Here’s where new federal funding will be spent on California’s aging water projects

California is getting $307 million of upgrades from the new federal infrastructure law to help fix water problems in the state.

Fixed pipes. Better pumps, turbines and motors. New bypass channels. Repaired fish ladders. Refurbished valves.

To improve California’s water infrastructure, more than $307 million of needed upgrades like those are included in staggeringly long to-do list of new public works projects throughout the West that will receive federal funding, Biden Administration officials announced on Wednesday.

“This winter’s onslaught of devastating winter storms was just the latest in a long line of weather whiplash in California that’s overwhelmed and battered our aging infrastructure, all pointing to the need to continue to invest in our infrastructure,” said U.S. Sen. Alex Padilla, who joined officials during a visit to the Imperial Dam in Yuma, Arizona.

Funded by $4.3 billion in the Inflation Reduction Act and $8.3 billion in the infrastructure bill that Congress approved in a rare moment of bipartisan accord, California’s 24 projects — among 83 in 11 states

Combined, these two initiatives provide $585 million — the largest investment in climate resilience in the nation’s history, according to officials. Selected by the Interior Department’s Bureau of Reclamation, the projects are in every major river system in the West. California alone accounted for more than half of the funding.

The projects amount to upgrades of the Golden State’s intricate network of dams, pumps and canals that shuttle water from north to south, supplying cities and farms with water that has become the state’s most precious resource.

Almost all of the state’s projects are focused on water-stressed regions of the Central Valley, Yuma Valley, Imperial Valley and along the Klamath and Colorado rivers, where outdated infrastructure is being tested by climate change.

But one of the biggest beneficiaries in the state is closer to home. A pump at the San Luis Unit of the Central Valley Project, which includes the San Luis Reservoir in the grassy hills of the Diablo Range near Los Banos, is getting a $42.5 million makeover of a motor generator, turbine and valve.

Near Tracy, a pumping plant cabinet and control panel for the Central Valley Project are being refurbished for $25 million.

The best-funded project in California is in the far north, where $66 million will modernize the Trinity River Fish Hatchery Building. This site, which hatches millions of eggs of steelhead, coho and Chinook salmon that can no longer spawn upstream due to dams, has been in continuous use for 60 years and struggles with corroded and leaking pipes, a faulty filtration system and eroding support for the 175 troughs and tanks.  A different hatchery, which relies on water releases from the Nimbus Dam into the lower American River, is getting a $10 million upgrade.

At Lake Tahoe, a $3 million feasibility study will consider a plan to replace Lake Tahoe Dam.  While the iconic lake is natural, the dam controls the top six feet of the lake’s flow by regulating flows into the Truckee River.  The dam’s concrete slab and buttress structure, with 17 vertical gates, is aging.

Some money will also be devoted to study how to fix broken canals due to subsidence problem. Parts of the great San Joaquin Valley are sinking almost 2 inches every month, as the state’s subterranean water supply is being drained to record lows by thirsty farms and towns. When pumped too dry, the ground collapses and the canals crack. The government committed $25 million to study problems in the Delta Mendota Canal and another $22 million to study problems in the Friant Kern Canal.

Along California’s border with Arizona, the Imperial Dam and All-American Canal will get more than $7.5 million to improve the reliability of water used in the Imperial Valley and eastern Coachella Valley, where much produce is grown.

But the fixes are about more than just crumbling canals or drying river beds, said Padilla. “We’re talking about protecting the source for drinking water, showers and sinks and electricity for 40 million Californians. And we’re talking about a vital resource for agriculture in a region that feeds the nation.”

This winter’s rains didn’t ease the stress on the system, said Deputy Secretary of the Interior Tommy Beaudreau.

“One good precipitation year cannot make up for 23 years of drought and strain on the system,” he said. “And so we’ll be moving forward with our planning process…. We are definitely not out of the woods.”