Los Banos Rotary Club History
Christian Reviews C.V.P. Progress

E. L. Christian, former watermaster for the local canal companies and now watermaster for the Central Valley Project, with headquarters at Sacramento, was guest speaker at the Rotary Club luncheon Tuesday noon, giving a resume of Central Valley Project progress and explaining the various features of the plan most vitally affecting this immediate area.

Pointing out that the income California's agriculture in one year amounts to more than all the gold that has been found since its discovery in California 100 years ago. Christian declared that today, water represents California's greatest resource. Its is for the purpose of conserving and beneficially using this water supply that the Central Valley Project was started in 1935 by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation.

The initial features of the Project, Christian explained, include Shasta dam, Friant dam, Friant-Kern canal, Madera canal, Delta canal and Tracy pump plant. All of these units are now completed or under construction and the project is expected to get underway sometime in 1951, with the water of the San Joaquin river flowing southward to relieve a critical water shortage in the southern part of the valley, and replacement water being routed to this area from watersheds in the northern part of the state.

Speaking of Shasta dam, Christian said the annual run-off of the Sacramento river there is about five million acre-feet, compared to an annual run-off of 1,800,000 acre-feet for the San Joaquin river. Shasta dam now creates California's largest manmade lake, and in addition to regulating and conserving the river flow, furnishes water power for five 75,000 kilowatt generators that combine to create the largest electrical powerhouse in the state.

Friant dam, fourth largest in the world, will store 520,000 acre-feet of water, most of which is to be diverted southward for 153 miles through the Friant-Kern canal. The canal will have a capacity of 5,000 second-feet at its intake—almost three times the capacity required to supply the four local canal companies.

The Delta-Mendota canal, Christian said, will extend from Tracy some 120 miles to connect with Mendota pool, from which point all local irrigation water will be handled as in former years. This canal will have a capacity of 4,600 second-feet, considerably more than sufficient to supply present needs of this district.

Water from the Sacramento river will be pumped into the canal at a point near Tracy, from where it will flow by gravity to Mendota. Six 22,500 horsepower pumps will be installed at the Tracy pumping plant to handle the water. Electrical demand for these pumps will absorb almost one-third of the total output of the Shasta powerhouse, Christian said.

Christian emphasized that the Delta-Mendota canal project is an essential part of the overall project, and that this area must first be served with irrigation water before water of the San Joaquin river can be diverted elsewhere. "You have," he said, "every right to that water, which is part and parcel of your land."

The speaker also reviewed briefly future plans of the Bureau, which include Folsom dam, San Luis dam west of Los Banos, and a proposed San Luis-West Side canal to carry irrigation water from San Luis reservoir south along the west side to Coalinga. However, Christian said, this feature is not considered as an immediate project and constitutes only one phase of the Bureau's program to harness and utilize the state's natural water resources as the need justifies.

August 23, 1949

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