California Never Rains

We have whole year long sunshine which we love, enjoy and take advantage of. In California, it almost never rains.

So where does our water come from? Especially we don't have river run through south California.

One day when I washed my hands, I started thinking about this question and wondering how long my pipe would be to link to the source of my tap water.

I did some research and it's much far er than I expected. There are 3 sources of the tap water which I can't live without.

1. State Water Project: This project includes 22 dams and reservoirs, a Delta pumping plant, a 444 mile long aqueduct that carries water from Delta through the San Joaquin Valley to southern California. At some area, some giant pumps lift the water over 2000 feet mountain and into southern California.

2. The Colorado River: Colorado River is 1440 mile passes 7 states. The interesting part is Colorado River runs through a very small area of California, almost around the boarder of it. However it serves 18 million customers with it's 4.4 million acre-feet of water annually.

3. Ground water: about 30% of California total annual water comes from groundwater in normal year. But if it's a drought year, it would supply up to 60%. Groundwater doesn't exit in underground lakes but between sand, gravel, silt and clay in water-bearing formations known as aquifers.


Now I have a very good reason not to waste water. It does come a long way and is really precious.

Sources and reference:

http://www.ci.torrance.ca.us/PDF/WaterQualityReport2007.pdf

http://aquafornia.com/where-does-southern-californias-water-come-from