California's Water Concerns

California's Water Concerns Synopsis

In California, the roughly 500-mile long Central Valley Project (CVP), one of the nation's largest water projects, provides water for multiple uses, including irrigation; municipal supply; power generation; and fish and wildlife mitigation, protection, and restoration. Reclamation, which manages the CVP, must balance these competing interests for water, which is particularly important as California enters its fourth consecutive year of an extreme drought.

A series of federal laws enacted from 1992 through 2009 have affected Reclamation's management of the CVPthe CVPIA, Calfed Bay-Delta, and San Joaquinand Reclamation is one of the primary federal agencies that manages the programs established to implement specific activities authorised under the relevant legislation and requirements. The U.S. Government Accountability Office was asked to examine Reclamation's use of funding for the three programs.

This book provides financial information for activities carried out under the CVPIA, Calfed Bay-Delta, and San Joaquin programs, including specific legal authorities under which Reclamation requested and expended funds since each program's inception through fiscal year 2014; and discusses drought in the United States.