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Federalism And Water: The California Experience, Clifford T. Lee

Golden Gate University Environmental Law Journal

The struggle between California’s water plentiful north and the water deficient south has marked water conflict in the state for the last century. This struggle has played out in repeated disputes over the operation of the federal Central Valley Project (“CVP”) and the California State Water Project (“SWP”), the two inter-basin water conveyance facilities that deliver water through-out the state. Commencing in the 1920’s and 30’s with the enactment of California’s area of origin statutes and extending in more recent times to federal and state environmental laws, a complex set of legal requirements constrain the CVP and the SWP’s ability …