How We Get Our Water

How We Get Our Water: Infrastructure Serving Our Communities 

将水输送到南加州的家庭和企业，基础设施和实际用水一样重要. While Metropolitan is working hard to ensure the reliability of our imported water supplies and increasingly investing in local supplies, that is just the beginning. Bringing drinking water to your faucet takes hundreds of miles of aqueduct, dozens of high-powered pumps, a vast storage system of reservoirs and groundwater basins across the state, regional water treatment facilities, and an extensive distribution system of pipelines and service connections.

Explore the Water System

Bringing Water Across the State   

南加州大约25%的用水通常来自科罗拉多河. Another 30 percent originates in the Northern Sierra. 剩下的45%来自被认为是当地供应的混合, 其中包括洛杉矶市东部塞拉利昂的送货和回收, desalination and groundwater supplies. 这意味着我们的大部分水要经过很长的距离才能到达水龙头.

Aerial view of the California River Aqueduct in the desert on a sunny day

 

It all started with the construction of the Colorado River Aqueduct. 大都会公司成立于1928年，目的是建造输水管道，从科罗拉多河引水, across the Mojave Desert, to Southern California. The 242-mile system includes open aqueduct, siphons, five pumping plants, reservoirs, and massive 16-foot wide tunnels that vary in length from 338 feet to 18.3 miles. 大都会有一个广泛的正在进行的计划来翻新和维护CRA, ensuring reliability for decades to come.

 

大都会后来与该州签订合同，通过州水项目帮助将北塞拉利昂的水带到南部. 州水项目由加州水资源部运营和维护，包括34个储存设施, reservoirs and lakes; 20 pumping plants; four pumping-generating plants; five hydroelectric power plants. It also features about 700 miles of open canals and pipelines, including the 444-mile California Aqueduct, which ranges from 50 - 110 feet wide and up to 32 feet deep.

位于白雪皑皑的北塞拉山脉下的国家水利工程渡槽.
Water treatment pools at a Metropolitan water treatment facility

 

Once State Project and Colorado River water reach Southern California, it must be distributed across Metropolitan’s 5,200-square-mile region. 一些水在分配之前首先在大都会的五个区域处理设施之一进行处理, and some is distributed as untreated water and purified later. 大都会的配送系统由830英里的大直径管道和大约400个与我们成员机构的连接组成, 然后在水最终到达你的水龙头之前将水分配给他们的社区.

Landscape photo of our Diamond Valley Lake reservoir in Hemet

Storing for the Dry Years

California’s naturally variable weather, which is being exacerbated by climate change, 使储水成为大都会向该地区可靠供水能力的关键因素. 我们在有水的时候利用它，在没有水的时候储存它，这变得越来越重要. 这就是为什么大都会在过去的三十年里在存储方面投入了大量资金, increasing our storage capacity by 13 times. 其中一些储存在当地和整个州的地下水银行项目中, 一些在州水利工程沿线的州水库和科罗拉多河沿岸的联邦水库, and some is in Metropolitan’s own reservoirs.

Metropolitan Reservoirs 

我们的水库不仅在干旱或干旱时提供供应, they also are in place for use in emergencies such as earthquakes.

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Diamond Valley Lake, capacity of 810,000 acre-feet

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Lake Mathews, capacity of 182,000 acre-feet

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Lake Skinner, capacity 44,000 acre-feet

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Six smaller reservoirs, total capacity 32,000 acre-feet

Lake Mathews at sunset

Pumping Plants

而水通过大都会的大部分服务区域是由重力驱动的, 沿着科罗拉多河渡槽需要五个抽水工厂来确保它到达马修斯湖的最终目的地. These pumping plants combined lift CRA water supplies just over 1,600 feet, allowing it to flow by gravity west across the Mojave Desert. All pumping plants have nine pumps, each with a nominal rated capacity of at least 225 cubic feet per second. Once it reaches the region, 科罗拉多河的水在重力作用下流经大都会的整个分配系统和处理厂, under normal operations. Read more.

在Whitsett进气泵厂内，与一系列金属管相连的泵容器

W.P. Whitsett Intake Pumping Plant

取水厂是科罗拉多河输水管道的起点，从哈瓦苏湖取水291英尺, from an elevation of 450 feet above sea level to 741 feet. 

Aerial view of the Gene Pumping Plant Facilities

Gene Pumping Plant 

The Gene plant is located two miles west of the Intake plant. 该设施将水从Gene Wash水库提升到303英尺的Copper Basin水库, at an elevation of 1,037 feet. 

Aerial view of the Iron Mountain Pumping Plant Facilities

Iron Mountain Pumping Plant 

铁山电厂距离铜盆地70英里，升水144英尺. 

Aerial view of the Eagle Mountain Pumping Plant Facilities

Eagle Mountain Pumping Plant 

鹰山工厂位于铁山以西40英里处，将水提升438英尺，达到海拔1英尺,404 feet. 

Looking up at the piping system at the Julian Hinds Pumping Plant

Julian Hinds Pumping Plant 

海因兹工厂位于鹰山以西16英里处，是所有工厂中海拔最高的, 441 feet to an elevation of 1,807 feet. 

Reducing Pumping Costs with Hydro & Solar Power 

 

It takes a lot of energy to pump water 1,600 feet up a mountain. 沿着CRA抽水每年要消耗大约200万兆瓦时的能源. 其中大约一半是由大都会公司从胡佛和帕克水坝分配的电力来满足的. To offset the rest of our power costs, 大都会在我们的配电系统中建造了15座水力发电厂.  

 

大部分建于20世纪70年代末和80年代初，当时正值能源危机, the plants not only generate electricity, they also help control pressure within the distribution system. These 15 hydroelectric plants generate about 250,每年的发电量为10万兆瓦时，总发电量约为130兆瓦.  

大都会还在我们的设施中开发了5.5兆瓦的太阳能. 我们正在探索通过我们的能源可持续发展计划进一步减少碳排放和稳定能源成本的其他方法. 该计划可能包括在我们的投资组合中增加额外的可再生能源, increasing our energy efficiency and storage, and load shifting to take advantage of solar power.

 


Here’s a snapshot of Metropolitan’s delivery and treatment system.  

Solar Panels at a Metropolitan water facility