Dams have allowed Californians and the West to harness and control water dating back to the days of Native Americans. At that time, Native Americans erected simple dams for catching salmon.
Today, California and neighboring states are home to a vast integrated system of federal, state and locally owned dams that help with flood management, water storage and water transport.
Flood management projects, for example, have prevented billions of dollars’ worth of damage and countless lives lost.
The Delta Plan is a comprehensive management plan for the Sacramento San Joaquin Delta intended to help the state meet the coequal goals of water reliability and ecosystem restoration.
The Delta Pumping Plant Fish Protection Agreement stems from an early effort to balance the needs of fish protection and State Water Project operations. Negotiated in the mid-1980s, the agreement foreshadowed future battles over fish protection and pumping. [See also Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.]
Overseen by the California Department of Water Resources, California Department of Fish and Wildlife and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the Delta Risk Management Strategy evaluated the sustainability of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta and assessed major risks from floods, seepage, subsidence and earthquakes, sea level rise and climate change.
The endangered Delta smelt is a 3-inch fish found only in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. It is considered especially sensitive because it lives just one year, has a limited diet and exists primarily in brackish waters (a mix of river-fed fresh and salty ocean waters that is typically found in coastal estuaries).
Created as a state agency in 2009, the seven-member panel is responsible for creating a plan, known as the Delta Plan, to deliver a more reliable water supply while also protecting, restoring, and enhancing restoring the Delta ecosystem [to learn more about the estuary, see Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.]
Recurrent droughts and uncertainties about future water supplies have led several California communities to look to saltwater for supplemental supplies through a process known as desalination.
Desalination removes salt and other dissolved minerals from water and is one method to reclaim water for other uses. This can occur along the coast and in the interior at spots that draw from ancient salt water deep under the surface.
Developed water is water that is controlled and managed for a variety of uses. These uses include water stored in dams and reservoirs, or pumped, diverted or channeled in aqueducts.
With a holding capacity of more than 260 billion gallons, Diamond Valley Lake is Southern California’s largest reservoir. It sits about 90 miles southeast of Los Angeles and just west of Hemet in Riverside County where it was built in 2000. The offstream reservoir was created by three large dams that connect the surrounding hills, costing around $1.9 billion and doubling the region’s water storage capacity.
Joan Didion is a native California author and playwright whose famous writings have featured California water issues.
Born and reared in Sacramento, she’s written extensively and personally about her feelings on the subject of water. In her memoir, Where I Was From, she tells not only the story about her pioneering family’s roots in the Sacramento area but also of the seasonal flooding, the water politics and controversies, and the California State Water Project (SWP) and federal Central Valley Project (CVP).
Drought— an extended period of limited or no precipitation— is a fact of life in California and the West, with water resources following boom and-bust patterns.
No portion of the West has been immune to drought during the last century and drought occurs with much greater frequency in the West than in any other regions of the country.
