ACWA Members Receive Reclamation Grants

Nine ACWA members agencies will receive funding through the latest round of WaterSMART grant awards from the Bureau of Reclamation, announced Feb. 21. They were among 12 recipients in California and 54 nationwide sharing a total of $41M in water and energy efficiency grant funds.

The Bureau selects WaterSMART grant recipients through a competitive process. The types of projects receiving funding include canal lining, advanced water metering, flow measurement and real-time monitoring of water deliveries, and pressurized irrigation systems. The federal funding will augment local money in completing the projects.

ACWA-member grant recipients, the grant amounts and projects included the following:

• Bard Water District – $300,000/ Total Project Cost $642,294. The Bard Water District, located in southern California near the Arizona border, along with the Quechan Indian Tribe, will construct conveyance improvements for the Five Gates structure, which is a series of gated culverts that act as a major chokepoint in the district’s delivery system.
• Beaumont-Cherry Valley Water District – $1.5M/total project co Total Project Cost $5.7M. The Beaumont-Cherry Valley Water District, in Riverside County, will install new meters and upgrade previously installed meters so that all 19,154 primarily residential water meters in the district have advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) capable technology. The district will also install repeater equipment to improve the District’s leak detection program. The project is expected to save 927 acre-feet of water annually by recovering losses currently caused by inaccurate metering and leaks.
• Firebaugh Canal Water District – $1M/Total Project Cost $2.3M. The Firebaugh Canal Water District located near Mendota, will line 2.5 miles of the unlined 2nd Lift Canal with concrete. The project is expected to result in annual water savings of 320 acre-feet.
• North Kern Water Storage District – $1.5M/Total Project Cost $3.1M. The North Kern Water Storage District will line 3,841 feet of an unlined portion of the Calloway Canal with 4-inch thick unreinforced concrete. Additionally, the district will install flow meters, water level sensors, and telemetry at seven of its production wells. The project is expected to save 1,638 acre-feet, which will offset groundwater pumping.
• City of Oceanside-Water Utilities Department – $1.5M/Total Project Cost $4.5M. The Southern California city will upgrade approximately 11,429 existing and primarily residential water meters to AMI meters. The project is expected save 784 acre-feet annually.
• Rancho California Water District – $454,784/Total Project Cost $1M. Riverside County’s Rancho California Water District will replace 134 existing standard compound meters with upgraded compound meters that will connect to existing advanced metering infrastructure system. The project is expected to save 271 acre-feet that is currently lost to leaks and customer overuse.
• City of Santa Ana – $1.2M/Total Project Cost: $9.3M. The Southern California city will replace 33,315 manual-read primarily residential water meters AMI meters. The project is expected save 1,409 acre-feet that is currently lost to meter inaccuracies and leaks. The city also received $300,000 from the Bureau toward a total project cost of $1.3M for installing a 132-kilowatt hydro turbine and generator at its Garthe Pumping Station, which is expected to generate up to 877 megawatt-hours of power annually to offset existing electrical use.
• City of Santa Barbara – $1.5M/Total Project Cost: $7.15M. The city will install AMI metering and implement a data management system, along with a customer portal that will support 27,000 primarily residential water meters that were installed in a previous phase of this overall AMI project. The project is expected to save 631 acre-feet annually.
• Western Municipal Water District – $1,000,000/Total Project Cost $3.7M. The district will replace 7,008 manually read residential meters with AMI metering in its Riverside County territory, saving an estimated 505 acre-feet a year.

For more information, visit www.usbr.gov/watersmart.