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Transcript for The Great Web of Water, segment 03 of 12
Construction began in nineteen thirty-five during the Great Depression. For the people who came to build the project, this work was a renewal of pride and personal meaning.
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The creation of the great web of water has continued for nearly a half century. Friant Dam finished in nineteen forty-two, Shasta Dam finished in nineteen forty-five, Folsom Dam in nineteen fifty-five, Trinity Dam, nineteen sixty-two. Other facilities including New Melones Dam finished in nineteen seventy-nine plus fourteen hundred thirty megawatts of hydroelectric generating capacity to power the project and to help pay the cost.
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Here's the Central Valley Project today. Over twenty dams and reservoirs to store fourteen million acre feet of water. Four point six trillion gallons for farm, home, and industry. Nearly fifteen hundred miles of canals, conduits, and tunnels. More than three hundred pumping plants to carry water to the valley.
Parallel to the CVP system is the California State Water Project carrying its own water through the San Joaquin Valley into southern California. The CVP serves more than three hundred water districts, cities, and power agencies. Water and power sales pay all of the annual operating, maintenance, and replacement costs of the project. Project users will also repay eighty-five percent of the capital construction cost. The other fifteen percent is credited to flood control and other benefits to the general public.
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