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Banner May 22, 2014

Your Online Water Encyclopedia

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Overview February 11, 2014

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Aquapedia background August 25, 2016

One Hundred Year Flood

Risk Assessment, Not a Timeline

Contrary to popular belief, “100-Year Flood” does not refer to a flood that happens every century. Rather, the term describes the statistical chance of a flood of a certain magnitude (or greater) taking place once in 100 years. It is also accurate to say a so-called “100-Year Flood” has a 1 percent chance of occurring in a given year, and those living in a 100-year floodplain have, each year, a 1 percent chance of being flooded.

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  • Layperson's Guide to Flood Management
Aquapedia background February 11, 2014 All Things Drought Dams Layperson's Guide to the State Water Project

Oroville Dam

Oroville Dam, a key part of California's State Water Project.Oroville Dam is the centerpiece of the State Water Project (SWP) and its largest water storage facility.

Located about 70 miles north of Sacramento at the confluence of the three forks of the Feather River, Oroville Dam is an earthfill dam (consisting of an impervious core surrounded by sands, gravels and rockfill materials) that creates a reservoir that can hold 3.5 million acre-feet of water.

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Aquapedia background February 11, 2014

Overdraft

Overdraft occurs when, over a period of years, more water is pumped from a groundwater basin than is replaced from all sources – such as rainfall, irrigation water, streams fed by mountain runoff and intentional recharge. [See also Hydrologic Cycle.]

While many of its individual aquifers are not overdrafted, California as a whole uses more groundwater than is replaced.

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Aquapedia background August 30, 2016

Owens Lake

Owens Lake is a dry lake at the terminus of the Owens River just west of Death Valley and on the eastern side of the Sierra Nevada. For at least 800,000 years, the lake had a continuous flow of water, until 1913 when the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP) completed the 233-mile Los Angeles Aqueduct to supplement the budding metropolis’ increasing water demands.

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