Inland Feeder

The Inland Feeder is a 44 mi (71 km) high capacity water conveyance system that connects the California State Water Project to the Colorado River Aqueduct and Diamond Valley Lake. The Metropolitan Water District of Southern California designed the system to increase Southern California's water supply reliability in the face of future weather pattern uncertainties, while minimizing the impact on the San Francisco Bay/Sacramento–San Joaquin River Delta environment in Northern California. The feeder takes advantage of large volumes of water when available from Northern California, depositing it in surface storage reservoirs, such as Diamond Valley Lake, and local groundwater basins for use during dry periods and emergencies. This improves the quality of Southern California drinking water by allowing more uniform blending of better quality water from the state project with Colorado River supplies, which has a higher mineral content.^[1]

The feeder system includes three large tunnels, two running through the San Bernardino Mountains and one running under the Riverside Badlands between Redlands and Moreno Valley. Construction began in 1997 and water began flowing through the system in mid-2010. As of 2010^[update], it is the only source of water for Diamond Valley Lake.