| OCR Text |
Show Friant Reservoir, and related canals, have been completed. They are delivering water to parts of the Sacramento and San Joaquin Valleys for surface application and also for replenishment of under- ground water supplies. The California State Water Plan The 1921 California State Legislature directed that a plan be prepared for the maximum conserva- tion, control, storage, distribution, and application of all the waters of the State. It also declared "that the people of California have a paramount interest in the use of all the waters of the State and that the State of California shall determine what waters of the State, surface and underground, can be diverted to public use, or controlled for public protection." The report covering the Central Valley, prepared by the Division of Water Resources, was submitted to the 1931 legislature.2 It outlined a comprehen- sive plan for the Central Valley to meet its require- ments, to reserve water for the irrigable lands of the mountainous areas, to provide for exportation of domestic and industrial water to San Francisco and the East Bay Municipal Utility District, and for flood control, navigation, salinity control, and hydroelectric power. When adopted by the State legislature it was referred to as the State Water Plan.3 Funds were authorized to initiate the plan. The State bond issue failed. In 1935, by Executive Order, Federal funds were made available to under- take work on key elements of the plan. When Congress authorized the activity, control passed from the State to the Federal Government, although the State bias several times since considered taking over the work. The term Central Valley Project originated at the time Shasta and Friant Dams and other works, parts of the State Water Plan, were authorized for construction by the Bureau of Reclamation.4 Sub- sequently other projects, when authorized for con- struction by the Bureau, have been added as ele- ments in tbie Central Valley Project. Thus, many projects authorized to other agencies for construc- tion and proposed by the Bureau of Reclamation 2 Bulletin !No. 25, California State Division of Water Resources, Sacramento, 1930, 204 pp. 31941 State legislature, ch. 1185 Cal. Stat. 1941. 4 First authorized by Executive Order on September 30, 1935, under the Emergency Relief Appropriation Act of April 8, 1935, 49 Stat. 115, 117. Reauthorized by the Congress as a. Federal reclamation project by Act of Au- gust 26, 1937 (50 Stat. 844, 850) and by Act of October 17, 1940 (54- Stat. 1198, 1199). for construction are not now units of the Central Valley Project, although they may be parts of the ultimate development of the basin's resources. The Central Valley Project The plan for irrigation as proposed by the Bureau of Reclamation has taken up the development of the Central Valley after a long history of improve- ment of the area by private and municipal groups under State supervision. These previously con- structed projects included the lowest cost and most easily constructed possibilities and irrigated the areas most accessible to the available water supply. Some 4 million acres now are irrigated, about 40 percent by pumping from underground supplies. The following figures present two estimates of the net irrigable acreage in the basin and indicate im- portant possibilities of extending irrigation, to make maximum use of the water supply. This supply averaged 18.4 million acre-feet annually during the very dry period 1927-34, and 33 million acre-feet during the 40-year period between 1903^3. Estimates of total net irrigable area1 Bureau of Reclamation State Geographical division: Acres Acres Sacramento Valley___1,600,000 2, 386,000 Delta_______________ 360,000 392,000 American River and Lower San Joaquin. 1, 360, 000 1, 930, 000 Upper San Joaquin, east side__________2,200,000 2,856,000 Upper San Joaquin, west side__________ 710,000 792,000 Foothills and mountain valleys____________ 350,000 1,614,000 Total_________6,580,000 9,970,000 1 Includes land now irrigated. Much of the land now irrigated is in need of sup- plemental water above that required at the time the projects were built, because of present intensi- fied use as compared with the early agriculture. Projects Under Construction and Authorized The water distribution systems of the initial Bureau of Reclamation Central Valley Project structures will go into full operation in 1951. With- in a decade they are expected to deliver water to 550,000 acres of new land and supplemental water to another 500,000 acres. Three projects under construction by the Corps 90 |
