Water: By The Numbers

23,000,000,000
 A low estimate in dollars, $23 billion, of the costs of a water-works overhaul to ship more water around the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta to the south. The consulting firm Steve Kasower of Strategic Economic Applications Co. of Sacramento provided the report.

53,800,000,000
 The high estimate in dollars in the same report.

14
 The number of members of a two-house Capitol conference committee that has been charged with writing the legislation for California’s water projects. Conference committees normally only have six members.

325,851
 Roughly, the number of gallons in an acre-foot of water. An acre-foot is a measurement for water quantity. An acre-foot is the amount of water needed to cover an acre one foot deep.

43,560
 The volume in cubic feet of an acre-foot of water.

4
 The number of members in an average family, which uses one acre-foot of water annually.

1,100,000,000
 The number of people around the world who do not have access to safe water, according to ThePeopleSpeak.org.

1982
 The year that California voters, casting ballots in an unusual referendum, rejected the construction of the Peripheral Canal, although the project earlier had been approved by the Legislature and governor. It would have moved water from Northern California, Southern California around the edge, or periphery, of the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta east of San Francisco.

12
 The width, using freeway lanes as a rough yardstick, of the rejected Peripheral Canal.

23
 The level in inches of the average rainfall in California, computed on a statewide basis.

182,000,000
 The number, in acre-feet, of the amount of water that falls on California’s land surface, according to the California Farm Water Coalition.

120,000,000

The voloume of water, in acre-feet, that is consumed through evaporation and transpiration by plants and animals.

62,000,000

The amount in acre-feet of the water, called runoff, that is left after evaporation and transpiration.