Harvest Water Project: Increasing Water Supply Reliability and
Ecological Resiliency through Collaboration
Topic: Harvest Water Project: Increasing Water
Supply Reliability and Ecological Resiliency through
Collaboration
Speakers: Heidi Oriol, Senior Civil Engineer in
the Legislative and Regulatory Affairs workgroup for Regional
San and the Sacramento Area Sewer District (SASD)
When: Friday, May 6th, 2022, 12 pm to 1pm
Where: Virtual (via Zoom)—Link to virtual
seminar to be sent upon RSVP
The recording of the webinar is available here.
Topic Overview
The Sacramento Regional County Sanitation District (Regional San), in
collaboration with regional stakeholders, is developing an innovative
program known as Harvest Water. The Program provides an exceptional
opportunity to proactively restore groundwater levels, support
groundwater dependent ecosystems, benefit wildlife habitat, sustain
agricultural lands, and improve regional water supply reliability.
Harvest Water has the potential to provide up to 50,000 acre-feet per
year of tertiary-treated recycled water to irrigate approximately 16,000
acres of agriculture and habitat lands in southern Sacramento County.
The recycled water will be used in-lieu of pumping groundwater. By
providing recycled water to existing agricultural lands that
historically pump groundwater, Harvest Water would reduce withdrawals of
groundwater and allow levels in the Program area to recover, benefitting
groundwater dependent ecosystems and local streamflows. A portion of
stored groundwater could be withdrawn in future dry years to meet the
needs of agricultural users, therefore enhancing water management in the
southern Sacramento region by conjunctively managing surface and
groundwater resources.
The Program also establishes an ecological program that supports existing
conservation efforts in the area. Modeled climate change scenarios under
baseline conditions indicate groundwater levels will continue to
decline. Without the Program in place, the declining groundwater
elevations will severely impair the ecological function of conserved and
restored wetland and riparian habitats. As such, Harvest Water is an
excellent example of how recycled water projects can provide a multitude
of benefits and improve climate change resiliency. The California Water
Commission's Water Storage Investment Program has awarded Harvest Water
$291.8 million in grant funding based on the Program's ecosystem and
water quality benefits.
About the Speaker
Heidi Oriol is a Senior Civil Engineer in the
Legislative and Regulatory Affairs workgroup for Regional San and
the Sacramento Area Sewer District (SASD). She oversees a variety of
regulatory and policy programs for both agencies, as well as serving
as a Program Coordinator for Harvest Water. Heidi has more than 20
years of experience working for public agencies in water,
wastewater, and recycled water planning and policy. For the last 6
years she has served Regional San and SASD in the Policy and
Planning department. Heidi earned her Bachelor of Science Degree in
Environmental Resources Engineering from Humboldt State University,
and she holds a Professional Engineers license in the state of
California.
