Host Agency: Metropolitan Water District of Southern California

The Metropolitan Water District of Southern California is the nation's largest provider of treated drinking water. Each day during a normal year, the district moves more than 1.5 billion gallons of water through its distribution system, delivering supplies to 26 member agencies. Those agencies, in turn, sell that water to more than 300 subagencies or directly to consumers. In all, 18 million Southern Californians rely on Metropolitan for some or all of the water they use in their homes and businesses.

These people live within Metropolitan's six-county service area, which encompasses 5,200 square miles in Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, San Diego and Ventura counties. In geographic terms, that's nearly as large as the states of Connecticut and Rhode Island combined.

A billion-and-a-half gallons of water a day doesn't arrive by accident. By the time water enters Metropolitan's distribution system in the Southland, it has already traveled more miles than the average Orange County-to-Los Angeles commuter travels in a week.

Metropolitan imports its water from two sources -- the Colorado River and the State Water Project. The SWP brings supplies south from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, while the Colorado River Aqueduct moves water from the east. The CRA stretches 242 miles across the desert and mountains; the SWP courses 444 miles through the central part of the state topping the Tehachapi Mountains and flowing into the Southern California coastal plain.

Metropolitan built and owns the CRA, so its responsibility for system operations and maintenance begins at its Intake Pumping Plant on the Colorado River, 25 miles south of Lake Havasu City. From there, canals, siphons, pipelines and four more pumping plants move the water west to Metropolitan's terminal reservoir -- Lake Mathews. Metropolitan's regional distribution system links up to the reservoir at this point, as well as at Lake Perris and Castaic Lake, which are terminal reservoirs for the East and West branches of the state-owned and operated SWP.

Maintaining and operating a regional distribution system that includes hundreds of miles of pipeline, power transmission lines and unpaved roads, and five filtration plants, nine reservoirs, 15 hydroelectric plants, 45 pressure control structures, thousands of pumps and valves, and hundreds of buildings, shops and other structures is a complex, time-intensive job.

It requires state-of-the-art technology, efficient operations and maintenance procedures, and experienced workers. It also requires a firm commitment to quality and customer services. The Metropolitan Water District has over 300 million dollars in construction contracts at any one time. Project sizes range from large to small and may cover anything from the large scale construction of a water treatment plant to the rehabilitation of a facility roof. Contract values range from $14,000 for road repair work to $70 million for a water treatment plant oxidation retrofit project, and everything in between. For more information on the current and future construction, procurement and professional services opportunities available at Metropolitan, please familiarize yourself with our Capital Investment Plan at the following link:
http://www.mwdh2o.com