Talk:California State Water Project

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"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)