If you live in California, chances are you’ve experienced water shortage, and maybe even a full-blown drought. Did you know that water resiliency begins long before the actual emergency? Thoughtful planning and strategic partnerships maintain long-term water supply reliability through both wet and dry years alike.
Highlighted is one of these planning efforts: the Santa Ana River Conservation and Conjunctive Use Program (SARCCUP), which includes a partnership among five water districts from Riverside, San Bernardino, and Orange counties, to implement a regional and multi-beneficial water supply program to advance water supply reliability in Santa Ana River Watershed. This program is an important and dynamic tool in the watershed toolbox in support of sustainable water supply for the future.
SARCCUP proactively stores water through a practice known as water banking, and here’s a closer look at that process.
- Step 1: During wet years, water is collected and stored in local groundwater basins.
- Step 2: During dry years, stored water is extracted and shared among the partners to supplement other water sources.
You may be wondering, why store water underground? Our region in SoCal has a unique resource under our feet, by storing water underground we can use a piggy bank created by nature without needing to set aside large areas of land while minimizing the effects of evaporation, so we can keep as much of the water as possible for future use.
For this program, SARCCUP ensures that up to 137,000 acre-feet of water is set aside in six groundwater basins within the Santa Ana River Watershed for various partner agencies to use during droughts:
- Eastern Municipal Water District (EMWD)
- Inland Empire Utilities Agency (IEUA)
- Orange County Water District (OCWD)
- San Bernardino Valley Municipal Water District (SBV)
- Western Municipal Water District (WMWD)
“This groundbreaking agreement provides an unrivaled solution to ongoing water supply challenges,” IEUA’s board member and Santa Ana Watershed Project Authority (SAWPA) Commissioner Jasmin A. Hall said when the agreement was announced in September 2021. “With this strategy in place, agencies spanning from the foothills of the San Bernardino Mountains to the Pacific Ocean are working together to add another tool to the toolbox of drought resiliency.”
With assistance from SAWPA in gathering data and drafting materials to express the need for this program, a $55 million Integrated Regional Water Management grant, managed by the Department of Water Resources from California Proposition 84*, was secured to fund the development of the program. This grant is helping encourage cooperation beyond agency boundaries to create a rainy-day fund of water supply by capitalizing on groundwater storage during wet periods for later use during dry periods where it is needed.
“This is a historic agreement and will benefit millions of Southern California residents by better preparing our respective regions for future droughts,” noted EMWD’s Board President Phil Paule. “We are proud to have helped develop and implement this innovative program. We sincerely appreciate the partnerships of all the member agencies that have helped make this program possible.”
Funding for SARCCUP not only went toward groundwater banking practices, but also to habitat improvement and water conservation efforts. The program included the removal of invasive plants, and projects that restored the Santa Ana sucker fish habitat and implemented water use efficiency savings.
This program is one tool in a larger portfolio of watershed resilience strategies that lays the groundwork to take advantage of groundwater storage capabilities and allows increased connectivity so water supply can be shared across the region, no matter rain or shine.
*Known as the Safe Drinking Water, Water Quality and Supply, Flood Control, River and Coastal Protection Bond Act of 2006.
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