Stymied once by tremendous groundwater pressures and difficult geology, tunnelers in southern California are trying again to push two critical links to completion in a $1.2-billion project that will provide water for fast-growing and increasingly thirsty cities and towns spreading east from Los Angeles. Two years into their second attempt, Metropolitan Water District of Southern California officials are keeping their fingers crossed as work crews startand stopthe Arrowhead tunnels penetrating the San Bernardino Mountains.
The tunnels mark the beginning of the Inland Feeder project, a 44-mile conveyance system that will deliver up to 646 million gallons per day of water from the State Water Project when supplies in northern California are plentiful. Its final destination is local groundwater basins and Diamond Lake in Riverside County, which will provide a supply of water capable of meeting the regions need for up to six months in an emergency and up to five years in a drought. Click here to view map