Residents of California rely on two types of sources for their drinking water: surface water (rivers and lakes) and groundwater (underground aquifers). Some communities are fortunate enough to be near both a surface water source and a groundwater aquifer. Groundwater provides 60 percent of all water supplied to Californians and is usually pumped from aquifers underlying local communities. In places where there is not enough local surface or groundwater to meet customer needs, water suppliers purchase water from other areas and transport it through many miles of pipelines. This imported water is delivered through facilities developed by state, federal or local governments. The Central Valley Project (CVP), the State Water Project (SWP), the Colorado River Aqueduct, and many local and regional projects supply water when and where it is needed.

Major Water Projects
The State Water Project (SWP) consists of 22 dams and reservoirs. Water in the upper Feather River is provided from the project for water supply and recreation uses, while Oroville Dam forms the SWPÕs largest storage reservoir. From there, water flows south to the Bay-Delta, where the North and South Bay aqueducts serve communities in the southern San Francisco Bay area. The 444-mile long California Aqueduct begins at the Delta Pumping Plant and follows Interstate 5 south to the Tehachapi Mountains. To cross the Tehachapis into southern California, water is elevated at the Robert D. Edmonston Pumping Plant some 2,000 feet - higher than anywhere else in the world. About 30 percent of SWP water is used for agriculture and 70 percent is used for residential, municipal and industrial use, mainly in southern California. The California Department of Water Resources (DWR) is responsible for the management of the SWP. For more information on the SWP or DWR, visit their web site at www.dwr.water.ca.gov .

The Central Valley Project (CVP) stores and transports surplus water from the Sacramento and San Joaquin Rivers to the agricultural Central Valley. Shasta Dam in the north and Friant-Kern Canal in southern San Joaquin Valley are part of CVP. In a normal year, the CVP provides 95 percent of its water for agricultural use and 5 percent for urban use. The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, a branch of the Department of the Interior, is responsible for the operation of the CVP. For more information about the CVP and the Bureau, visit their web site at www.usbr.gov .

From the Colorado River's beginning, northwest of Denver, this 1,400 mile long river passes through parts of seven states: four in its upper basin - Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming - and three in its lower basin - Arizona, California, and Nevada. Its water is also shared by several American Indian tribes in the basin states and by the Republic of Mexico. In 1941, California completed the 242 mile-long Colorado River Aqueduct, delivering Colorado River water to communities in Southern California. The Department of the Interior's U.S. Bureau of Reclamation is responsible for the management of the River and its allocations. A recent agreement has been reached which requires California to remain within its annual water supply allocation of 4.4 million-acre feet. For more information about the Colorado River and the Bureau, visit their web site at www.usbr.gov .