Sources of Water

The Central Valley Project (CVP)

Originating in 1933, the CVP was built in order to provide irrigation and municipal water to the Central Valley regions. Operated by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, the project stores water in Northern California reservoirs and transports it to the Central Valley through a series of pumping facilities and canals. In Kern County, the Friant-Kern Canal is a branch of the CVP and originates at Millerton Lake.

The CVP also produces hydroelectric power at some of its facilities, provides flood control and is a recreation destination in some areas. 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. 

Approximately 13,000,000 acre-feet of water is stored in 20 CVP reservoirs located  in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada, the Klamath Mountains and the California Coast Ranges. Some  7.4 million acre-feet  of water annually  flows through CVP canals. Of that water, about 5 million acre-feet  is used on about 2 million acres of irrigated farmland and 600,000 acre-feet is used for municipal customer. About 800,000 acre-feet is released into rivers and wetlands for environmental purposes.

CVP components, Shasta Lake and Trinity Lake are formed by a pair of dams in the mountains north of the Sacramento Valley. Water from both of these lakes is sent down the Sacramento River, which flows to the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. Before it can flow on to San Francisco Bay and the Pacific Ocean, some of the water is diverted 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. From these locations, canals carry the water to valley farms and rural communities.