Water: Where do we go from here?

Much of the water supplied to Southern California is provided by the State Water Project, which collects water at the south end of the Sacramento/San Joaquin Delta.

The Delta is extremely fragile, both geologically and environmentally. The Delta consists of over 50 islands, many of which are subsiding due to intense, decades-long farming of the peat soils that make up the region. To prevent flooding, local farmers have dredged silt from the river bottoms to construct levees. Unfortunately, the area is part of the Hayward Fault Zone, which is capable of producing a 6.5 earthquake. A quake of th...