Blazing new trails with the Palo Verde Irrigation District to help California reduce its use of Colorado River Water, Metropolitan Water District’s board of directors has approved a 35- year program that will pay farmers to annually set aside a portion of their land, rotate their crops, and transfer saved water to urban Southern California.

The program is complementing the existing and proposed water transfers with the neighboring Imperial Irrigation District and is the largest and longest water transfer of its kind in California history, providing up to 3.63 million-acre feet of water over the term of the program. An acre-foot of water is nearly 326,000 gallons, about the annual amount used by two typical families in and around their homes.