CONTENTS

-Introduction

-Need Statement

-California Water Resources

-Design and Construction

-Summation

-Pictures Related to the North to South Aqueduct

-Contact Information

California’s most precious commodity is fresh water. At this time California has a population of 39.35 million people and the population is expected to reach 50 million by 2050. Agriculture is a major commodity here in California, consuming 25% of all California’s land and making up 12.5 % of the total farming in the United States.

California gets its water from the Sierra Nevada mountain range for its domestic and agricultural needs. The Sierra Nevada mountain range runs the length of the State of California and supplies about 65% of the total water used each year. The two other major suppliers of freshwater are the Owens Valley water project, which finished in 1913 and delivers 431 million gallons of water each day to Los Angeles. The second supplier is the Colorado River Compact project, which finished in 1941 and delivers one billion gallons of water to southern California each day.

The present drought we are experiencing here in California began in December 2011 and is ongoing to the present. There was a brief break within the drought during the winter of 2016, where 27.81 inches of rain fell making that year the wettest year in more than 100 years.    

In 2020 we saw widespread, prolonged drought and widespread heat waves. Climate scientists believe global warming is the cause of our present drought and believe it will continue through 2030 if not longer. Global warming makes it difficult to predict weather patterns because we do not have written records of the last global warming period. Weather has never been easy to predict, but with satellite imagery and communication we are better at forecasting weather today than ever before. According to NASA, the drought in the Southwest and Central Plains of the United States could be drier and last longer than we’ve seen in those regions for the last 1,000 years.

Drought affects our ability to maintain a steady source of water for our domestic and agricultural needs. Water is an essential part of any community and connects all of us in one way or another. Without water, we have no farming, agriculture, industry, or community. California in the best of conditions barely meets its water needs. Considering the present drought we are experiencing at this time, and NASA’s Climate Scientists predicting that it will last through 2030 or longer is very devastating news for California.

The solution to this problem is easy and sensible. Find and deliver a new source of water for California. My proposal, The Columbia River to Lake Shasta Reservoir Aqueduct or the (North to South Aqueduct) will divert a small amount of the Columbia River water to the Shasta reservoir via aqueducts and pump stations. This solution for our water shortage is viable, necessary, and sensible.  

In the following proposal, I will lay out both in text and illustrations, how it’s done, why it’s necessary, how long it will take, and how much it will cost.

The need for water here in California has never been greater. As California’s cities grew (Los Angeles and San Francisco) their thirst for water did also. To solve the water shortage problems, Los Angeles commissioned the LA aqueduct. The construction of the aqueduct began in October 1908 and was finished in November 1913. The designer of the aqueduct was William Mulholland, a self-taught civil engineer. The new aqueduct brought 430 million gallons of water per day to LA from the Owens valley river north of Los Angeles. At that time Los Angeles was only using about 107 million gallons of water per day. William Mulholland’s aqueduct delivered 4 times that amount. William Mulholland’s attention to the details and planning of the LA aqueduct insured that we would meet and exceed our water needs. This careful attention to all aspects of the project assured plenty of room for industrial and civic expansion in the future.

San Francisco, on the other hand, built the Hetch Hetchy reservoir in 1923 located in the Sierra Nevada Mountains which delivers 260 million gallons of water to San Francisco per day. Both Los Angeles and San Francisco needed water for industrial and civic expansion. Los Angeles has continued to expand and is the largest city in the United States. This could only be possible due to thoughtful planning and intelligent foresight.

The importance of having water and access to water cannot be understated. Water is as important to life as oxygen, if not more so. Without oxygen, we suffocate and die, without water we dehydrate and that leads to death. But to an even greater extent without water, we can’t grow crops, raise livestock and we can’t sustain the industry. Simply said without water we can’t experience life. Water is so abundant in cities; you can find it almost anywhere. Water is so easy to obtain we rarely consider running out. But if you could travel back in time to America’s Midwest and Southern Great Plains in the year 1930 you would hear a different story. Those geographical locations were subject to a great drought starting in the 1930 and lasted about a decade. This time in American history was known as the Dust Bowl or the Dirty Thirties. Due to an extended period of little or no rainfall, the farm soil became extremely dry and combined with strong prairie winds picked up the soil and became dust clouds that blocked out the sun for weeks at a time. The situation became so dire most farmers outright abandoned their farms and moved to the cities to support their families. Although the drought only lasted for 10 years the economic impact lingered much longer. This Drought/Dust Bowl contributed greatly to the Great Depression of 1929 to 1939. The moral of this story is having a reliable and stable water supply can prevent disasters like the Dust Bowl of 1929 from ever occurring again.

Let’s talk briefly about Global Warming. There is strong evidence that Global Warming may be responsible for the drought condition we’re presently experiencing here in California.  

I believe Global Warming is affecting our weather and weather patterns. I don’t believe in coincidences. Our planet's atmospheric temperature has risen +2.30° F in the past 141 years. Scientists have clear records of the earth's climate over the past 800,000 years. These records are located in the planet's polar ice caps. The ancient ice contains such information as CO2 and Oxygen levels. The ice also indicates volcanic activity, when it happens, and how intense the episodes were. For the last 10,000 years, the CO2 levels in the atmosphere have averaged about 280 parts per million (ppm). But during the Industrial Revolution (the time when goods were handmade and then mass-produced by machine) was about 1840 to the present. During this 1840 to present period CO2 levels have risen to 418 ppm. This change in CO2 levels is due to burning fossil fuels. Scientists believe the CO2 levels in the atmosphere are the main contributor affecting Global Warming. The other debate is whether Global Warming is man-made or just a naturally occurring phenomenon. To be perfectly honest it just doesn’t matter. Climate Scientists study our planet's history to help predict our climate (weather) in the future. The most recent prediction climate scientists have made for California is that there will be a period of drought lasting 10 years or more. This prediction doesn’t mean it will not rain for the next 10 years. It’s an indication that the overall rainfall will be less than average. Considering all the facts we know and don’t know, the predictions our climate scientists have made of an ongoing drought, we cannot hope for the best but must plan for the worst.

There’s one more source of water we haven’t discussed, water by desalination. Desalination is the process of removing salt from seawater. How is desalination achieved? Filtered seawater is directed through a closed container (like a pipe) and forced against a membrane. The membrane is porous and made of ceramic that acts like a microscopic strainer. This process requires extremely high water pressure from 800 to 1000 psi. Generating electrical power to achieve these high volumes of water and pressures makes desalination very expensive. Desalination is both financially costly and environmentally costly due to the use of fossil fuels for generating electricity. We as a population need water, but we have to consider our environment also and reach a balance between the two. Desalination is a viable option for domestic water consumption, but not a solution for our farming or agricultural needs.

Since the Los Angeles Aqueduct designed by William Mulholland was finished in 1913 we have added a second aqueduct acquiring its water from the Colorado River. The aqueducts constructed started in 1933 and lasted through 1941 for 220 million dollars and employed 30,000 people. The aqueduct begins at Lake Havasu on the California /Arizona border and continues to Lake Mathews in Riverside California. The aqueduct is 242 miles long and brings Southern California 1 billion gallons of water per day.

How dire is this water shortage we’re experiencing today? The Colorado River Aqueduct was the last new source of water sanctioned for California. 

The population of Los Angeles in 1941 was 1,504,277 and the population of Los Angeles today is 3,973,000. We have more than doubled our population in LA but have not increased our water supply at all. All of California’s water except for the Colorado River Aqueduct comes from the Sierra Nevada Mountains that run the length of California, even the LA aqueduct water source is the eastern slope of the Sierra Nevada Mountains. Let’s talk about the Colorado River, its length is 1450 miles, and has the most dams (15) of any river in the US. The Colorado River services three US states and one foreign country. This river supplies 7.5 million acre-feet of water per year and is divided up among Arizona, California, Nevada, and Mexico. Beginning in 2021 the Hoover Dam (the largest manmade reservoir in the US) is at its lowest water level since 1937 when it was initially filled for the first time.

We are in dire straits. Our economy, our ingenuity, and our dignity are all on the line here. We need a new source of water for California. I believe water is life, its community, its industry, and its agriculture and that’s California. I believe an aqueduct that connects the Columbia River in Oregon to Lake Shasta California is a solution to our water shortage problem.

Where does California get its water from? We have three sources of water in the state of California. They are Surface water, Groundwater, and Desalination Plants. We will be discussing all three sources of water in this brief. Surface water is water that runs into rivers, lakes, and reservoirs. Surface water is the greatest source of water we rely on in California. The Sierra Nevada mountain range runs the length of our state in total about 760 miles long with an elevation of roughly 3000 ft. The Pacific Ocean creates moisture-laden clouds that travel eastward toward the Sierra Mountains and deposit large amounts of winter snow. The spring snow melts supply the rivers that fill the lakes and reservoirs. The water is then diverted supply California using aqueducts. In addition to our surface water, we also buy an additional one billion gallons of water a day from the Colorado River Aqueduct (CRA). This aqueduct starts at Lake Havasu City, Arizona, and runs 242- miles to Riverside, California. The aqueduct cost 3.5 billion in today’s money, took eight years to complete, and employed 35,000 people.

Groundwater Aquifers are the next source of water we will be discussing. Aquifers are located beneath the surface of the land. The saturated area beneath the water table is called an aquifer. The largest aquifer in the United States is called the Ogallala Aquifer. The aquifer covers nearly all of Nebraska and large sections of Colorado, Kansas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Texas, and Wyoming. Using great amounts of water from the Ogallala aquifer started in the 1930s.

Moving on to the present day, the Ogallala aquifer is about 50% full and scientists believe we only have about 100 years of present usage till it is empty. If the aquifer goes dry, more than $20 billion worth of food and fiber will vanish from the world’s markets. And scientists say it will take natural processes 6,000 years to refill the reservoir. The Great Plains of our Midwest which so heavily relies on the Ogallala Aquifer should be looking for a new source of water. Running out of water when agriculture is your main product is poor planning and inexcusable. 

California’s largest Aquifer is located in the Central Valley. The San Joaquin Basin aquifer volume is about 93 million cubic feet of water. The water from this aquifer supplies Bakersfield and much of the Central Valley. Groundwater Aquifers make up 40% of California’s agricultural and domestic needs. During drought periods or dry years, groundwater contributes up to 60% or more of the state’s total periods.

Managiyearsyearsur's groundwater asset is essential. California enacted the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA). California depends on groundwater for a major portion of its annual water supply, particularly during times of drought. This reliance on groundwater has resulted in overdrafts and unsustainable groundwater usage in many of California’s basins. The Sustainable Groundwater Management Act was enacted to halt overdrafts and bring groundwater basins into balanced levels of pumping and recharge. Having the SGMA in place will insure adequate water supplies for the future of California.

Desalination plants (DSP) convert saltwater to freshwater using a process called Reverse Osmosis. Reverse Osmosis uses electrically driven pumps to push water through membranes that act like filters to separate salt from the water. The electric-driven pumps create very high water pressures to separate the water from the salt. Brackish water desalination operates between 250 and 400 Psi and seawater desalination is from 800 to 1000 Psi. Creating such high water pressure using electrical pumps requires large amounts of electrical power and is very costly. Desalination plants that generate large amounts of freshwater are rough twice the cost of building a new reservoir or recycling wastewater.

San Diego County California has the largest desalination plant in the United States and Western Hemisphere. Carlsbad Desalination Plant is located in San Diego County and produces 50 million gallons of freshwater per day. The facility cost 922 million dollars and supplies 10% of the total drinking water needed by San Diego. The facility generates 50 million gallons of water per day and will supply about 300,000 residents a day. DSP plants are a short-term solution for global warming issues, due to drought. DPS plants cannot produce enough water for agricultural needs. DSP plants consume large amounts of electrical power, which is supplied by power companies. Power companies emit large amounts of CO2 gases during the process of generating electrical power. 

CO2 gas is a greenhouse gas and the main contributor to global warming. Taking into consideration all these issues, desalination plants should be the last resource in our quest for fresh water. 

In this section, we will be discussing the design and construction of the Oregon Columbia River via the Lake Shasta California Aqueduct. The Aqueduct will be referred to as the North to South Aqueduct. Let us discuss the word Aqueduct. The word Aqueduct comes from the Latin word Aquceductus and means; To Lead Water. The north-to-south aqueduct proposal will show how we plan to lead or direct water to the State of California, which is currently experiencing severe drought conditions and is worsening daily. 

The design phase of the project will encompass all aspects of designing an aqueduct. I will begin with the environmental impact of the aqueduct, both domestic and ecological.  Different types of materials will be used to construct the aqueduct, which might include reinforced concrete pipes, bridges, and tunnels. Evaluate what effect an Aqueduct would have on existing infrastructure such as farmlands and adjacent cities. The aqueduct will experience elevation changes during its course, where and how to place water pump stations will need to be determined. Hydraulic engineers will assist in the design of the aqueduct. Hydraulic engineers will determine what materials will be used to combat the water pressures within the aqueduct piping.  

Structural, Geotechnical, Environmental, Materials, and Water Resources Engineers will provide their expertise when designing our Aqueduct. This group of professionals will provide a reliable source of water that should last for hundreds of years. 

The construction phase of the Aqueduct can only begin if the design of the Aqueduct is complete. The design of the aqueduct is the road map that shows us how to complete the journey. The North to South Aqueduct is a massive undertaking, with elevations of 3330 ft and a total distance of 417 miles long; and it will take many years to complete. The Colorado River Aqueduct is 242 miles long, employed 35,000 personnel, and took 8 years to build. The North-to-South aqueduct we plan to build is 417 miles long and needs to be completed within 5 years or less. How can we complete this construction project in 5 years? Starting construction at many locations simultaneously and connecting these locations will substantially decrease the overall time it takes to complete the aqueduct. Construction starting points will be river crossing, tunnels, pump stations, enclosed conduit, open trench, and electrical generating station. After these construction locations are complete they will be joined together using varying types of aqueducts. Any construction task no matter how large can be accomplished if it’s broken down into manageable segments.

Selecting the right construction materials for the application can be the difference between success and failure. Concrete is the largest construction material by volume to be used on the North to South Aqueduct. Concrete is normally reinforced with steel rebar.  

Steel rebar reinforcement provides higher tensile strength and ductility to a building structure. Today there are other types of concrete reinforcement materials specialized for specific construction needs. For instance, Fiber Glass Rebar would be the right choice for the North to South Aqueduct. Because when water is in close contact with concrete reinforced with steel it tends to corrode. This corrosion of the steel rebar eventually causes catastrophic failure to the structure, as we witnessed in the high-rise condominium in Florida last year. Lake Mead, Nevada recently added a third water intake at the bottom of the lake to be able to access water during this drought period. The concrete structure used for intake #3 was completely reinforced using fiberglass rebar. Fiberglass Rebar should be the only concrete reinforcement material used on the North to South Aqueduct Project. Our future generations will thank us for constructing the aqueduct in this fashion. By using fiberglass rebar in the construction of the aqueduct we will extend the life of the aqueduct tenfold.

Completion of the North to South Aqueduct in the shortest amount of time will benefit our farmers, industry, domestic communities, and financial backers. The logistics and scale of such a project are immense. The Colorado River Aqueduct required 35,000 employees to labor for 8 years. The workers constructed 90 miles of tunnels, 55 miles of cut and cover conduit, 30 miles of siphon piping, and 5 pumping stations. This all took place in a hostile desert environment.  

The North to South Aqueduct will encounter varying diversified land topography. Starting in Portland Oregon, we move toward the Willamette Valley farming community. This is the first 200 miles of our journey, where the land elevations stay within 750 ft of sea level. For the next 100 miles, the elevation only differs by 900 ft and brings us to the town of Medford Oregon, with an elevation of 1657 ft. At this point, we are 287 miles into the aqueduct's journey south. The next 80 miles will be the greatest elevation challenge of the aqueduct's journey. From Medford, Oregon to the California border is an elevation difference of 1949 ft. This difference in elevation means we will have to pump/lift water almost 2,000 ft uphill. Moving water 2,000 ft uphill can be a challenge, but one that is already being accomplished in California. The Edmonston Pumping Plant at the south end of the California Aqueduct lifts water 1,926 ft over the Tehachapi Mountains. The pump station boasts 14 centrifugal pumps that are 80,000 horsepower each and move 2 million gallons of water per minute over the Tehachapi Mountains. Moving on, the aqueduct has now reached California and will be at the highest elevation yet. Weed is a small town in Siskiyou County California, with an elevation of 3,425 ft and a population of 2,662 it will have the highest elevation the aqueduct will endure. After the town of Weed, the aqueduct will free fall some 67 miles downhill to Lake Shasta California. The total elevation drop from the town of Weed to Lake Shasta will be 2,358 ft. I’ve calculated we will need four separate pumping stations to lift the water over the Oregon Mountains.  

As the water flows downhill from Weed California to Lake Shasta we can capture electrical power in generating stations placed along the down aqueduct. That reclaimed power can be sent to Oregon to power the pumps on that side of the aqueduct.  

The logistics challenges we will face when attempting a massive construction project of this type are many. We’ll have between 20 and 30 thousand construction workers and they will need housing, food preparation, and personal male and female hygiene facilities and all this will have to operate 24 hours a day. We will also need buses and vans for transporting workers from tent camps to job sites. The workforce will have a working shift of 12 hours on and 12 hours off. The shift duration will be two weeks on, and one week off. Employees in a work camp will need to request permission to leave the camp during their two-week work schedule. No visitors will be permitted to visit a work camp. Special activities will be planned for personnel to visit local towns for entertainment. The structured activity of our employees is to insure a safe environment and reliable workforce. The work camp or Employee housing complex is vital to the North to South Aqueduct. Local businesses should benefit from the influx of new people drawn by the aqueduct project. But local businesses can’t be expected to meet our immense needs, such as housing and food requirements. That’s why an Employee temporary housing complex is necessary for a project of this scale.

I choose the Interstate 5 Highway because it parallels the same route I propose. The route between Portland Oregon and Lake Shasta California has already been surveyed by surveyors. I believe they choose the most sensible route between Portland and Lake Shasta. The Interstate-5 highway will be the perfect conduit for vital transportation of work personnel, building materials, and heavy construction machinery. Having many construction starting points to help accelerate our time schedule, and the Employee temporary housing complex suggested to manage our woce will likely resemble a military operation. This might seem like a monumental task, but again any task can be accomplished if it’s broken down into manageable pieces. I believe the difference between possible and impossible is man’s will. 

The North-to-South aqueduct proposal discusses the importance of water and its relationship to agriculture and domestic use here in California. We discussed Global Warming and Climate Change and their effect on California’s water supply. We also discussed the 3 main sources of water that we have here in California; Surface, Ground, and Deceleration that we have available here in California. And last we discussed Aqueducts, their need, their purpose, and their function. Aqueducts move water from a source to where it is needed and do it most economically and efficiently possible. During the early years of Los Angeles (LA) approximately 1913, William Mulholland designed the LA aqueduct that would bring much-needed water to LA. The Owens Valley to Los Angeles aqueduct that Mulholland designed was 233 miles long and required no pumping station, an engineering marvel of its time. William Mulholland designed the aqueduct to carry 430 million gallons of water per day, about four times as much water as LA needed at that time. Even with Mulholland’s forethought of supplying LA with four times the water it needed, we found ourselves needing more water just 20 years later. In 1933 The Colorado River Aqueduct conceived by William Mulholland and designed by Frank E. Weymouth set to bring 1 billion gallons of water per day. The Colorado River Aqueduct was completed in 1941 and was the first aqueduct to supply California with water from a different state.

The population of California in 1941 was about 7 million people. The population of California now is 39 million, that’s an increase of 32 million people since 1941. Yet since 1941, we have not had a new source of water for California. With one exception being the San Diego Carlsbad Desalination plant that supplies 300,000 households. It has been 81 years since our last new water source was realized. California’s population has far outpaced its water supply.

If we had no Global Warming and no Climate Change, if we had record rainfall for the next 50 years, we would still fall short of our water needs. California is responsible for a large number of manufactured goods, plus farm and agricultural commodities that the United States depends on. To achieve California’s full potential we will need an adequate supply of water. To meet these water demands we will need to enact Oregon to California North to South Aqueduct. The aqueduct should be designed to supply four billion gallons of water per day or more. California should not drag its feet on the North to South Aqueduct; we should expedite this project without delay. We have the tools and know-how to make this North-to-South Aqueduct a reality. California needs a new source of water as it did in 1913, 1933, and now 2022.

1. D1. China’s South to North Aqueduct project.

2. D2. China launched the largest aqueduct pipeline in history.

3. D3. William Mulholland’s Los Angeles Aqueduct of 1913 and today 109 years later.

4. D4. William Mulholland’s Los Angeles Aqueduct of 1913 constructions techniques.

5. D5. Los Angeles's incredible feat of engineering.

6. D6. 2022 United States Drought Monitor and 1904 water shortage in Los Angeles.

7. D7. Examples of land topography of the proposed North to South Aqueduct.

8. D8. China’s South to North water transfer project and proud construction worker.

9. D9. Topography map of Oregon/California showing proposed North to South Aqueduct. 

10. D10. California’s central valley San Joaquin Aquifer.

11. D11. California Aqueduct pump station and electric pump motors.

12. D12. Desalination facility, Reverse Osmosis type.

Tylan Peterson Related Picture  

13. D13. 1920 Picture depicting how hard life could be without running water.

14. D14. The importance of using Fiberglass Rebar Reinforcement with Concrete construction where water will corrode metal rebar.

15. D15. Aqueduct construction techniques.

16. D16. The three men responsible for the Colorado River Aqueduct, one billion gallons of water per day for California.

17. D0-0. Graph and Topography map illustrating elevation and distance of proposed North to South Bi-State Aqueduct.