From the Department of Water Resources:
The Delta Conveyance Project will allow California to safely maximize water deliveries to recover water lost due to climate change, sea level rise and earthquakes.
This modernized infrastructure creates essential operational flexibility to safely take advantage of excess water created by extreme weather events, under the right conditions.
A new fact sheet describes how the project would be operated. A few key takeaways:
- How and when the project will be operated is subject to numerous regulatory and permitting processes.
- These processes limit operations to meet fishery, salinity and other water quality requirements.
- Real-time operations will be coordinated with appropriate local agencies.
- Operations focus on diverting available excess flows.
- The difference in Delta outflow with and without DCP diversions is small.
While California experienced significant rainfall early in the water year, conceptual operations show the project would only have started operating in late December, with diversions still prioritized at the existing south Delta intakes, only capturing excess flow on top of permitted south Delta diversions.
Adding flexibility to the system with the Delta Conveyance Project consistently delivers a water supply benefit regardless of the water year type. Conceptual operations data collected over the past five winters demonstrate a significant amount of water could have been captured and moved with the project. These water supplies are critical as we face a future of increasingly unpredictable weather and expected water supply losses.
