Bulletin 1.pdf - California Department of Water Resources - State of ...

CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION
WATER A MAJOR FACTOR IN CALIFORNIA ECONOMY
Few convictions are more generally or more firmly fixed in the minds
of the people of California than that our number one economic problem
is to put to best use our invaluable water supply.
Previous investigations have shown that this supply is adequate for
a population much larger than the present 10,500,000, and that with
additional storage and redistribution of water, most of the agricultural
lands of the State, except only some desert and higher areas, can be
serviced for irrigation as our expanding economy and human requirements
justify the costs involved. Furthermore, without too great a sacrifice
of reasonable needs, our multiple uses of water for domestic and
municipal consumption, for agriculture, industry, power, recreation,
and wild life preservation can be so coordinated as to achieve maximum
benefits for the largest number of people.
This bulletin presents the first results of new studies, under direction
of the State Water Resources Board, aimed at a solution of this
number one problem. It brings together in one volume the principal basic
data regarding water in California that have been accumulated up to
1947, thereby becoming an inventory of the water resources of the State.
Concurrently with pr'eparafion of this inventory, work has progressed
on the other principal phases of the program: determination of present
use of water and of ultimate water requirement, and formulation of
"The California yvater Plan" to meet that requirement.
NEED FOR AN INVENTORY OF WATER RESOURCES
Several inventories of the water resources of California have been
made in the past, but succeeding years have added to the basic records
and generally to the knowledge of the water resources of the State. It
is for this reason and because planning for the future must start with a
thorough understanding of the location, amount, and quality of the
waters of the State, and of physical conditions which determine their
occurrence and availability, that the State Water Resources Board was
authorized by the Legislature to make this state-wide investigation.
AUTHORITY AND FUNDS FOR INVESTIGATION
The State Water Resources Act of 1945, as amended by Chapter
908, Statutes of 1947, invested in the State Water Resources Board broad
powers to initiate and conduct investigations of the water resources of
the State. Section 17 (a) of the amended act reads as follows:
"The Water Resources Board is authorized to conduct investigations
of the water resources of the State; to formulate plans for
the control, conservation, protection, and utilization of such water
resources, including solutions for the water problems of each portion
of the State as deemed expedient and economically feasible; and to
render reports thereon. "
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