MWD
The Water Authority is a member agency of the Metropolitan
Water District of Southern California (MWD), and its largest purchaser of
water. Formed in 1928 to develop, store, and distribute supplemental water in
Southern California for domestic and municipal purposes, MWD now supplies water
to approximately 16 million people in a service area that includes portions
of Ventura, Los Angeles, Orange, San Bernardino, Riverside and San Diego counties.
The MWD service area covers a 70-mile-wide strip of the Southern California
coastal plain, extending from the city of Oxnard on the north to the Mexican
border. Close to half of the water used in this 5,200-square -mile region is
supplied by MWD, and about 90 percent of its population receives at least some
of its water from MWD. The extent to which MWD's member agencies rely upon MWD
supplies varies. The ability of MWD to provide supplies in a given year may
depend upon the extent to which member agencies exercise their respective preferential
rights to purchase water.
MWD obtains its water from two sources: the Colorado River and the State Water Project.
|
