Investment in water infrastructure has been neglected at the same time as environmentalists have demanded increasing percentages of water remain in the rivers as "Unimpaired flow." In response, rationing has been the tool of choice to allocate what water supplies remain available for the state's farms and cities.
Residential water use only accounts for about 6.5 percent of total water diversions in California, or just around 5 million acre feet per year.
A coalition of farmers, water agencies and cities in the San Joaquin Valley propose to cut a couple of channels into existing Delta Islands where the ground level is below the level of the water in the channels and bury perforated collection pipes under a gravel-filled infiltration bed on the bottom of the channels.
Surface storage is required to provide enhanced flood control, hydroelectric power, the ability to release water into the rivers on demand, and, in some cases, to bring water storage closer to water consumers.
Water is pumped from the aqueduct into the O'Neill Forebay and then during full sun, when surplus power is bursting out of our solar farms all over the state, they use that cheap electricity to pump the water into the San Luis reservoir.
Because Shasta is a deep water reservoir, more water behind the dam means more water is available to cool the Sacramento River whenever salmon are running and the temperature in the water rises higher than 70 degrees.
Getting wholesale water for water operations-that's the energy necessary for pumping, pre-treatment, and wastewater treatment-is only 14 percent of that 20 percent, which means only 2.8 percent of our total energy use in California is for water operations.
https://amgreatness.com/2024/05/29/taking-back-california-part-five-abundant-water/
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