California Water News Daily Your Source For Water News in California
Last week Metropolitan Water District (MWD) and state officials came together at Diamond Valley Lake to mark a major milestone as it began refilling Southern California’s largest reservoir for the first time in three years.
“With the help of these recent storms, and the continued efficient water use of Southern Californians, we expect this year to be able to nearly replace all the withdrawals from storage we made over the past three years,” Metropolitan General Manager Adel Hagekhalil said.
Metropolitan relies heavily on its reserves in Diamond Valley Lake to provide water to Southern California. Without this 810,000 acre-foot reservoir, the impact of the dry cycle on the region would have been far worse. Built in the late 1990s, the reservoir is the largest in Southern California and is owned and operated by Metropolitan.
The district’s ability to begin storing water is due to the State Water Project’s delivery allocation increasing to 75 percent. MWD now expects to store about 750,000 acre-feet in reservoirs and groundwater basins across the state. In addition, Metropolitan will also deliver water to help replenish local storage managed by its member agencies and is prepared to manage additional water if the allocation increases further.
