 Parker Dam on Lake Havasu where Colorado River waters are initially drawn into the system |
|
| Begins | Lake Havasu 34°17′24″N 114°10′20″W / 34.289894°N 114.172094°W |
|---|---|
| Ends | Lake Mathews 33°50′14″N 117°22′41″W / 33.837240°N 117.378098°W |
| Maintained by | Metropolitan Water District of Southern California |
| Length | 242 mi (389 km) |
| Capacity | 1,600 cu ft/s (45 m3/s) |
| Construction began | 1933 |
| Opening date | 7 January 1939 |
| References [1][2] | |
The Colorado River Aqueduct is a 242 mi (389 km) water conveyance in Southern California in the United States, operated by the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California (MWD). The aqueduct impounds water from the Colorado River at Lake Havasu on the California-Arizona border west across the Mojave and Colorado deserts to the east side of the Santa Ana Mountains. It is one of the primary sources of drinking water for Southern California.
Description
The aqueduct begins near Parker Dam on the Colorado southeast of Lake Havasu City, Arizona. It crosses the southern Mojave Desert, skirting around several small mountain ranges and the southern edge of Joshua Tree National Park. It enters the Coachella Valley north of the Salton Sea and flows northwest along the Little San Bernardino Mountains. It crosses the San Jacinto Mountains west of Palm Springs and terminates at Lake Mathews in western Riverside County, from whence it is distributed to multiple communities in the MWD region.
The system is composed of two reservoirs, five pumping stations, 63 mi (101 km) of canals, 92 mi (148 km) of tunnels, and 84 mi (135 km) of buried conduit and siphons. Average annual throughput is 1,200,000 acre·ft (1,480,000 dam³).
The aqueduct was constructed between 1933-1941 by the MWD to bring water to the 13 cities in the south coast basin that were founding member agencies of MWD. (MWD's service area now extends from Ventura county to San Diego county.) Water first flowed in the aqueduct on January 7, 1939 when the intake pumps at Lake Havasu began operation to fill the first of the reservoirs in the system in Gene Basin.[3]
Originally conceived by William Mulholland and designed by Chief Engineer Frank E. Weymouth of the MWD, it was the largest public works project in southern California during the Great Depression. The project employed 30,000 people over an eight-year period and as many as 10,000 at one time.
The CRA contributed to urban growth (even sprawl) in the south coast region. Although the CRA brought "too much, too expensive" water in its early years of operation, subsidies (via property taxes) and expansion of MWD's service area brought reduced prices and expanded demand. (Holding supply constant, that meant that the quantity demanded rose to meet supplies.) On subsidies and sprawl, note that it was not until 1954 that Met's revenue from selling water exceed the cost of delivering it; it was not until 1973 that revenue from sales exceeded revenue from taxes. Since about 80 percent of Met's costs are fixed, revenue needs to cover way more than operating expenses if it is going to pay for all costs.[4]
In 1955, the aqueduct was recognized by the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) as one of the "Seven Engineering Wonders of American Engineering".[5]
References
- ^ U.S. Geological Survey (19 January 1981). "Feature Detail Report: Colorado River Aqueduct". Geographic Names Information System (GNIS). U.S. Department of the Interior. http://geonames.usgs.gov/pls/gnispublic/f?p=116:3:339445792520671::NO::P3_FID,P3_TITLE:270566%2CColorado%20River%20Aqueduct. Retrieved 2009-03-19.
- ^ U.S. Geological Survey (19 January 1981). "Colorado River Aqueduct Right-of-Way Map". Geographic Names Information System (GNIS). U.S. Department of the Interior. http://geonames.usgs.gov/pls/gnis538/getgooglemap?p_lat=33.6861312&p_longi=-115.9344415&fid=270566. Retrieved 2009-03-19.
- ^ Schmitt, F.E. (5 January 1939). "First Water Flows in Colorado Aqueduct". Engineering News-Record (McGraw-Hill) 122 (1): 1. http://books.google.com/books?id=48ojAAAAMAAJ. Retrieved 2009-03-19.
- ^ David Zetland (2008), Conflict and Cooperation within an Organization: A Case Study of the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California. PhD Dissertation, UC Davis. pp. 28-43.
- ^ "Designated Historic Civil Engineering Landmarks: Colorado River Aqueduct, Blythe, California, USA". History and Heritage of Civil Engineering. American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE). 2009. http://www.asce.org/history/landmark/projects.cfm?menu=name. Retrieved 2009-03-19.
External links
Media related to Colorado River Aqueduct at Wikimedia Commons- Metropolitan Water District of Southern California official website
- The Colorado River Aqueduct at The Center for Land Use Interpretation
- The Los Angeles Aqueduct at the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power
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