50-Year-Old State Water Project Highlighted at California Museum
A special exhibit honoring California’s State Water Project is now on display at The California Museum in Sacramento in honor of the project’s 50th anniversary.
Designed and produced by the state Department of Water Resources, which built and operates the State Water Project, the exhibit showcases the project’s huge water delivery system. A big-screen flyover gives visitors a bird’s-eye vision of the system, from the headwaters of the Feather River to the nation’s tallest dam, at Oroville, and then over hundreds of miles of aqueduct on its way to Southern California.
The largest state-built and state-operated water and power system in the nation, the SWP provides drinking water for an estimated 25 million people and irrigation water for more than 750,000 farmland acres. The exhibit is designed to educate and encourage Californians to make wise water use and conservation choices in a region where precipitation and water supply are often uncertain.
“This year marks the 50th anniversary since voters in November 1960 approved the $1.75 billion bond measure authorizing construction of the SWP,” said DWR Director Mark Cowin in a statement. “The California Museum’s dramatic SWP exhibit is a suitable recognition of the historic value of the SWP in the daily life of our state.”
The State Water Contractors, who funded the original construction of the project and continue to pay for its operations, applauded the museum for focusing on a key component of the state’s infrastructure.
“The State Water Project was a marvel for its time,” said Laura King Moon, assistant general manager of the State Water Contractors, in a statement. “We’re grateful for the years of service the project has given us.”
The exhibit, titled, “Extreme Engineering: The California State Water Project Past, Present and Future,” will be on display through July 17, 2011. For museum information, visit www.CaliforniaMuseum.org.
