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
Speaker:
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 6, 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.
Harvest Water Project: Increasing Water Supply Reliability and Ecological Resiliency through Collaboration
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 A portion of stored groundwater could be withdrawn in future dry years to meet the needs of agricultural users, therefore enhancing water management in the southern Sacramento region by conjunctively managing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.
