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The Metropolitan Water District of Southern California is the largest bulk water supplier for municipal use in the world. The name is usually shortened to the "Metropolitan Water District" or simply "MWD". It is a consortium of 26 cities and water districts and indirectly provides water to 24 million people in its 5,200 square mile service area. It was created by an act of the California Legislature in 1928, primarily to manage water from the Colorado River, and currently also manages water flowing from the California Aqueduct as well as other water sources.

It includes parts of Los Angeles, Orange, San Diego, Riverside, San Bernardino and Ventura counties. The district covers primarily the coastal and most heavily populated portions of Southern California, and large portions of San Diego, San Bernardino and Riverside Counties are located outside its service area. This six-county service area as of 2003 had the eighth largest Gross Domestic Product in the world, behind Italy but ahead of Canada.

The main headquarters is located at 700 North Alameda Street in downtown Los Angeles, adjacent to Union Station.

After its formation in 1928, Metropolitan built the Colorado River Aqueduct to bring water from Parker Dam on the Colorado river to Metropolitan's service area. Metropolitan began water deliveries in 1941.

On December 16, 1952, the Board of Directors of Metropolitan issued the Laguna Declaration:

The Metropolitan Water District of Southern California is prepared, with its existing governmental powers and its present and projected distribution facilities, to provide its service area with adequate supplies of water to meet expanding and increasing needs in the years ahead. The District is now providing its service area with a supplemental water supply from the Colorado River. When and as additional water resources are required to meet increasing needs for domestic, industrial and municipal water, The Metropolitan Water District of Southern California will be prepared to deliver such supplies.
Tax payers and water users residing within The Metropolitan Water District of Southern California already have obligated themselves for the construction of an aqueduct supply and distribution system... This system has been designed and constructed in a manner that permits orderly and economic extensions and enlargements to deliver the District’s full share of Colorado River water as well as water from other sources as required in the years ahead. Establishment of overlapping and paralleling governmental authorities and water distribution facilities to service Southern California areas would place a wasteful and unnecessary financial burden upon all of the people of California, and particularly the residents of Southern California.

Map

• Calleguas Municipal Water District
• Central Basin Municipal Water District
• City of Anaheim
• City of Beverly Hills
• City of Burbank
• City of Compton
• City of Fullerton
• City of Glendale
• City of Long Beach
• City of Los Angeles
• City of Pasadena
• City of San Fernando
• City of San Marino
• City of Santa Ana
• City of Santa Monica
• City of Torrance
• Eastern Municipal Water District
• Foothill Municipal Water District
• Inland Empire Utilities Agency (IEUA)
• Las Virgenes Municipal Water District
• Municipal Water District of Orange County
• San Diego County Water Authority
• Three Valleys Municipal Water District
• Upper San Gabriel Valley Municipal Water District
• West Basin Municipal Water District
• Western Municipal Water District of Riverside County

Water supply and sanitation in the United States

• Metropolitan Water District of Southern California