Talk:California State Water Project

"Most of the water (roughly 80%) generated by the project is in fact used for agriculture, primarily in the San Joaquin Valley, as pumping the water over the Tehachapi Mountains is costly and Southern California has other sources of water such as the Owens River, Mono Lake and the Colorado River." We still need to work on this statement. First off, the amount of water delivered by the project (please use the word delivered ... water can not be generated on the scale we are talking about here) to urban vs. agricultural users varies from year to year (a fact that should be pointed out). More importantly the SWP ratio of urban to ag volumes is actually (and has been for years) higher to urban drinking water and industrial uses. As California continues to urbanize, farm land is being taken out of production and converted to housing ... the irrigation districts formed from the late 1800s through the 1950s have taken on dual roles, and as such water contracted out to some of these irrigation districts is largely used as drinking water. Now on the subject of drinking water, Metropolitian Water District of Southern California buys water from the SWP and then blends Delta water with Colorado River water (which is closely regulated by the Colorado River Compact and Federal Govt.) because Colorado River water is too saline, while Delta water is too organic. Either type of water is bad, but interestingly a blend of the two sources provides a water supply that is safe for human consumption (the concern is the formation of disinfection by-products -- THMs, Bromates, etc.). The bottom line is that any water supplier can't treat bad water and turn it into "wine". So the millions of people south of the Tehachapi Mountains really need the Delta more than authors like Reisner give credit. Please note that Reisners accounts in Cadillac Desert, while entertaining, are not historically accurate ... also the book was published in 1986 -- I suspect you have a reprint. Oh, don't get me wrong, Cadillac Desert is a good book and Reisner did an incredible job in trying to interest people in Western Water issues, but a much better book on the SWP would be Norris Hundley, Jr.'s "The Great Thirst". But long before I'd go to novels for historical facts, authors should spend some time interviewing DWR staff and visiting our web pages. Water isn't a urban vs. ag issue. Urban agencies fight each other, farmers fight each other, environmental issues pop up frequently, flood control problems are rampant. The SWP has a lot of political implications, and I think the article should start with the facts, and keep political subjects to other areas. In theory, when I quote 23 million, Wikipedia should include a reference to that figure. I throw the number out there because I work on the SWP ... but the truth is I've heard that number batted around for years, so I strongly suspect it is low. I'm very interested in working to build a comprehensive California water category of articles ... but Reisner is not really the best source. He speculated at times and his notes are based on the 1980s. California has changed a great deal since then. MCalamari 02:03, 10 May 2006 (UTC)

Levee System
Are there viewpoints that are overrepresented, or underrepresented? I believe this article underrepresents the importance of a strong levee system to protect urban land that has been converted from agricultural land, and land used for the CA State Water projects. Leidelar78 (talk) 02:17, 3 April 2018 (UTC)

Drought of 2014
I am working on integrating some of the content from other related Wikipedia articles and HighBeam references to create a section on the drought and water resource management. oceanflynn 15:22, 17 July 2014 (UTC)
 * You may want to add this to Water in California instead, which is a general article covering all aspects of water in the state. This article is more specific, focusing on the infrastructure that comprises the state water project. I've started a section for natural disasters (floods, droughts, etc) in Water in California. -- phoebe / (talk to me) 22:58, 25 October 2014 (UTC)

Sustainability?
My name is Jacqui Aiello and I'm a student at UC Berkeley currently taking a class on California Water and Society. This is a wonderful article! It's very well researched and I didn't find any bugs in the citations or links. One idea I would suggest adding to this article is the SWP's sustainability efforts - how has the SWP improved its relationship to the environment/encouraged its users to be more water efficient? With Governor Brown's new executive order, questions like this will now be at the top of everyone's list when thinking about how to conserve. Jacquiaiello (talk) 23:09, 6 April 2015 (UTC)

External links modified
Hello fellow Wikipedians,

I have just modified 1 one external link on California State Water Project. Please take a moment to review my edit. If you have any questions, or need the bot to ignore the links, or the page altogether, please visit this simple FaQ for additional information. I made the following changes:
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20140101080324/http://www.water.ca.gov/storage/docs/NODOS%20Project%20Docs/Sites_FAQ.pdf to http://www.water.ca.gov/storage/docs/NODOS%20Project%20Docs/Sites_FAQ.pdf

When you have finished reviewing my changes, please set the checked parameter below to true or failed to let others know (documentation at ).

Cheers.— InternetArchiveBot  (Report bug) 03:11, 13 November 2016 (UTC)

External links modified
Hello fellow Wikipedians,

I have just modified 2 external links on California State Water Project. Please take a moment to review my edit. If you have any questions, or need the bot to ignore the links, or the page altogether, please visit this simple FaQ for additional information. I made the following changes:
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20141224125743/https://beniciaherald.wordpress.com/2013/04/02/the-delta-garamendi-plan-offered-as-alternative-to-destructive-plumbing-plan-of-tunnels/ to http://beniciaherald.wordpress.com/2013/04/02/the-delta-garamendi-plan-offered-as-alternative-to-destructive-plumbing-plan-of-tunnels/
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20150128112059/http://www.energyalmanac.ca.gov/renewables/hydro/ to http://www.energyalmanac.ca.gov/renewables/hydro/

When you have finished reviewing my changes, you may follow the instructions on the template below to fix any issues with the URLs.

Cheers.— InternetArchiveBot  (Report bug) 08:25, 29 July 2017 (UTC)

External links modified (January 2018)
Hello fellow Wikipedians,

I have just modified 4 external links on California State Water Project. Please take a moment to review my edit. If you have any questions, or need the bot to ignore the links, or the page altogether, please visit this simple FaQ for additional information. I made the following changes:
 * Added tag to http://46.105.251.113/Centennial/papers/MeiersBook/CaWaterProject.pdf
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20131001180117/http://www.c-win.org/big-water-projects-california.html to http://www.c-win.org/big-water-projects-california.html
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20131225153525/http://environs.law.ucdavis.edu/issues/25/2/dunning.pdf to http://environs.law.ucdavis.edu/issues/25/2/dunning.pdf
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20120309153328/http://www.water.ca.gov/damsafety/docs/Juris(A-G)1.pdf to http://www.water.ca.gov/damsafety/docs/Juris(A-G)1.pdf
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20090804014336/http://www.valleywater.org/Water/Where_Your_Water_Comes_From/Imported_Water/State_Water_Project.shtm to http://www.valleywater.org/Water/Where_Your_Water_Comes_From/Imported_Water/State_Water_Project.shtm

When you have finished reviewing my changes, you may follow the instructions on the template below to fix any issues with the URLs.

Cheers.— InternetArchiveBot  (Report bug) 06:31, 25 January 2018 (UTC)