Water agencies once at odds collaborating on 'Dream' project

Jul. 8—Historically, the relationship between the North San Joaquin Water Conservation District and the East Bay Municipal Utilities District has been tense at times, hindering the opportunity to collaborate on regional projects.

The tension, NSJWCD attorney Jennifer Spaletta said, was over EBMUD building the Camanche and Pardee reservoirs and ending up with senior water rights along the Mokelumne River.

But over the last two decades, the two agencies have worked to resolve their issues, and ultimately came to the mutual understanding that they needed to work together in order to solve future water supply challenges.

The result was the Demonstration Recharge, Extraction and Aquifer Management — or DREAM Project — a groundwater banking project launched in 2014 in which EBMUD would deliver any excess water it had in a year to the NSJWCD, which in turn would deliver that water to local farmers.

"When they do, that means their groundwater wells are turned off and the groundwater table is able to recover," Spaletta said. "And then we basically cut a business deal where EBMUD delivers a certain amount of water to our area, we take half the benefits of those delivers and make the commitment to deliver the remaining half back to EBMUD when they need it."

On Wednesday, the two agencies hosted a tour of the facilities built for the DREAM Project, which include a brand new pump station located near 18999 North Tretheway Road in Lockeford, a well near Pixley Slough at 12000 Angier Road in Lodi, and an aqueduct at 101043 Hildreth Lane in Stockton.

The project entails EBMUD providing NSJWCD its traditional allowance of 20,000 acre feet of water from the river, along with an additional 8,000 acre feet. That's more than 9.1 billion gallons of water.

That water is pumped at the Tretheway Road station, then delivered to the well site near Angier Road. Farmers in the area then use the water for irrigation, instead of pumping groundwater.

As a result, NSJWCD benefits because farmers are pumping less water, and additional surface water recharges the groundwater basin.

In addition, EBMUD benefits because half the water it delivers is ultimately returned and can be delivered to its customers in the East Bay.

Spaletta said that the NSJWCD consists of 150,000 agricultural acres of land, of which 75,000 acres are irrigated. She added that about 95% of the water currently used to irrigate farmland is coming out of the ground.

The two agencies decided on launching a pilot program of the DREAM Project in order to figure out how to work with local landowners, determine how to build the facilities, and navigate through potential political hurdles, she said.

"So we intentionally put ourselves kind of in the hornet's nest to see what would happen," Spaletta said. "Since 2014, that is exactly what has been happening. These local agencies intentionally put themselves in the hornet's nest and tried to see what all the challenges could be with a groundwater banking program. And so far so good. We've definitely had a lot of challenges, but the project is moving forward."

She said EBMUD provided $4 million to build the facilities, which not only includes the pump station, well and aqueduct, but also improvements along 7 miles of distribution pipeline that dumps into Pixley Slough, and a a brand new 2-mile long pipeline from the slough to the aqueduct.

San Joaquin County Board of Supervisors chair Chuck Winn, who represents Lodi, Ripon and the northern and eastern unincorporated areas of the county, said the project was an example of how agencies can come together to produce something that benefits both their customers and the groundwater basin.

"In this county alone, we have to potential for up to 2 million acre feet of water underground to recharge," he said. "This is an example of how we can maximize the availability of storage capacities to make sure we have that water when we need it. This drought we're experiencing, who knows how long it will go. The last one went five, six years, so we need to have this excess water available to contribute to whatever we can get."

Doug Linney, EBMUD board of directors chair, said the DREAM Project was not just a symbol of two agencies working together, but the result of an agreement coming to fruition after years of work and progress.

"I've been on the board 20 years now, and it always seemed like a great idea to make use of this water that was surplus water in wet years, and be able to store it underground without building more dams or impediments," he said. "The difference between getting to a concept to getting to a reality is a huge gap. It really has taken a lot of cooperation, a lot of patience, a lot of hours, a lot of time."