State Water Project Delivery Reliability Report 2007

The water delivery reliability of the State Water Project (SWP) is at a crossroads. Future water deliveries to millions of Californians throughout the state will be impacted by many factors. Two of the most significant changes facing the system are Delta pumping restrictions and climate change.

This report provides a glimpse of our current path if no action is taken to address these and other factors affecting water delivery reliability. The report also identifies many other factors that could be changed to positively affect our water future.

Estimating the delivery reliability of the SWP depends on many issues, including possible future regulatory standards in the Delta, population growth, water conservation and recycling efforts, and water transfers. The impact of climate change on hydrology, consumptive use of water, fisheries and sea level rise must also be considered. This report evaluates the impacts of potential changes in hydrology of climate change. These other factors also need to be considered in the future. The stability of Delta levees, and therefore, SWP water deliveries, are threatened by earthquakes, land subsidence and floods.

On the positive side, there are significant and promising processes underway that could take us to a much more reliable and sustainable Delta water conveyance system for the SWP.

In this report, a possible future for these factors is presented. However, to the extent that these factors can be and are changed by actions over the next few years, this estimate of water delivery reliability will also change.