The Los Banos Grandes reservoir was first proposed in 1983 and would have served a similar purpose to
Sites Reservoir. The reservoir would have been located along the
California Aqueduct
The Governor Edmund G. Brown California Aqueduct is a system of canals, tunnels, and pipelines that conveys water collected from the Sierra Nevada Mountains and valleys of Northern and Central California to Southern California. Named after Califo ...
several miles south of
San Luis Reservoir
The San Luis Reservoir is an artificial lake on San Luis Creek in the eastern slopes of the Diablo Range of Merced County, California, approximately west of Los Banos on State Route 152, which crosses Pacheco Pass and runs along its north ...
, and would have allowed for the storage of water during wet years when extra water could be pumped from the
Sacramento–San Joaquin Delta. Pumped-storage hydroelectric plants would have been built between Los Banos Grandes and the existing Los Banos flood control reservoir, and between that reservoir and the aqueduct.
The current status of Los Banos Grandes remains uncertain, as the DWR has been unable to appropriate funding since the 1990s.
See also
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California State Water Project
The California State Water Project, commonly known as the SWP, is a state water management project in the U.S. state of California under the supervision of the California Department of Water Resources. The SWP is one of the largest public wate ...
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Water in California
California's interconnected water system serves over 30 million people and irrigates over of farmland. As the world's largest, most productive, and potentially most controversial water system, it manages over of water per year.
Water and wate ...
References
Reservoirs in California
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