On October 21, Secretary of the Interior Dirk Kempthorne will break ground for construction of the Drop 2 Storage Reservoir Project in California and describe how the project will improve management of the lower Colorado River. He will be joined by Bureau of Reclamation Commissioner Robert Johnson and officials of the project’s partners including the Southern Nevada Water Authority, Metropolitan Water District of Southern California and Central Arizona Project .
Using heavy earth-moving equipment, agency representatives will join Secretary Kempthorne in excavating the first of the more than 7,000,000 cubic yards of earth that will be moved during construction of the $172 million project.
Located in southern California near the All-American Canal about 30 miles east of El Centro, Calif., the project will help improve management of the lower Colorado River by temporarily capturing and storing an average of 70,000 acre-feet (23 billion gallons) of water each year. This is water that has been released from Parker Dam to meet downstream water orders but, because of changed weather conditions, high runoff into the river, or other factors, is no longer needed and cannot be stored because of a lack of storage capacity below Parker Dam.
The captured water will be released, when appropriate, for use by the Imperial Irrigation District, which will operate and maintain the project. The project will reduce water releases from Lake Mead, helping augment the lower Colorado River Basin water supply.
Reclamation will construct the project, with funding provided by SNWA, Metropolitan, and CAP. Project completion is scheduled for August 2010.
| Who: | Dirk Kempthorne, Secretary of the Interior Robert Johnson, Commissioner of Reclamation Shari Buck, Chair, Board of Directors, SNWA Susan Bitter Smith, President, Board of Directors, CAP Roger Patterson, Assistant General Manager, Metropolitan Water District of Southern California |
| What: | Groundbreaking for the Drop 2 Storage Reservoir Project |
| When: | 10 a.m. to 11 a.m. PDT, on Tuesday, October 21, 2008 |
| Where: | Drop 2 Reservoir construction site off Interstate 8 at Exit 146 (Brock Research Center Road interchange), about 30 miles east of El Centro, Calif., and 25 miles west of Yuma, Ariz. |
| Media: | Open. Cover speeches, Interview participants and photograph excavation activity |