The C.W. “Bill” Jones Pumping Plant (formerly known as the Tracy Pumping Plant) is a key component of the federal Central Valley Project (CVP). The plant, located about nine miles northwest of Tracy, pumps water from the southern end of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta into the Delta-Mendota Canal to serve farms, wildlife refuges and communities in the San Joaquin Valley and California’s Central Coast region.

Completed in 1951, the plant uses six large pumps to lift water 197 feet from the south Delta into the 117-mile-long Delta-Mendota Canal. From there, water travels south to farms, wildlife refuges and communities in the San Joaquin Valley, or is stored for later use in San Luis Reservoir near Los Banos. CVP water originating in the Delta also is sent west from San Luis Reservoir through a tunnel to portions of Santa Clara and San Benito counties.

Because of land subsidence that constricts the capacity of the Delta-Mendota Canal, pumping from the Jones plant is limited to about 4,600 cubic feet per second, about 12 percent below its original capacity of 5,200 cfs. An intertie connecting the Delta-Mendota Canal and the State Water Project’s California Aqueduct was completed in 2012 and expanded a decade later. The intertie allows for maintenance and repairs to be undertaken while minimizing disruption of water deliveries.

Though built by the federal government, the plant has been operated for the Bureau of Reclamation since 1993 by the San Luis & Delta-Mendota Water Authority. In 2006, the plant was renamed the C.W. “Bill” Jones Pumping Plant for Jones, who served as the authority’s president for 20 years and was a long-time leader in San Joaquin Valley water development.

Updated January 2026