California WaterFix Update
Issue 2, October 27, 2016

 

Catching up on California WaterFix

If you are new to CA WaterFix or haven't heard any updates about the project in a while, we have some background information and upcoming milestones to share.  As the project moves through its final approval stages, this newsletter will provide up-to-date information.  We hope it becomes a valuable resource.  


CA WaterFix is about fixing the State Water Project (SWP) so that it is less vulnerable to a variety of risks that currently threaten the system.  
The SWP delivers one-third of the regional drinking water to all of Metropolitan's  19 million customers who live in the six counties of Ventura, Los Angeles, San Bernardino, Riverside, Orange County and San Diego.  Many customers within this region are 100 percent reliant on the SWP.
The SWP delivers water from Northern California. It has for decades been an incomplete project as it never finished building its original design. 
The water system relies on seismically vulnerable levees that travel through the environmentally sensitive Sacramento/San Joaquin Delta of Northern California. CA Waterfix is a project initiated by state and federal leaders to fix the many vulnerabilities of this system.

Where the Project is Going

CA WaterFix was developed out of many years of effort by state and federal leaders who initiated the program in 2006.  It was first organized as a project called the Bay Delta Conservation Plan (BDCP). The project was amended last year to its near complete status as the California WaterFix and California EcoRestore.
  
The project would modernize the SWP by providing new intakes in the
northern portion of the Delta in the cleaner waters of the Sacramento River.  Existing intakes are in the environmentally sensitive southern Delta.


This change would allow for flexibility in operating the SWP system, much greater seismic reliability, and less impact on the Delta ecosystem.
  
The project is now advancing through the state and federal environmental review process, as various permits are needed along with final approval before the project can receive a "Record of Decision" and a "Notice of Determination" (ROD/NOD).

Read the previous California WaterFix issue here

For more information

 
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Metropolitan Water District of Southern California
mwdh2o.com