Programs to Help Out During the Dry Years

摘要

The ability to develop and implement water transfer programs on the Colorado River has been essential in enabling southern California to weather the historic western drought. But as additional programs are needed from the Colorado, the flexibility to implement new water-sharing arrangements may be reduced in the near future. The Metropolitan Water District of Southern California provides water to one in two Californians. In the 1990s, we developed a new approach to meeting the region's water supply needs. Facing a six-year drought, Metropolitan realized that investments in the large water delivery projects that supply our region (the State Water Project from the Sacramento River and the Colorado River Aqueduct) were not sufficient to meet our dry-year water needs. To better prepare for future dry periods, Metropolitan developed an integrated resources plan, or IRP, comprising three components: maintaining the existing level of imported water supplies; investing in storage and transfers to meet dry-year demands; and developing local supplies to meet future growth.