We have a weak levy system in California, in Sacramento River Valley, and we've got the potential of a major earthquake in northern California.

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Could ocean water desalination end the fight over water rights to the Colorado River, eliminate the need for new canals and pipelines to bring water to southern California and even allow for the return of stretches of biologically damaged parts of the Sacramento River delta to healthy wetlands?

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Regulations to protect smelt from the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta water pumps have created a California water shortage, which is particularly acute in the Valley.

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Bakersfield comes in fifth, while Sacramento, despite being on a river, ranks eighth.

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Historically, the Klamath was the third-most important salmon river in the West, after the Columbia and the Sacramento.

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