Every day, hundreds of millions of gallons of water travel from California’s Eastern Sierra toward Los Angeles through one of the most consequential water infrastructure systems in the American West.
The Los Angeles Aqueduct stretches more than 230 miles, ending its journey through the Cascades north of the city. On average, about 356 million gallons of water move through this part of the system each day.
When the original aqueduct opened in 1913, it relied on gravity to carry water across mountains, deserts and valleys to a rapidly growing Los Angeles. The project helped enable the extraordinary growth of a metropolitan region that today has nearly 13 million people.
But that growth came with consequences. Diversions from Owens Valley reshaped ecosystems and communities and fueled conflicts over water that have lasted for generations.
More than a century later, the system faces another challenge: a changing climate. Warmer temperatures, shifting snowpack and increasingly extreme swings between wet and dry years are making Sierra Nevada water supplies less predictable.
The Cascades are a striking reminder that water infrastructure is about much more than moving water. It is about where water comes from, who depends on it, and how cities balance human needs with the communities and ecosystems that supply it.
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