Producer
Metropolitan Water District of Southern California (MWD)
The Metropolitan Water District of Southern California (MWD; Los Angeles CA; regional wholesale water agency; 26 member agencies; serves approximately 19 million people across Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, San Diego, and Ventura counties) is the largest wholesale water agency in the US and the primary water supplier to Southern California's urban population. MWD delivers water from two sources: the Colorado River Aqueduct (CRA; 242 miles from Lake Havasu to MWD's Whitsett Intake Pumping Plant near Desert Center, CA; delivering ~750,000-900,000 AF/yr; constructed 1931-1941) and the State Water Project (Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta; delivering 0-600,000 AF/yr depending on Delta pumping restrictions). MWD's Colorado River allocation (~550,000 AF/yr entitlement) is supplemented by water transfer agreements with IID (up to 200,000 AF/yr conserved agricultural water) and with the Coachella Valley Water District. MWD has invested ~$3B in Diamond Valley Lake — the largest reservoir in Southern California (capacity 810,000 AF) — as a drought buffer. In a full Tier 3 Colorado River shortage, MWD's Colorado River delivery could be reduced by ~200,000 AF/yr, forcing intensive groundwater banking and SWP reliance.
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Colorado River Aqueduct Deliveries
45%State Water Project Deliveries
35%Storage & Drought Management
15%Water Treatment & Distribution
5%
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Did you know2023
MWD pays the Imperial Irrigation District to fallow farmland and implement on-farm conservation measures in the Imperial Valley — and in return receives the conserved water. This IID-MWD Quantification Settlement Agreement (QSA), negotiated in 2003, is the largest voluntary agricultural-to-urban water transfer in US history: up to 200,000 acre-feet per year shifted from Imperial Valley alfalfa and vegetable fields to Los Angeles swimming pools, lawns, and tap water. The agreement means Los Angeles's water supply directly depends on what crops Imperial Valley farmers choose to grow: when farmers fallow fields or switch to less water-intensive crops, MWD gets more water; when farmers plant full acreage, MWD gets less. The LA urban water supply chain (19 million people) and the Imperial Valley agricultural supply chain (the nation's largest winter vegetable producer) are financially linked through a water market that requires both parties to negotiate annually. A breakdown in the IID-MWD QSA would simultaneously stress LA's water supply and depress Imperial Valley farm income — two supply chains coupled by a desert water trade.
Metropolitan Water District of Southern California ↗Origin2023
The Metropolitan Water District of Southern California was formed in 1928 specifically to finance and build the Colorado River Aqueduct — the 242-mile pipeline carrying Colorado River water from Lake Havasu to the Los Angeles basin. The catalyst: William Mulholland's Los Angeles Aqueduct (1913), which brought Owen Valley water to LA, was reaching its capacity as Southern California's population grew through the 1920s. The Great Depression proved fortuitous: labor and materials costs collapsed, and the Roosevelt administration's New Deal provided federal funding and construction manpower. The Colorado River Aqueduct was built 1931-1941, during the same years as Hoover Dam, using much of the same construction workforce and engineering expertise. The 13 cities that formed MWD in 1928 pledged their taxing authority and issued bonds to fund a megaproject that would not deliver water for 13 years — an act of civic investment without modern parallel. MWD now serves 19 million people across six counties from infrastructure whose founding members could not have imagined: a 1928 Depression-era bond issuance finances water delivery for half of California's current population.
Metropolitan Water District of Southern California ↗