State Water Project
A Supply Staple
The California State Water Project (SWP) is a water storage and delivery system of reservoirs, aqueducts, power plants and pumping plants extending more than 700 miles—two-thirds the length of California. Planned, constructed, and operated by the Department of Water Resources, the SWP is the nation’s largest state-built, multi-purpose, user-financed water project. It supplies water to more than 27 million people in northern California, the Bay Area, the San Joaquin Valley, the Central Coast and southern California. SWP water also irrigates about 750,000 acres of farmland, mainly in the San Joaquin Valley.
Popular vote approved the construction of the State Water Project Coastal Branch Aqueduct following a serious drought between 1987 and 1991. Deliveries of State Water to Montecito began in 1999. In some drought years, MWD has relied on the SWP and its facilities for imported water to meet more than 80% of customer demand.
Learn more about the State Water Project