The South Bay Aqueduct is an aqueduct located in the eastern part of the San Francisco Bay Area. It conveys water from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta through over forty miles of pipelines and canals. It begins in north-eastern Alameda County on 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 Cali ...

Bethany Reservoir The Bethany Reservoir is located northeast of Livermore, California, USA, on the California Aqueduct. It serves as the forebay for the South Bay Pumping Plant that feeds the South Bay Aqueduct. Characteristics * Gross capacity: See also * Li ...

serving as the forebay. The aqueduct flows along the eastern and southern edges of the Livermore Valley. Then it flows through a series of tunnels to an end in the foothills of eastern San Jose, 5 miles (8 km) from downtown

San Jose, California San Jose, officially San José (; ; ), is a major city in the U.S. state of California that is the cultural, financial, and political center of Silicon Valley and largest city in Northern California by both population and area. With a 2020 popul ...

. Construction on the South Bay Aqueduct began in 1960. The Aqueduct was the first delivery system completed under the

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 water ...

and has been conveying water to Alameda County since 1962 and to

Santa Clara County Santa Clara County, officially the County of Santa Clara, is the sixth-most populous county in the U.S. state of California, with a population of 1,936,259, as of the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census. Santa Clara County and neighboring Sa ...

since 1965. The South Bay Aqueduct begins at Bethany Reservoir near Tracy, with the South Bay Pumping Plant lifting water 566 feet into the first reach of the Aqueduct. The South Bay's Pumping Plant's nine pumping units, with a combined capacity of 330 cubic feet per second, discharge water through two parallel buried pipelines to the eastern ridge of the

Diablo Range The Diablo Range is a mountain range in the California Coast Ranges subdivision of the Pacific Coast Ranges in northern California, United States. It stretches from the eastern San Francisco Bay area at its northern end to the Salinas Valley are ...

. From there, water flows by gravity for nine miles to the 100 acre-foot Patterson Reservoir, where some water is released for delivery to Livermore Valley. Water flow then continues about nine miles to a junction point where a portion is diverted into a 1 1/2-mile branch line and pumped into

Lake Del Valle Lake Del Valle is a storage reservoir located southeast of Livermore, in Alameda County, California. It is within Del Valle Regional Park. Lake description It is on Arroyo Valle (Spanish for "creek of the valley") in the Diablo Range. The lake ...

. Beyond the Del Valle junction, the water flows by pipeline to La Costa Tunnel, proceeds southwest past Sunol, through the Mission Tunnel, then south through the hills overlooking San Francisco Bay. South Bay Aqueduct terminates in a 160-foot diameter steel tank on a hillside five miles east of downtown San Jose.

Water agencies served

* Alameda County Flood Control and Water Conservation District (Zone 7) - Maximum Annual Entitlement: *

Alameda County Water District The Alameda County Water District (ACWD) is a public agency in Alameda County, California, United States, which has responsibilities for managing and protecting certain groundwater resources within Alameda County. While most of the county is serv ...

- Maximum Annual Entitlement: *

Santa Clara Valley Water District The Santa Clara Valley Water District (also known as Valley Water) provides stream stewardship, wholesale water supply and flood protection for Santa Clara County, California, in the southern San Francisco Bay Area. The district encompasses all of ...

- Maximum Annual Entitlement:

Reservoirs

References

''South Bay Aqueduct'', Department of Water Resources, State of California
{{State Water Project Aqueducts in California California State Water Project Buildings and structures in San Jose, California Transportation buildings and structures in Santa Clara County, California Transportation buildings and structures in Alameda County, California Livermore Valley Sacramento–San Joaquin River Delta