MWD's Colorado River Aqueduct Stars in Public Television Broadcast.

LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 12, 1999--

Lights -- Camera -- Aqueduct!

On Sunday, May 16, Metropolitan Water District's Colorado River Aqueduct will play a starring role in a special, one-hour public television broadcast hosted by Huell Howser.

The special, "California Water," will be broadcast on KCET (Los Angeles) Channel 28, starting at 7 p.m.

The program follows Howser as he tracks MWD's 242-mile aqueduct system, beginning with the district's massive, 9,000-horsepower pumps near Parker Dam at Lake Havasu on the Colorado River and ending at Lake Matthews, the system's terminal reservoir in Riverside County.

Along the way, Howser, and his special guide MWD Chief of Operations Jay W. Malinowski, visit some of the more obscure and remote sites along the aqueduct system, interviewing MWD employees and their families who live and work in the isolated Mojave Desert along the aqueduct.

"My original idea was to trace how water gets from the Colorado River to us here in Southern California. But once we started filming, it became more than just that," Howser said.

"Our adventure along MWD's aqueduct ended up being not only educational, but truly inspirational. I honestly had no idea that the Colorado River Aqueduct had such magnitude and scope."

Since its completion in 1941, the Colorado River Aqueduct has been the backbone of Southern California's water supply system. Today, the aqueduct delivers more than a billion gallons of water a day to the Southland.

Before reaching the urbanized coastal plain, water from the aqueduct crosses five massive mountain ranges and passes through nearly 100 miles of 16-foot-diameter tunnel, 62 miles of open canal and more than 80 miles of buried pipeline. To replace the system today would cost more than $2 billion.

"The aqueduct stands as a tribute to the workers of the past who toiled across the desert to make it a reality, and MWD's present employees who carry on that tradition of excellence," Howser said.

Sunday's special marks the second time MWD's Colorado River Aqueduct facilities have appeared in PBS programs hosted by Howser. A 1997 "California's Gold" episode -- a viewer favorite frequently rebroadcast on KCET -- featured Howser's tour through a 13-mile tunnel dug through the San Jacinto Mountains during the 1930s as part of the aqueduct system's construction.

The Metropolitan Water District of Southern California is a consortium composed of 27 cities and water agencies serving more than 16 million people in six counties. The District imports water from the Colorado River and Northern California to supplement local supplies, and helps its members to develop increased water-recycling, desalination, conservation, storage and other water-management programs.