Colorado River Aqueduct | |
|---|---|
 Parker Dam on Lake Havasu where Colorado River waters are initially drawn into the system | |
| Coordinates | 34°17′23″N 114°10′19″W / 34.2897°N 114.172°W |
| Begins | Lake Havasu, San Bernardino County 34°17′24″N 114°10′20″W / 34.289894°N 114.172094°W |
| Ends | Lake Mathews, Riverside County 33°50′14″N 117°22′41″W / 33.837240°N 117.378098°W |
| Maintained by | Metropolitan Water District of Southern California |
| Characteristics | |
| Total length | 242 mi (389 km) |
| Capacity | 1,600 cu ft/s (45 m3/s) |
| History | |
| Construction start | 1933 |
| Opened | 7 January 1939 |
| Location | |
 | |
| References | |
| [1] | |
The Colorado River Aqueduct, or CRA, is a 242 mi (389 km) water conveyance in Southern California in the United States, operated by the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California (MWD). The aqueduct impounds water from the Colorado River at Lake Havasu on the California-Arizona border, west across the Mojave and Colorado deserts to the east side of the Santa Ana Mountains. It is one of the primary sources of drinking water for Southern California.
Originally conceived by William Mulholland and designed by Chief Engineer Frank E. Weymouth of the MWD, it was the largest public works project in southern California during the Great Depression. The project employed 30,000 people over an eight-year period and as many as 10,000 at one time.[2]
The system is composed of two reservoirs, five pumping stations, 62 mi (100 km) of canals, 92 mi (148 km) of tunnels, and 84 mi (135 km) of buried conduit and siphons. Average annual throughput is 1,200,000 acre⋅ft (1.5 km3).[2]
- ^ U.S. Geological Survey Geographic Names Information System: Colorado Aqueduct
- ^ a b Zetland, David (August 5, 2009). "Colorado River Aqueduct" (PDF). kysq.org. Retrieved 2010-11-20.