The Peripheral Canal was a series of proposals starting in the 1940s to divert water from

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

Sacramento River The Sacramento River ( es, Río Sacramento) is the principal river of Northern California in the United States and is the largest river in California. Rising in the Klamath Mountains, the river flows south for before reaching the Sacramento� ...

, around the periphery of the San Joaquin-Sacramento River Delta, to uses farther south. The canal would have attempted to resolve a problem with the quality of water pumped south. Pumps create such a powerful suction that the boundary between freshwater to saltwater has shifted inland, negatively affecting the environment. The pumps have increased by the amount of water exported each year to the Central Valley and

Southern California Southern California (commonly shortened to SoCal) is a geographic and cultural region that generally comprises the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. It includes the Los Angeles metropolitan area, the second most populous urban a ...

. However, the peripheral canal as proposed would have reduced the overall freshwater flow into the Delta and move the freshwater-saltwater interface further inland, causing damage to Delta agriculture and ecosystems.

Water project impact

Before 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 ...

and State Water Project were built, all freshwater—primarily runoff from the Sierra Nevada—entering the

Sacramento–San Joaquin River Delta The Sacramento–San Joaquin River Delta, or California Delta, is an expansive inland river delta and estuary in Northern California. The Delta is formed at the western edge of the Central Valley by the confluence of the Sacramento and San ...

flowed into San Francisco Bay. After the pumps powering the Central Valley Project and State Water Project became operational, the freshwater was drawn from the Delta Cross Channel through a maze of river channels and sloughs before entering the Clifton Court Forebay north of Tracy, where water is pumped into 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 ...

and the Delta-Mendota Canal. Large numbers of

Delta smelt The delta smelt (''Hypomesus transpacificus'') is an endangered slender-bodied smelt, about long, in the family Osmeridae. Non-Indigenous to the upper Sacramento-San Joaquin Estuary of California, it mainly inhabits the freshwater-saltwater mix ...

and other endangered species are killed by the pumping plants, which provide water for the aqueducts. Freshwater flowing into the Delta displaces salt water entering from the San Francisco Bay.

New proposal

, a new concept that tries to accomplish the same purpose is under consideration in the form of two massive tunnels to be constructed as part of the $25 billion California Water Fix and Eco Restore project. Governor Jerry Brown strongly advocated for the project, but it was mired in controversy due to problems financing it and environmental concerns.

Previous proposals

Prior to the 1940s, water was drawn from the southern end of the Delta. Since then, various groups have lobbied for the construction of a Peripheral Canal to instead draw water from the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers to the federal aqueducts. Because of drought and other low flow issues that cause salty ocean water to flow from pumping stations which are located at the southern edge of the

into the aqueducts of both the state (

) and federal government ( Delta-Mendota Canal), aquatic environments as well as water for drinking and irrigation are contaminated. Thus, both state and federal agencies proposed a plan in 1965 for the second phase of the

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 ...

, which created a canal that would transport fresh water from the

bypassing the delta, instead of through it. Voters defeated a ballot initiative to build a similar Canal in 1982.

References

External links

* Home page for th
Bay Delta Conservation Plan
which includes Peripheral Canal-like tunnels.
The Bay Delta Conservation Plan: An Overview and Local Perspectives
in ''Western City''.
Bay-Delta Conservation
from Save the Bay. {{coord missing, California Jerry Brown Politics of California Canals in California Geography of the Central Valley (California) Sacramento–San Joaquin River Delta Water in California

Water project impact

Sponsors

New proposal

Previous proposals

References

External links