By Columbia Mailman School of Public Health

Reductions in arsenic exposure among the U.S. population were reported for users of public water systems in the South and West, and among Mexican American participants, according to a new study by researchers at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health. Differences in change over time were reported by educational attainment in addition to by region, race/ethnicity, and public water arsenic level. The full findings are published in the journal Environmental Pollution.(link is external and opens in a new window)

The Final Arsenic Rule, first enforced since 2006, reduced the arsenic maximum contaminant level to 10 μg/L in public water systems. 

“We found that implementing a lower regulatory standard for arsenic in public water systems successfully reduced water arsenic exposure for many communities across the United States, and that reductions were largest for certain populations and regions with the highest initial water arsenic exposures,” said Maya Spaur, PhD, in environmental health sciences at Columbia Public Health. “From our results it is apparent that federal water regulations can successfully reduce exposures for the most highly exposed.”

Using the 2003-14 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), the researchers estimated arsenic exposure from water for populations reliant on public water systems by recalibrating urinary dimethylarsinate (rDMA) to remove smoking and dietary contributions. They evaluated the average differences and corresponding percent reductions of urinary rDMA comparing subsequent survey cycles to 2003-04 (baseline), stratified by region, race/ethnicity, educational attainment, and county level water arsenic concentration. 

The percent reduction in urine rDMA was 0.32 μg/L (9%) among participants with the highest Community Water System (CWS) arsenic, comparing 2013-14 to 2003-04. Declines in urinary rDMA were largest in regions with the highest water arsenic: the South (0.57 μg/L, or 16%) and West (0.46 μg/L, 14%). Declines in urinary rDMA levels were significant and largest among Mexican American (0.99 μg/L, 26%)] and Non-Hispanic White (0.25 μg/L, 10%) participants.

Long-term exposure to arsenic even at low and moderate levels can increase the risk of cancer and other types of chronic disease.  The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry includes arsenic as a human carcinogen and toxicant associated with numerous adverse health outcomes, ranking it number one on their substance priority list. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regulates arsenic in public drinking water supplies and sets the maximum contaminant level (MCL) allowable in public water systems. The MCL reflects technological feasibility and financial costs, in addition to public health.

In 2006, the EPA reduced the MCL of arsenic in public water systems to 10 µg/L, from 50 µg/L. However, there is no known safe level of exposure to inorganic arsenic, and the EPA set a health-based MCL goal (MCLG) of 0 µg/L.  “Though the current MCL is a significant reduction from the previous MCL, it is substantially higher than the MCLs for New Jersey, New Hampshire, Denmark and the Netherlands,” said Spaur. “Additional efforts are still needed to address remaining inequalities in CWS arsenic exposure.” 

“Future regulatory efforts and managerial, financial, and technological assistance should target communities with public water arsenic levels that remain elevated, to address persistent disparities in drinking water quality. Our study shows that federal drinking water regulations are critical for improving environmental equity and justice,” said Anne E. Nigra, assistant professor of environmental health sciences at Columbia Mailman School of Public Health, and senior author.

Co-authors are Benjamin Bostick and Steven Chillrud, Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, Columbia; and Pam Factor-Litvak, and Ana Navas-Acien, Columbia Public Health.

The study was supported by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (grants ES034284, ES010349, ES009089) and by the NIH National Institute of Dental & Craniofacial Research (OD031849).

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“California isn’t waiting to act – we’re moving aggressively to modernize how we capture and store water to future-proof our state against more extreme cycles of wet and dry,” said Governor Gavin Newsom. “We’re expediting projects across the state to maximize stormwater capture and storage above and below ground during times like these, reshaping our water systems for the 21st century and beyond.”

Leveraging the more than $8.6 billion committed by Governor Newsom and the Legislature in the last two budget cycles to build water resilience, the state is taking aggressive action to prepare for the impacts of climate-driven extremes in weather on the state’s water supplies:

• Advancing clear, ambitious targets to build drought and flood resilience, including increasing annual groundwater recharge capacity by 500,000 acre-feet

• Fast-tracking groundwater recharge efforts by streamlining permits

• Maximizing stormwater capture through new projects

• Supporting reservoir repair and expansion to boost water storage above and below ground

• Modernizing water conveyance Infrastructure across the state, including the Delta Conveyance Project

This budget funding includes $500 million that will be provided in 2025-26 to help ensure strategic water storage projects can be completed. In the 2023-24 state budget, Governor Newsom is proposing an additional $202 million for flood protection and $125 million for drought related actions.

Last week, the Administration announced two developments to streamline permitting for stormwater capture efforts. The Department of Water Resources and the State Water Board announced the first permit approved under a new pilot program to accelerate groundwater recharge, for a project in Merced County, and the State Water Board announced its first five-year temporary groundwater storage permit for a project in Sacramento County.

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For Western water planners, the path it took to get there serves either as a blueprint or a cautionary tale.

Over the past three decades, San Diego County diversified its water supply, ramped up conservation and invested in big-ticket water infrastructure including the Western hemisphere’s largest desalination plant, which removes salt and impurities from ocean water. As a result, the water agency that serves 24 water utilities including the city of San Diego says it can avoid cuts until at least 2045, even during dry periods. But that security has come at a cost.

San Diego County’s water is among the most expensive in the country, costing about 26% more at the wholesale level in 2021 than the Metropolitan Water District’s, which serves Los Angeles and surrounding counties. Now, two rural irrigation districts in San Diego County home to large avocado industries want to break away from the regional water supplier, saying they can purchase cheaper water elsewhere. If they succeed, water in San Diego County could grow even more expensive.

“San Diego’s situation is very surprising, very striking,” said Michael Hanemann, an environmental economist at Arizona State University who recently was commissioned to study the region’s water costs for a California agency. “I think this is a harbinger of something that’s going to happen elsewhere in California and elsewhere in the U.S.”

WHY SO EXPENSIVE

San Diegans didn’t always rest easy during drought. In the 1990s, a severe dry period cut the region’s water supply by 30%. At the time, almost all of its water came from the Metropolitan Water District, the country’s largest water provider. That experience and a tense, dysfunctional relationship — California water experts say — with water officials in Los Angeles spurred San Diego County’s aggressive, decades-long pursuit of water self-sufficiency.

“At that point, our community came together and said, ’We’re not going to be in this situation again. We need to plan for our own reliability,” said Sandy Kerl, general manager of the San Diego County Water Authority.

So in 2003, the water authority cut a deal to get water from the single largest user of the Colorado River, the Imperial Irrigation District, in Southern California. San Diego County funded repairs to leaky canals belonging to Imperial and signed a historic water transfer deal. Today, it receives about 55% of its total supply from Imperial as part of the deal.

The water authority also helped farmers use less water. It raised dams to increase storage capacity in reservoirs. It provided rebates to homeowners who ripped out grass lawns for water-efficient alternatives.

In 2012, San Diego County forged a deal to get 10% of its water supply from the Carlsbad Desalination Plant for the next 30 years. The plant produces 50 million gallons of drinkable water — enough for about 400,000 people — every day and is by far the region’s most expensive water source.

“In round terms, it’s twice as expensive as imported surface water,” said Hanemann. “On the other hand, it’s a very reliable supply because it’s not affected by drought and low flows in rivers in Northern California or the Colorado.”

While those efforts took hold, demand steadily fell, even as half a million more people moved to San Diego. Statewide water cuts during drought, more efficient showers, toilets and taps, rebates to tear out grass and the use of recycled water did what they were supposed to do — steeply reducing per-person water use. By 2020, San Diegans used 30% less water than in 1990.

Water officials, however, didn’t foresee the coming drop in demand and consistently overestimated how much water was needed. Today, San Diego County says it is no longer searching for more water, a position that some in the West might consider enviable. But they wouldn’t envy the water rates.

Thanks to selling less water, San Diego County has raised rates — by an average of 4% for each of the past five years — to cover fixed costs including the San Vicente Dam and desalination plant. Such costs make up the lion’s share — roughly 90% — of the agency’s annual expenses.

The price of water, Hanemann said, is largely determined by the infrastructure that moves and stores it. “You’re screwed if suddenly you deliver fewer gallons of water since your costs don’t go down.”

“Water is a terrible business to be in because we have to promote people to use less of our product and charge them more when they do,” said Tom Kennedy, general manager of the Rainbow Municipal Water District, one of the two water agencies trying to detach from the San Diego County’s water authority.

AVOCADO COUNTRY

Rainbow and Fallbrook, the other town whose agency is trying to source its water elsewhere, say doing so would give them access to cheaper water, though the potential savings aren’t yet known. A state agency is considering whether they can leave, with a decision expected by the end of the year. If their exit is approved, the next step would be a vote among residents. Only if that vote passes can the two districts leave.

At a recent public hearing, angry residents shouted at officials about how long the process is taking — and how expensive their bills have gotten in the meantime.

The rural towns cut a striking contrast to San Diego’s constellation of beach towns and waterfront skyline. Northeast of the city, steep, dry hills and sweeping canyons dot the landscape.

Steep water costs have hurt farming in Fallbrook and Rainbow, once the largest producer of avocados in the country. Between 2016 and 2020, Fallbrook lost nearly a fifth of its avocado groves, government records show, due to urbanization and fallowed groves.

Jason Kendall, a farmer in Rainbow whose family took out their avocado groves years ago, said growing the fruit without supplementary groundwater is a losing business.

“You just can’t be profitable buying district water and growing avocados,” said Kendall, who has 350 acres (142 hectares) of cut flowers, which are widely grown in the region.

POSEIDON, NOT AGAIN

Water officials in San Diego County say higher water costs are coming for other parts of California and the West, even if desalination is less popular today than it once was. Recently, a California coastal commission denied a permit for Poseidon Water to build another decades-in-the-making desalination plant some 60 miles (97 kilometers) up the coast, in Huntington Beach. The rejection came after years of opposition from environmentalists.

The rest of the state has work to do, officials in San Diego County said, as climate change continues to intensify droughts and shrink the rivers feeding California’s reservoirs and the Colorado River.

“There’s no more cheap water available,” said Kerl.

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Rachel Becker | Contributed

Ignoring urgent pleas from water officials, Californians used substantially more water after a record-dry three months gripped the state.

Californians emerged from the driest January, February and March on record with the biggest jump in water use since the drought began: a nearly 19% increase in March compared to two years earlier.

Despite the urgent pleas of water officials, California’s water use in March is the highest since 2015, standing in stark contrast to February, when residents and businesses used virtually the same amount of water in cities and towns as two years ago.

The massive increase shrank conservation gains since last summer, according to data released today by the State Water Resources Control Board : During the period from last July through March, Californians used 3.7% less water than during the same stretch in 2020.

The latest data is a rebuke of California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s request last July that Californians voluntarily cut back their water use by 15% . At the end of March, he ordered water systems to step up their drought responses statewide , but left the details to the locals.

The largest increases, nearly 27%, came in the Los Angeles basin and San Diego County, as well as the desert regions of southeast California that include Palm Springs and the Imperial Valley. Residents and businesses in southern Sierra Nevada communities used about 23% more water than in 2020, and the Central Coast followed close behind with a 20% rise. The only savings came in the North Coast region, which used 4.3% less water. Even the San Francisco Bay Area had a 2.5% increase.

While the data reflects water used by residents and industries statewide, it does not include agriculture, which accounts for roughly 40% of the total water used in the state .

The record dry spell came during what should have been some of the wettest months of the year, so residents resorted to more watering of their lawns and gardens, which soak up about half of the water used in cities and towns.

Beginning next month, about 6 million Southern Californians who are reliant on the state’s parched aqueduct and reservoirs will face unprecedented water restrictions from the Metropolitan Water District. The agencies and cities that provide their water must limit residents to outdoor watering once a week or reduce total water use below a certain target under a mandate issued by the Metropolitan Water District last month.

In response, the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power today announced that all of its nearly 4 million customers will be limited to watering twice a week beginning June 1.

By March, some residents already faced aggressive drought rules from their water suppliers — with mixed results.

After San Jose residents failed to meet voluntary conservation targets , those who exceed mandatory limits now face surcharges.

In Southern California, the Las Virgenes Municipal Water District, which serves wealthy enclaves west of Los Angeles, found that water use steadily increased despite restrictions, with about half of residents regularly exceeding their water budgets, said spokesperson Michael McNutt .

At the end of May, the state water board will consider rules to ban irrigation of non-functional, decorative turf at businesses and other institutions. It will also vote on regulations implementing Newsom’s executive order requiring water systems to escalate their drought responses. Nearly 230 water systems have yet to reach the level of drought response the governor ordered, according to state data released today.

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SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — California’s water use jumped dramatically in March, state officials said Tuesday, as one of the driest stretches on record prompted a wave of homeowners to start watering their lawns earlier than usual in defiance of Gov. Gavin Newsom’s pleas for conservation amid a severe drought.

Newsom last summer asked residents to voluntarily cut water use by 15% compared to 2020 as climate change intensified a drought that threatened to drain the state’s reservoirs to dangerously low levels. Water conservation increased gradually through December, aided by some intense fall and early winter storms that reduced water demand.

But the first three months of 2022 have been the driest on record. Californians averaged 77 gallons (291.48 liters) per person per day in March, an 18.9% increase from March 2020. It’s the most water Californians have used in March since the middle of the previous drought in 2015. Statewide, water consumption is up just 3.7% since July compared to 2020, woefully short of Newsom’s 15% goal

Newsom responded on Tuesday by pledging to spend $100 million on a statewide advertising campaign to encourage water conservation. The campaign will include traditional radio and television spots while also paying people with large followings on social media to urge others to save water. He also promised to spend an $211 million to conserve more water in state government buildings by replacing plumbing fixtures and irrigation controls.

“Conservation actions are most impactful when they account for the diversity of conditions and supply needs around the state,” Newsom’s office said in a statement. “We are hopeful these actions will significantly contribute to the state’s overall water reduction goals as outdoor watering is one of the biggest single users of water.”

In Los Angeles — the second most populous city in the U.S. — Mayor Eric Garcetti said residents and businesses would have to reduce outdoor landscape watering from three days per week to two. Irrigation makes up 35% of the city’s water use.

Urban water use accounts for a relatively small percentage of California’s overall water use when compared to agriculture. But the state’s farmers have been suffering, too, as state and federal officials have reduced water allocations to zero in some places.

Demand for non-agriculture water is typically low in March, which comes near the end of the state’s rainy season. It can sometimes rain so much in March that it makes up for the rest of the year, a phenomenon officials have dubbed the “March miracle.”

But California got just 1 inch (2.54 centimeters) of precipitation in March while the temperatures were 3 degrees warmer than usual, further increasing water demand.

A series of April storms have improved things slightly since March. Still, most of the state’s reservoirs are well below their historic averages. The reservoirs depend on melted snow from the Sierra Nevada to replenish them for the dry summer months. But the statewide snowpack was at just 27% of its historic average as of April 1.

“This is what we have. This is what we’re going to get. We can’t expect anything significant past this date,” said Jeanine Jones, manager for interstate resources with the California Department of Water Resources.

State officials said 20% of the wells they monitor are reporting all-time low water levels, while nearly half of them have less than 10% of their historic averages. In some cases, the state is helping to haul water to small communities that don’t have access to it. State officials said they were assisting 687 households through a small community drought relief program.

Some larger communities were also in danger. Lindsay, a city of about 13,000 people in California’s Central Valley, was projected to run out of water on July 1. Federal officials approved an additional allocation for the city, which they now say will have enough water to last through February — provided they continue to conserve.

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ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham signed an executive order Wednesday making New Mexico the latest Western state to join an ambitious effort to conserve nearly one-third of America’s lands and waters by 2030.

The Biden administration detailed its plans in May for achieving the goal, saying conservation and restoration of lands and waters was an urgent priority. Democratic officials and environmentalists see the effort as a tool to increase green space, protect drinking water sources and reduce wildfire risks.

To make significant progress on the decadelong commitment, experts have said Western states must play a key role in the effort.

Lujan Grisham, a Democrat, said she wants to “bring people together” in New Mexico for the initiative that she hopes will make a difference for decades to come.

Her executive order calls for the creation of a committee made up of key state agencies to draft a plan for reaching the goal. The group will meet four times a year and report back annually to the governor.

“I just want action,” Lujan Grisham said before signing the order, “but if you don’t have a guide … we’re not going to get every opportunity that we deserve.”

California was the first to formalize its 2030 conservation goal when Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a sweeping executive order last fall. Nevada followed in May with lawmakers in the Democrat-dominated state passing a resolution.

About 12% of the nation’s lands and one-quarter of its waters are currently protected, according to research by the Center for American Progress, a left-leaning think tank. Wilderness areas, game refuges, agricultural lands, ranches and other sites with conservation easements are among the protected parcels.

Nationally, the Biden administration is calling for the expansion of federal grant programs to create more local parks, increase access to outdoor recreation and for Indigenous communities to access funding for conservation priorities.

In New Mexico, members of Lujan Grisham’s executive cabinet have been charged with finding ways to leverage state and federal funding and existing programs to help with the effort.

They must also consider the importance of working lands, such as farms and ranches, as well as tribal sovereignty.

The order acknowledges that “agricultural production through farming and ranching represents historic, current and future land use and embodies cultural traditions that are at risk due to drought, development, climate impacts and reduced water availability.”

A handful of rural New Mexico counties have passed resolutions in recent months opposing the effort.

Elected leaders in those communities have voiced concerns that designating more wilderness areas and imposing more restrictions would compromise the livelihoods of residents and businesses dependent on the landscape.

Republican state Sen. Crystal Diamond of Elephant Butte said almost half of all land in New Mexico — the fifth largest state in the U.S. — is already owned and managed by either the state or federal government.

“We all know that our family-owned, private land is better managed, utilized and preserved,” she said. “This 30×30 initiative set forth by the governor is a thinly veiled land grab, and the people of New Mexico will not stand for it.”

Environmentalists praised Lujan Grisham’s move, arguing that it would help protect New Mexico’s outdoor heritage and the traditions of agricultural-based communities.

Theresa Pasqual, executive director of Acoma Pueblo’s Historic Preservation Office, said it marks the start of a conversation that will allow local communities to figure out what would work best for them.

“We start that conversation by thinking about what’s in our own backyard,” she said.

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CARSON CITY, Nev. (AP) — The man-made lakes that store water supplying millions of people in the U.S. West and Mexico are projected to shrink to historic lows in the coming months, dropping to levels that could trigger the federal government’s first-ever official shortage declaration and prompt cuts in Arizona and Nevada.

The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation released 24-month projections this week forecasting that less Colorado River water will cascade down from the Rocky Mountains through Lake Powell and Lake Mead and into the arid deserts of the U.S. Southwest and the Gulf of California. Water levels in the two lakes are expected to plummet low enough for the agency to declare an official shortage for the first time, threatening the supply of Colorado River water that growing cities and farms rely on.

It comes as climate change means less snowpack flows into the river and its tributaries, and hotter temperatures parch soil and cause more river water to evaporate as it streams through the drought-plagued American West.

The agency’s models project Lake Mead will fall below 1,075 feet (328 meters) for the first time in June 2021. That’s the level that prompts a shortage declaration under agreements negotiated by seven states that rely on Colorado River water: Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming.

The April projections, however, will not have binding impact. Federal officials regularly issue long-term projections but use those released each August to make decisions about how to allocate river water. If projections don’t improve by then, the Bureau of Reclamation will declare a Level 1 shortage condition. The cuts would be implemented in January.

Arizona, Nevada and Mexico have voluntarily given up water under a drought contingency plan for the river signed in 2019. A shortage declaration would subject the two U.S. states to their first mandatory reductions. Both rely on the Colorado River more than any other water source, and Arizona stands to lose roughly 18% of its supply.

Water agency officials say they’re confident their preparation measures, including conservation and seeking out alternative sources, would allow them to withstand cuts if the drought lingers as expected.

“The study, while significant, is not a surprise. It reflects the impacts of the dry and warm conditions across the Colorado River Basin this year, as well as the effects of a prolonged drought that has impacted the Colorado River water supply,” officials from the Arizona Department of Water Resources and Central Arizona Project said in a joint statement.

In Nevada, the agency that supplies water to most of the state has constructed “straws” to draw water from further down in Lake Mead as its levels fall. It also has created a credit system where it can bank recycled water back into the reservoir without having it count toward its allocation.

Colby Pellegrino, director of water resources for the Southern Nevada Water Authority, reassured customers that those preparation measures would insulate them from the effects of cuts. But she warned that more action was needed.

“It is incumbent upon all users of the Colorado River to find ways to conserve,” Pellegrino said in a statement.

The Bureau of Reclamation also projected that Lake Mead will drop to the point they worried in the past could threaten electricity generation at Hoover Dam. The hydropower serves millions of customers in Arizona, California and Nevada.

To prepare for a future with less water, the bureau has spent 10 years replacing parts of five of the dam’s 17 turbines that rotate to generate power. Len Schilling, a dam manager with the bureau, said the addition of wide-head turbines allow the dam to operate more efficiently at lower water levels. He said the turbines will be able to generate power almost to a point called “deadpool,” when there won’t be enough water for the dam to function.

But Schilling noted that less water moving through Hoover Dam means less hydropower to go around.

“As the elevation declines at the lake, then our ability to produce power declines as well because we have less water pushing on the turbines,” he said.

The hydropower costs substantially less than the energy sold on the wholesale electricity market because the government charges customers only for the cost of producing it and maintaining the dam.

Lincoln County Power District General Manager Dave Luttrell said infrastructure updates, less hydropower from Hoover Dam and supplemental power from other sources like natural gas raised costs and alarmed customers in his rural Nevada district.

“Rural economies in Arizona and Nevada live and die by the hydropower that is produced at Hoover Dam. It might not be a big deal to NV Energy,” he said of Nevada’s largest utility. “It might be a decimal point to Los Angeles Department of Water and Power. But for Lincoln County, it adds huge impact.”

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The Sky Canyon Sewer Project will involve the installation of 6,700 feet of 36-inch sewer line, with the majority of the pipeline alignment on Sky Canyon Drive north of Murrieta Hot Springs Road. The sewer line will connect to existing infrastructure near Hunter Road and Winchester Road.

The new sewer line will accommodate the current and anticipated growth in the French Valley area. A significant portion of the newly constructed line will parallel the existing sewer line along Sky Canyon Drive.

During construction, EMWD asks the community to please be aware of traffic control measures that will be in place to help ensure the safety of motorists and construction crews. One lane of Sky Canyon Drive will be closed during construction, but access to businesses will remain open.

This work is anticipated to be completed in Fall 2022.

“This project will help us reliably meet the wastewater needs of homes and businesses throughout French Valley today and tomorrow,” EMWD Board President Phil Paule said. “EMWD appreciates the community’s patience and adherence to traffic control measures while we work to safely complete this project.”

For more information, please contact EMWD Public Affairs Officer Alma Ramirez at 951-928-3777, ext. 4370, or ramireal@emwd.org.

EMWD.org

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Eastern Municipal Water District (EMWD) has received a $25 million authorization to support its desalination program through the recently passed Water Resources Development Act (WRDA) that was signed into law in late December 2020. The recent WRDA passage increases Federal funding support for EMWD’s South Perris Desalination Program from $25 million to $50 million.

The grant authorization is part of the Fiscal Year 2021 Consolidated Appropriations Act and the funding will be distributed by the United States Army Corps of Engineers to further increase water supply reliability as part of EMWD’s Desalination Program.

The funding will be authorized over several years to fund additional water supply wells, pipelines, and a new brine minimization technology that will increase local water supply availability and further reduce EMWD’s dependence on imported water supplies.

The current desalination process produces 75 gallons of fresh drinking water out of every 100 gallons of salty groundwater. The funding supports new technology that will bring that recovery rate to more than 90 percent.

EMWD received support for the funding authorization from Congressmembers Ken Calvert, Raul Ruiz, and Mark Takano; and Senators Dianne Feinstein and Kamala Harris. Over last two years, EMWD’s Congressional delegation strongly advocated to increase the federal funding level for the EMWD’s desalination program. The specific actions they undertook to advance this provision in the legislative process were instrumental to ensuring its inclusion in the bill.

EMWD is one California’s most successful agencies in securing state and federal funding for projects. In the past decade, EMWD has received more than $500 million in direct project funds, grants or low-interest loans to expand its water, wastewater and recycled water programs. This funding helps keep costs low for EMWD’s customers.

“EMWD is incredibly appreciative of our federal elected officials and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for their partnership and support of our expanding desalination program,” EMWD Board Vice President Phil Paule said. “This funding is another example of EMWD’s continued commitment to work with our federal partners to bring local taxpayer money back into our service area to support projects that benefit our customers and the region.”

EMWD • Contributed

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As EMWD celebrates our 70th anniversary as a water agency this year, we recognize that dependable access to clean, safe water can easily be taken for granted.

From our start in 1950 as a small agency serving a handful of residential, business, and agricultural customers, EMWD has become one of the state’s largest water agencies. Our commitment to customers is underscored by the leadership of our Board and executive managers who prioritize maintaining and expanding a diverse supply of water sources to reliably and cost effectively serve homes, businesses, and agricultural enterprises in Riverside County.

The initiatives underway at EMWD include our Groundwater Reliability Plus program, a series of innovative projects that will improve the quality and quantity of water in our local groundwater basins. This effort is complemented with an award-winning recycled water program, groundwater desalination, water use efficiency initiatives and water banking to provide drought protection. Through this diverse water supply portfolio and our reliable imported water supplies, EMWD is working to ensure that our nearly one million customers have the water they need, when and where they need it.

Our newest Groundwater Reliability Plus program, known as Purified Water Replenishment, will safely supplement our local groundwater supplies by using advanced water purification processes successfully implemented by other forward-thinking water agencies in California to provide a new, reliable supplemental water supply. EMWD’s recycled water will be put through a rigorous multi-stage purification process of microfiltration and reverse osmosis, then combined with other surface water supplies to replenish the groundwater basin safely and effectively. After naturally filtering through the ground and blending with other groundwater sources for at least six months, the water will be pumped from the aquifer and receive final purification before being sent to homes and businesses.

Purified Water Replenishment will help provide a sustainable local water supply for the region, which means EMWD will not need to purchase more imported water to serve our customers during a drought. This program will soon be entering the environmental review process and EMWD is actively seeking grant funding to build the facility and related infrastructure at the lowest possible cost to our customers.

Since our start 70 years ago, EMWD has worked to make sure our customers will only have to imagine a day without water, but never experience one. EMWD continues to invest in environmentally sustainable water resource projects that will benefit our ratepayers and region for the next 70 years and beyond.

We encourage you to learn more about our groundwater sustainability initiatives at www.emwd.org/gwr-plus.

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