"California Department of Water Resources' Mission ...
To manage the water of California, in cooperation with other agencies, to benefit the state's people and protect, restore and enhance the natural and human environments."
DWR pamphlet, 11/1998

Colonel Robert Bradford Marshall Department of Water Resources, DWR News Special Report, p. 9

About the time that Mulholland and Eaton were working on the Los Angeles Aqueduct, Colonel Robert Marshall came to California as a surveyor for the U.S. Geological Survey. As he gathered data from all over California, he wondered why residents didn't use the abundant water supplies to grow more crops and increase it's population. He proposed a series of dams above Redding and two canals down both sides of the Sacramento Valley to carry the water. He was not taken seriously, but he retired knowing that some day his plan would become reality.

Sacramento Flooded 1850
California History Room, California State Library, Sacramento
Hundley, The Great Thirst, p. 81

State Water Project
http://www.water.ca.gov/maps/state.html

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Past, Present, Future
The State Water Plan was developed in 1931 and a bond issue of $170 million was approved in 1933 to begin construction, but the Great Depression left the bonds unmarketable. The Department of Water Resources finalized "The California Water Plan" in it's Bulletin No. 3 of 1957. Voters approved the Burns-Porter Act of 1960 and $1.75 billion worth of bonds were issued to fund the project. The first and largest dam, Oroville Dam, was begun in 1956 and completed in 1968. The project today consists of 20 dams and lakes, 17 pumping plants, 3 pumping-generating plants, 5 hydroelectric power plants, and more than 600 miles of canals, tunnels and siphons. Extension of canal branches is an ongoing project. $448 million will be needed through 2010 to maintain and repair the system.

National Recovery Administration Pamphlet 1933 Department of Water Resources, DWR News Special Report, p. 9	Bulletin #3 outlined the State Water Plan in 1957 Department of Water Resources, DWR News Special Report, p. 11

Not everyone was in favor of the bond issue
San Francisco Chronicle
Department of Water Resources, DWR News Special Report, p. 15

Oroville Dam
California Department of Water Resources
Hundley, The Great Thirst, p. 294

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So What?
- A North versus South rivalry was born. Northern California wanted assurances that they would have enough water to fulfill their needs and that levees were built to protect the Sacramento Valley from its regular flooding. Southern California residents questioned the high costs. The San Francisco Chronicle used the rivalry to oppose the project. Farmers in the central valley and union labor were in favor of the plan.
- The rift between North and South has been further widened by recent demands to restore the San Joaquin Delta.

State Water Project responsibilities:
- Keeping all of California supplied
- Managing environmental issues and recreational needs to conform with environmental laws
- Recharging groundwater and salinity control in bays and deltas