In the late 1950s, the California Department of Water Resources (DWR) laid the framework for future water development in California and received funding to build the State Water Project (SWP), a “Trans-Delta system” to convey water from the Sacramento and San Joaquin Rivers to south Delta pumps for distribution to millions of residents through the California aqueduct system.  When the SWP was built in the 1960s, planners intended to carry water to the state pumping plants through a 43-mile peripheral canal skirting the eastern edge of the Delta. For cost reasons, the originally proposed peripheral canal was not built and a subsequent statewide referendum was defeated. Over the next few decades, ever more rigorous science was developed to better understand the relationship between water infrastructure, native fisheries, and water quality.