Presented by the U.S. Department of the Interior Bureau of Reclamation and produced by Raphael Wolff Studios, California Central Valley Basin is an educational film on the Central Valley Project (CVP), highlighting the project’s dams, reservoirs, canals, and water distribution throughout California’s Central Valley Basin. The film opens with shots of the San Joaquin River and the canals of the valley. The CVP allows for better flood control and more consistent irrigation of the basin, enabling higher yields in the produce grown there. Orchards are irrigated by the project (00:45); a tractor plows soil on a farm in the valley (01:04). The film shows various shots of the valley, including farms, fields, towns, and grocery stores. A topographical map shows Central Valley with the Sacramento and San Joaquin Rivers running through it. A couple fishes at one of the valley’s canals (04:17). Graphics are used to show how the damming of the San Joaquin River diverts water to more arid areas of Central Valley. The film then takes viewers to Shasta Dam, with Shasta Lake and Mt. Shasta in the background (05:56). A boat motors out on Shasta Lake (06:30). A hydroelectric dam on the Sacramento River generates power for the region (07:11). A man goes waterskiing on Shasta Lake (07:55). An elderly couple picnic at a spot overlooking Shasta Lake. The film then shows the American River (08:44) with its levies and Folsom Dam (09:18). People swim in Folsom Reservoir and sailboats sail on the lake (09:30). A salmon ladder assists the migration of salmon at Folsom Dam (09:54). Aerial footage shows the delta area of Central Valley (10:52). The film then takes viewers to the Delta Cross Chanel, where water from the Sacramento River is diverted at Walnut Grove and moved to the Tracy Pumping Plant (11:29). A man observes small fish in a holding tank at the Tracy Pumping Plant (12:38). Another beneficiary of the CVP is the Mendota Wildlife Area, which features wild ducks and geese (14:53). People enjoy water recreation at Millerton Lake (15:30). Madera Canal transports water flowing from Friant Dam (17:46). The film then features footage of Contra Costa Canal (18:19), Sly Park Dam and Jenkinson Lake (18:50), the city of Sacramento (20:10), then it ends with shots from around the basin, including farms and orchards, dams, and canals.
The Central Valley Project (CVP) is a federal water management project in the U.S. state of California under the supervision of the United States Bureau of Reclamation (USBR). It was devised in 1933 in order to provide irrigation and municipal water to much of California’s Central Valley—by regulating and storing water in reservoirs in the northern half of the state (once considered water-rich but suffering water-scarce conditions more than half the year in most years), and transporting it to the water-poor San Joaquin Valley and its surroundings by means of a series of canals, aqueducts and pump plants, some shared with the California State Water Project (SWP). Many CVP water users are represented by the Central Valley Project Water Association.
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