CWD Digs Deep for Water
Apr 26, 2023 12:00AM ● By Story and photo by Susan Maxwell Skinner
Congressmember Ami Bera and CWD Manager Cathy Lee (center) join ground-breaking for the La Sierra Aquifer and Storage and Recovery Well. Directors are Ron Greenwood (left), Mark Emmerson, Jeff Nelson, Paul Selsky and Ronald Davis. Arthur Hinojosa and Lee Mao represent California Department of Water Resources and the Federal Bureau of Reclamation, respectively.
CARMICHAEL, CA (MPG) - A $6 million Aquifer and Storage and Recovery Well will limit future shortages for 44,000 Carmichael Water District customers.
One of many similar projects in Sacramento, the well is being sunk on San Juan School District land at Garfield Avenue. Its operation should begin by late next year.
Construction is necessitated by State restrictions on drawing from the American River during droughts.
For more than 100 years, the benevolent artery has quenched local thirst, filled tubs irrigated and gardens. But climate change and competing demands from other areas have jeopardized CWD rights to river water.
Last summer CWD covered shortages with water purchased from San Juan Water District. Because the writing is on the wall for such contingencies, the Carmichael agency urgently needs resilient new sources.
“These are 21st Century projects,” noted CWD Board President Ron Davis. “Times are changing. We were not allowed to take river water for two or three-months last year. Our strategy is to develop new wells.”
Drilling 600 ft to ground water will access the vast natural aquifer that extends below Sacramento. During rainy seasons, water percolates through soil to replenish this reservoir. The CWD well will also inject excess surface water underground. Project construction will include a chlorination facility, piping and a back-up generator to serve the facility during electrical outages.
Costs will not tap out consumer budgets. The California Department of Water Resources will contribute $4 million. Another $2 million in Federal funding comes from the Bureau of Reclamation.
Congressmember Ami Bera was among groundbreaking VIPs. “When my family moved to Sacramento in 1965,” he said, “we thought about water problems in terms of flooding. Now we don’t just have flood risk – we also have drought seasons. Wells are the best way to take advantage of groundwater and to store water in wet years.”
The La Sierra project, he explained, will benefit Carmichael and other water-needy districts. “We are all in this together,” he said.
Work is projected to cause minimal interruption to Garfield and Engle Road traffic. CWD will break ground for more district aquifer projects over the next several years. Their locations are not yet confirmed.
Learn about the projects www.Carmichaelwd.org
