R24AP00282

With 100,000 acre-feet of unused groundwater storage capacity, Rancho California Water District (Rancho Water District) has the unique ability to make a significant impact on long-term water supply reliability for the Lower Colorado River Basin.

Rancho Water's Pauba Valley Groundwater Banking Project (Pauba Project) leverages this available storage capacity to offer an in-region solution that substantially increases local groundwater storage and production, decreases demand on imported supplies from both California's State Water Project and the Colorado River, adds operational flexibility to improve water management, and helps Reclamation meet its contractual water supply obligations.

The Pauba Project builds upon Rancho Water's existing Supplemental Water Supply Program (SWSP), which includes the construction of conjunctive use facilities, including recharge ponds and 31 extraction wells.

With these existing SWSP facilities, the basin has a current maximum extraction capacity of 14,500 acre-feet per year (AFY).

Completion of the Pauba Project will complete the SWSP and increase extraction capacity by 19,500 AFY for a total throughput or annual extraction amount of 34,000 AFY and will allow the district to almost double the usable storage within the basin up to approximately 60,000 AFY.

Specific work performed as part of the Pauba Project includes land acquisition, siting, environmental studies, and design and construction of recharge basins and four extraction wells.

Rancho California Water District

MANAGE DEVELOP AND PROTECT WATER AND RELATED RESOURCES IN AN ENVIRONMENTALLY AND ECONOMICALLY SOUND MANNER IN THE INTEREST OF THE AMERICAN PUBLIC.

15.074 - Small Surface Water and Groundwater Storage Projects

Bureau of Reclamation (USBR) [DOI]

Riverside, California United States

County-Wide

Small Surface Water and Groundwater Storage Projects (R24AS00010)