • Feb 25 - J.G. Boswell investigated for secret contract by Grand Jury with Cotton Inc. (lobby firm) $113 million 10 year budget<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • Mar 8 - US Dept. of Agriculture expands probe of Boswell-Cotton Inc. $60,000 annual contract for Cotton Board research and promotion<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • Mar 11 - Westlands Irrigation District hires Washington lawfirm of Williams & Connolly to represent their 160-acre legal fight<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • Mar 22 - Senate hearings open on the Reclamation Reform Act of 1979 - to replace the 160-acre limit for USBR water<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref>

  • Mar 23 - Western water war erupts over hundreds of millions of acres of subsidized lands with call to change 160-acre limitation<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • Apr 13 - Support for study calling for 200 foot increase of Shasta Dam<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • Oct 11 - Regional battle between farmers and environmentalists hold up dams and Peripheral Canal plans<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Template:Collapse bottom Template:Collapse top

  • 1980 Mar 13 - State legislature passes SB200 Peripheral Canal act opposed by ecologists<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • Oct 18 - Santa Clara power users sue agency for $18 million over rates<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • 1981 Oct 21 - CVP proposal to sell power to city of Healdsburg announced<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • 1982 - Voters defeat the Peripheral Canal initiative - Proposition 9<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref>

  • Apr 29 - Santa Cruz to do study on takeover of PG&E power grid<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • Apr 30 - Healdsburg to start buying CVP power from Westeran Area Power Administration<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • May 4 - Healdsburg breaks from PG&E power<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • August 4 - PG&E claims Healdsburg owes them $62,000 as city goes for public power<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • 1983 Oct 2 - Republicans moves away from conservation on Central Valley water<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • 1984 May 5 - National Wildlife Federation says USBR under collected water fees by $10 billion<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • Nov 16 - Federal plan to dump Central Valley waste water into Pacific attacked<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • 1985 Mar 30 - Interior Dept plan to stop dumping Central Valley toxics into Kesterson<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • Aug 21 - CVP has made $1.5 billion in illegal subsidies to giant ag farms<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • Sep 10 - House passes on cooperative agreement between CVP and SWP<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • 1986 - DWR-USBR Coordinated Operation Agreement, agreed to by Congress.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref>

  • Nov 27 - Ceremony held in Sacramento on agreement between CVP and SWP<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • 1987 - State Water Board starts revision of D-1485 after U.S. EPA calls plan inadequate.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref>

  • 1988 - Suisun Marsh salinity control gates start up.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref>

  • May 28 - 2nd Dry year starting to impact CVP water supply<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • 1989 - EPA lists Sacramento River Chinook salmon as threatened<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref>

  • Feb 16 - USBR announces 25-50% reduction in water availability due to 3 year drought<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • May 3 - USBR investigation of expanding Tehama-Colusa Canal<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • June 23 - PG&E loses court case over its refusal to transmit power to public agencies<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Template:Collapse bottom Template:Collapse top

  • 1990 Feb 16 - 4th year of drought expected to cause cutbacks in water to users<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • Jul 15 - $150 million environmental CVP legislation angers farmers and PG&E<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • 1991 - State Water Board produces Bay-Delta salinity control plan but partially rejected by the EPA
  • Construction completed on four south Delta pumping facilities<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref>

  • Jan 30 - 800 attend statewide meeting on water crisis solutions<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • Feb 13 - Water Rights issue grow as 5th year of drought calls for 50% farm water cutbacks<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • Feb 15 - Water crisis worst since 1945, CVP to drain all reservoirs with up 75% restrictions in use<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • Mar 16 - Recent storms reduce water crisis but orders for reduced use to hold<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • 1992 - The Central Valley Project Improvement Act<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref> mandated the balancing of water, pricing and distribution policies<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

  • Jan 1 - U.S. Corps of Engineers releases environmental plan for 3,400 acre Yolo Country wildlife refuge<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • Feb 13 - Bush administration submits $906 million USBR budget for 1993 including CVP<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • Oct 30 - Reclamation Projects Authorization and Adjustment Act of 199—Public Law 102-575<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref>

  • Nov 18 - New federal legislation will give Yolo and Solano County CVP water<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • 1993 - A documented indicator species, the Delta smelt is listed as threatened (goes to endangered in 2009)<ref name="Ca Dept. of Wildlife">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref>

  • 1993 - Save San Francisco Bay Association's Barry Nelson calls the CVP "the biggest single environmental disaster ever to strike California."<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref>

  • Feb 18 - USBR open new office to oversee 1992 CVP Improvement Act<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • Dec 17 - Governor Wilson attacks federal plans to withhold water for environment<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • 1994 Feb 16 - Drought response results in 2/3rd cut in farm waters<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • Apr 10 - Judge blocks attempt to sell CVP water to mining company<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • Sep 19 - Pajaro Valley loses 19,000 acre feet of CVP water due to legal technicality<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • 1995 Jul 18 - Folsom Dam gate breaks releasing half million acre feet of water<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • 1996 Oct 12 - Pajaro Valley water agency decides to buy $5.6 million in CVP water rights<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • Dec 21 - Kern County plan to sell 22 billion gallons of water to L.A. starts water war<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • 1997 - $80 million temperature controlled fish protection support added to Shasta dam<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref>

  • Sept 13 - Cadillac Desert author supports more subsidies to farmers<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • Dec 14 - Proposal to sell Friant dam water to L.A. reduced to just excess flow years<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • 1998 May 29 - Measure D in Pajaro Valley alternative to CVP plan attacked for conservation and small dams<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • Jun 3 - Measure D passes, effectively ending plan to import CVP water into Pajaro Valley<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Template:Collapse bottom Template:Collapse top

|CitationClass=web }}</ref>

  • Jun 9 - $450 million water plan proposed by Governor Davis includes raising Shasta dam height<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • 2002 Feb 13 - Appeal of court ruling taking CVP water from fish and environment<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • Jul 17 - Westlands wants feds to buy contaminated land for $500 million<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • 2004 - CalFed budget zeroed out for fifth year in a row as attempts to find common ground fail<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • Apr 22 - Editorial: death of 34,000 fish on Klamath impacts Hupa tribe<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • Jul 14 - Court order allows for protection of fish in Trinity River<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • 2005 Mar 16 - CVP water resold by users as 200,000 acres in Westland's too toxic for growing<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • 2006 - San Joaquin water flows restored to protect fish<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref>

  • 2007 May 25 - Federal court overturns U.S. Fish and Wildlife's 2005 opinion that increased CVP water take would not endanger Smelt<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref>

  • Oct 25 - "Racanelli Decision" - Judge decides in favor of Aug. 1978 decision (1485) compelling USBR and DWR adhere to the State Water Resources Control Board's water quality standards<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Template:Collapse bottom Template:Collapse top

  • 2010 Jun 3 - Environmental groups file a lawsuit seeking to block a secret backroom deal – known as the "Monterey Amendments"<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • Dec 15 - The release of the Bay Delta Conservation Plan, or the reincarnation of peripheral canal is immediately opposed by environmental groups<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref>

  • 2012 Mar 2 - Court of Appeals ends thirteen year legal battle between Westlands and Interior Dept in government's favor<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref>

  • 2014 May 14 - 10% of all California goes to Almond production<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • Nov 4 - After 5 years of reworking, the public okays $510 million in state water funding<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref>

  • 2015 Jan 27 - Harvard University has bought 10,000 acres California land for Wine production and water speculation<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • Apr 21 - California Almond production is using over 1 trillion gallons of agricultural water<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • Sep 11 - USBR announces agreement with Westlands water contract and drainage controversy<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref>

  • 2017 Jan 3 - HR 23 Central Valley Project Water Reliability introduced and passed by house fails in senate would have stripped all CVP environmental protections<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref>

  • Feb 17 - CVP's Oroville Dam spillway water levels result in 180,000 people forced to evacuate<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref>

|CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Template:Collapse bottom

  • 2020 - Jan 1 - No Smelt indicator species found in the Sacramento Delta for last 2 years<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref>

  • Feb 20 - President Trump signs Record of Decision on federal biological opinions<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Facilities in the Sacramento ValleyEdit

Sacramento RiverEdit

File:6507-ShastaLakeFull.jpg
Shasta Dam, with Shasta Lake at its highest level, July 1965

Shasta Division consists of a pair of large dams on the Sacramento River north of the city of Redding.<ref name="shastatrinity">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> 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 Template:Convert of water, and can generate 680 MW of power.<ref name="ShastaDam">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> 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.<ref name="shastatrinity"/> The Keswick Dam functions as an afterbay (regulating reservoir) for the Shasta Dam, also generating power.<ref name="Keswick">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

The Sacramento Canals Division of the CVP takes water from the Sacramento River much farther downstream of the Shasta and Keswick Dams. Diversion dams, pumping plants, and aqueducts provide municipal water supply as well as irrigation of about Template:Convert.<ref name="sacramentocanals">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The Red Bluff Diversion Dam diverts part of the Sacramento River<ref name="RedBluff">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> into the Template:Convert Tehama-Colusa Canal, the Template:Convert Corning Canal and a small reservoir formed by Funks Dam.<ref name="Funks">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Six pump plants take water from the canal and feed it to the Colusa County water distribution grid.<ref name="sacramentocanals"/>

Trinity RiverEdit

File:2013, Drainage Ditch, Friant-Kern Canal, Central Valley Project Irrigation System - panoramio.jpg
Drainage ditch in Central Valley Project<ref>Template:Citation</ref>

Water diversions from northern rivers in the state remain controversial due to environmental damage. Trinity River Division is the second largest CVP department for the northern Sacramento Valley. The primary purpose of the division is to divert water from the Trinity River 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.<ref name="shastatrinity"/> Trinity Dam forms Trinity Lake,<ref name="TrinityDam">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> the second largest CVP water-storage reservoir, with just over half the capacity of Shasta<ref name="shastatrinity"/> and a generating capacity of 140 MW.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Lewiston Dam, downstream of Trinity Dam, diverts water into the Clear Creek Tunnel,<ref name="Lewiston">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> 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.<ref name="shastatrinity"/> Whiskeytown Lake (formed by Clair. A Hill Whiskeytown Dam<ref name="Whiskeytown">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>) 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.<ref name="SpringCreek">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

American RiverEdit

File:Folsom dam usbr.jpg
Folsom Dam spilling during a flood

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.<ref name="folsomslypark">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

The Folsom Unit consists of Folsom Dam, its primary water storage component, and Nimbus Dam, which serves as its downstream forebay.<ref name="folsomslypark"/> The Folsom Dam is located on the American River, and stores Template:Convert of water in its reservoir, Folsom Lake. Folsom Lake covers Template:Convert and is located inside the Folsom Lake State Recreational Area.<ref name="Folsom">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Eight additional earth fill saddle dams are required to keep the reservoir from overflowing. The dam also generates 200 MW from three generators.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> About Template:Convert downstream of Folsom Dam is the Nimbus Dam, forming Lake Natoma.<ref name="Nimbus">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The dam generates 7.7 MW from two Kaplan turbines 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.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

File:Slyparkdam.jpg
Sly Park Dam (left) and auxiliary dam (right)

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 similarly-sized auxiliary dam form Jenkinson Lake, which covers Template:Convert.<ref name="SlyPark">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Jenkinson Lake feeds the Camino Conduit, a Template:Convert aqueduct.<ref name="folsomslypark"/> The Camp Creek Diversion Dam diverts some water from Camp Creek into Jenkinson Lake.<ref name="CampCreek">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

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.<ref name="auburnfolsom">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> 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.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> However, the high Foresthill Bridge, built as part of the preliminary work for Auburn Dam, still stands. County Line Dam, about Template:Convert south of Folsom Dam, was also never built.<ref name="auburnfolsom"/>

Facilities in the San Joaquin ValleyEdit

Delta and canal systemEdit

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.<ref name="Delta">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The Delta Cross Channel intercepts Sacramento River water as it travels westwards towards Suisun Bay and diverts it south through a series of man-made channels, the Mokelumne River, and other natural sloughs, marshes and distributaries.<ref name="Delta"/> 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 Template:Convert southwards to Mendota Pool on the San Joaquin River, supplying water to other CVP reservoirs about midway.<ref name="Delta"/> 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.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> A second canal, the Contra Costa Canal, captures freshwater near the central part of the delta, taking it Template:Convert southwards, distributing water to the Clayton and Ygnacio Canals in the process, and supplying water to Contra Loma Dam, eventually terminating at Martinez Reservoir.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

San Joaquin RiverEdit

The CVP also has several dams on the San Joaquin River—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.<ref name="friantdiv">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The dam crosses the San Joaquin River where it spills out of the Sierra Nevada, forming Millerton Lake,<ref name="FriantDam">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> 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.<ref name="friantdiv"/> The Madera Canal takes water northwards to Madera County, emptying into the Chowchilla River.<ref name="friantdiv"/> The Central Valley also consisted of 500 miles of canals, providing the city dwellers and power sales from the generation of electricity pay of the project costs.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Stanislaus RiverEdit

On the Stanislaus River, a major tributary of the San Joaquin, lies the relatively independent East Side Division and New Melones Unit of the CVP.<ref name="eastsidediv">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The sole component of the division/unit is New Melones Dam, forming New Melones Lake, which, when filled to capacity, holds nearly Template:Convert of water, about equal to the storage capacity of Trinity Lake.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> 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.<ref name="eastsidediv"/><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Offstream storage and aqueductsEdit

File:Wfm san luis reservoir landsat.jpg
Satellite photo of San Luis Reservoir and O'Neill Forebay

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).<ref name="sanluis">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> San Luis Dam (or B.F. Sisk Dam) is the largest storage facility, holding Template:Convert of water.<ref name="sanluis"/><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Although called an offstream storage reservoir by USBR, 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.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Water is pumped from the canal into the Forebay<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> and uphill into San Luis Reservoir, which functions as an additional water source during dry periods.<ref name="sanluis"/>

Water released from San Luis and O'Neill reservoirs feeds into the San Luis Canal, the federally built section of the California Aqueduct, which carries both CVP and SWP water. The San Luis Canal terminates at Kettleman City, where it connects with the state-built section of the California Aqueduct. With a capacity of Template:Convert, it is one of the largest irrigation canals in the United States.<ref name="sanluis"/> The Coalinga Canal (operated for USBR by the Westlands Water District) branches off the San Luis Canal towards the Coalinga area. A pair of separate dams, Los Baños Detention Dam and Little Panoche Detention Dam, provide flood control in the Los Baños area.<ref name="sanluis"/> The San Luis Drain was a separate project by USBR 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.<ref name="sanluis"/>

The CVP also operates a San Felipe Division to supply water to Template:Convert of land in the Santa Clara Valley west of the Coast Ranges.<ref name="sanfelipe">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> San Justo Dam stores water diverted from San Luis Reservoir through the Pacheco Tunnel and Hollister Conduit, which travel through the Diablo Range.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> A separate canal, the Santa Clara Tunnel and Conduit, carries water to the Santa Clara Valley.<ref name="sanfelipe"/>

Environmental impactsEdit

File:Redbluffdivdam.jpg
Red Bluff Diversion Dam on the Sacramento River once posed a significant barrier to salmon, steelhead and sturgeon migration. It has since been replaced with a pumping plant to improve fish passage.

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.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> In three of these cases, it is because the dams are too high and their reservoirs too large for fish to bypass via fish ladders. The San Joaquin River, however, had a different fate. Almost Template:Convert of the river is dry because of diversions from Friant Dam and Millerton Lake.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> 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 pesticides 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 salmon run into the Merced River in the 1950s failed, because the salmon did not recognize the Merced as their "home stream".<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

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, was once a barrier to the migration of anadromous fish. The original 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, which reduced the population of outmigrating juvenile salmon into the Pacific.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> The Red Bluff Diversion Dam has since been replaced with a fish screen and pumping plant, thus allowing unimpaired passage through Red Bluff.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> 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.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Furthermore, the Trinity Dam forms a blockade that prevents salmon from reaching about Template:Convert 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.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> 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."<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

In the early years of the 21st century, the Bureau of Reclamation studied the feasibility of raising Shasta Dam.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> One of the proposed heights was Template:Convert greater than its current size, thus increasing the storage capacity of Shasta Lake by Template:Convert. The agency also proposed a smaller raise of Template:Convert that would add Template:Convert.<ref name="ShastaRaise">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Previously, a Template:Convert raise of the dam, increasing storage to Template:Convert, 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.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> 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.<ref name="ShastaRaise"/>

File:Newmelonesdam1b.jpg
New Melones Dam, seen here with New Melones Lake beyond, is one of the most disputed operations of the CVP

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.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> 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.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Thus the reservoir extended only to Parrot's Ferry Bridge, Template:Convert 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".<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

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.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Despite the preservation of river programs, the state legislature continued to have the power to construct dams.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

CVP Government LibraryEdit

Template:Collapse top

Template:Collapse bottom Template:Collapse top

Template:Collapse bottom

Template:Collapse top

Template:Collapse bottom

CVP resourcesEdit

File:Central Valley Organizations Chart.png
Federal, state and non-governmental organizations involved in the Central Valley

|CitationClass=web }}</ref> manages 17 of the Central Valley Project dams including its dam safety alert system

|CitationClass=web }}</ref> of the State that purchase water from the CVP

|CitationClass=web }}</ref>

|CitationClass=web }}</ref>

|CitationClass=web }}</ref> and movie Chinatown (1974 film)

|CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

GalleryEdit

  • US Department of Interrior Bureau of Reclamation - Central Valley Project Map 1938.png

    US Department of Interior Bureau of Reclamation - Central Valley Project Map 1938

  • Web pdfs cvfr chinook.pdf

    CVP Chinook Map

  • Wea03344 - Flickr - NOAA Photo Library.jpg

    Friant Dam - NOAA Photo Library

  • Friant Dam & Milerton Lake.jpg

    Friant Dam & Milerton Lake

  • California fish and game (19893457633).jpg

    Friant Dam

  • Photograph "Indian Graveyard No. 1," from report "History of Indians Buried in Friant Dam Reservoir Area (California)... - NARA - 296229 (cropped).jpg

    Photograph "Indian Graveyard No. 1," from report "History of Indians Buried in Friant Dam Reservoir Area (California)... - NARA - 296229 (cropped)

  • Photograph "Indian Graveyard 'H'...containing the remains of Charlie Johnson and other Indians (Coarsegold Tribe),"... - NARA - 296227.tif

    Photograph "Indian Graveyard 'H'...containing the remains of Charlie Johnson and other Indians (Coarsegold Tribe),"... - NARA - 296227

  • Photograph "View looking southeast of Picciune Indian Cemetery," from report "History of Indians Buried in Friant Dam... - NARA - 296228 (cropped).jpg

    Photograph "View looking southeast of Picciune Indian Cemetery," from report "History of Indians Buried in Friant Dam... - NARA - 296228 (cropped)

  • Photograph with text of group of Native Americans on land that will be submerged by a dam near Millerton and Friant... - NARA - 296302.tif

    Photograph with text of group of Native Americans on land that will be submerged by a dam near Millerton and Friant... - NARA - 296302

  • Photograph "Rancheria Indian Cemetery below Pincushion Peak, Table Mountain, Fresno County," from report "History of... - NARA - 296225.tif

    Photograph "Rancheria Indian Cemetery below Pincushion Peak, Table Mountain, Fresno County," from report "History of... - NARA - 296225

See alsoEdit

ReferencesEdit

Template:Reflist

External linksEdit

Template:Central Valley Project infrastructure

Retrieved from "https://zalansite.site/mediawiki/index.php?title=Central_Valley_Project&oldid=295643"