Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
Sacramento R.
Oroville Res.
Feather R.
Sacramento
San
Francisco
Bay
Mono L.
Delta
Bishop
San
Francisco
v~luz
}hssl
Owens L.
CALIFORNIA
AQUEDUCT
LOS ANGELES
AQUEDUCT
Los
Angeles
COLORADO R.
AQUEDUCT
San
Diego
f igu r e 30. Map of California showing aqueducts that bring water
to Southern California, including the Los Angeles Aqueduct from the
Owens Valley, the California Aqueduct from Northern California,
and the Colorado River Aqueduct from the California-Arizona border.
(Map redrawn by B. Lynn Ingram.)
water was stored and transported to whereever they wanted it, whenever
they needed it.
In California, when people l ocked to the abundant sunshine and mild
climate of the southern part of the state, the lack of adequate water
soon became apparent, particularly during periods of drought. h e solution was
to build the world's largest and longest aqueduct for the time, diverting river
water from the Owens Valley to Los Angeles, 230 miles south (see i gure 30).
h e Los Angeles Aqueduct carried pristine Sierra Nevada snowmelt that fed
the Owens River, water praised by John Muir, who wrote in 1901: “It is not only
delightfully cool and bright, but brisk, sparkling, exhilarating and so positively
delicious to the taste that a party of friends and I led to it twenty i ve years
ago still praise it, and refer to it as 'that wonderful champagne water;' though,
comparatively, the i nest wine is a coarse and vulgar drink” (p. 185).
