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 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
http://www.mwdh2o.com/mwdh2o/pages/finance/08Budget/CIP2009.pdf
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