The Madera Canal is a -long aqueduct in the

U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its sover ...

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

. It is part of the

Central Valley Project The Central Valley Project (CVP) is a federal power and water management project in the U.S. state of California under the supervision of the United States Bureau of Reclamation (USBR). It was devised in 1933 in order to provide irrigation an ...

managed by the

United States Bureau of Reclamation The Bureau of Reclamation, and formerly the United States Reclamation Service, is a federal agency under the U.S. Department of the Interior, which oversees water resource management, specifically as it applies to the oversight and opera ...

to convey water north to augment irrigation capacity in

Madera County Madera County (), officially the County of Madera, is a county at the geographic center of the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 156,255. The county seat is Madera. Madera County comprises the Madera, CA Metr ...

. It was also the subject of the

United States Supreme Court The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that involve a point o ...

's decision in Central Green Co. v. United States. The Madera Canal begins at Millerton Lake, a reservoir on the

San Joaquin River The San Joaquin River (; es, Río San Joaquín) is the longest river of Central California. The long river starts in the high Sierra Nevada, and flows through the rich agricultural region of the northern San Joaquin Valley before reaching Suis ...

north of

Fresno Fresno () is a major city in the San Joaquin Valley of California, United States. It is the county seat of Fresno County and the largest city in the greater Central Valley region. It covers about and had a population of 542,107 in 2020, maki ...

. The canal runs north along the eastern edge of the

San Joaquin Valley The San Joaquin Valley ( ; es, Valle de San Joaquín) is the area of the Central Valley of the U.S. state of California that lies south of the Sacramento–San Joaquin River Delta and is drained by the San Joaquin River. It comprises seven c ...

, ending at the

Chowchilla River The Chowchilla River is a river in central California, United States and a minor tributary of the San Joaquin River. It flows for from the western side of the Sierra Nevada Range to the San Joaquin River system in the San Joaquin Valley. Most of ...

east of Chowchilla. Average annual throughput is . The Madera Canal has a capacity of , gradually decreasing to at the terminus. It was completed in 1945. The headworks was rebuilt in 1965 to deliver .

References

Central Valley Project - Friant Division
Bureau of Reclamation
USGS flow data
* {{Central Valley Project infrastructure Agriculture in California Transportation buildings and structures in Madera County, California Central Valley Project Irrigation in the United States Aqueducts in California San Joaquin River United States Bureau of Reclamation 1945 establishments in California Infrastructure completed in 1945