Water Education Foundation
This is just one post in the DWR & State Water Project Category
Click here to view all posts

East branch of the California Aqueduct studied to increase water flow

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on January 28, 2008 at 8:42 am

From the Antelope Valley Press:

Water flow through the east branch of the California Aqueduct needs some kind of fix to boost capacity, a leading Valley water official said.

palmdale-lancaster-august-2007-post-full-size.jpg That east branch of the aqueduct is the channel from which Antelope Valley-based State Water Contractors, including the Antelope Valley-East Kern Water Agency and Palmdale Water and Littlerock Creek Irrigation districts pull their share of surface water. These days the purveyors want water to move more quickly through the aqueduct, so they formed a group to study ways “to increase the flow rate through the east branch,” AVEK General Manager Russ Fuller said.

Total cost for the study runs about $15,000, but AVEK’s share is approximately $112, a fee the agency board unanimously approved during a meeting Tuesday night – a fee that was based on the volume of water that AVEK pulls from the aqueduct as well as the agency’s distance from that water source. Fuller said all 29 state water contractors joined forces to conduct the study. “All the contractors’ needs are increasing as time goes on,” Fuller said, largely because of the growing population.

Why is the study needed?

The impetus behind the study is not really to get more water, “but to get back up to what we originally paid for,” Fuller told AVEK board members. Back in the ’70s, as construction of the 444-mile state water conveyance system proceeded south, “there were tremendous cost overruns,” he said. Financial challenges prompted planners to make some compromises in terms of construction in order to complete the project. “So the east branch never produced the flow that the contractors anticipated,” Fuller said. “Those compromises are now biting us in (terms of) lost capacity.”

To read the full text of this story from the Antelop Valley Press, click here.

January 28, 2008 · Filed Under DWR & State Water Project, Water Agency News (all)

Comments

Leave a Reply