At its April meeting, the California Water Commission received an update from the CIM Group and representatives of the Southern California Water Bank Authority, proponents of the Willow Springs Water Bank Conjunctive Use Project. They sought to assure the Commission that the project was progressing steadily toward meeting the remaining Water Storage Investment Program (WSIP) requirements.
Proposition 1 of 2014 dedicated $2.7 billion for investments in public benefits of water storage projects. The California Water Commission is administering the Water Storage Investment Program (WSIP) to fund the public benefits associated with these projects. In July 2018, the Commission made maximum conditional eligibility determinations (MCEDs), awarding $128 million to the Willow Springs project. To receive the funding award, the project must complete environmental documents, execute contracts for public benefits, and obtain necessary permits and approvals.
The last time the project proponents were before the California Water Commission, they had just completed an MOU with the Antelope Valley-East Kern (AVEK) Water Agency. Since then, they have developed plans on how the project will deliver the ecological and emergency benefits as required by Proposition 1 and begun pre-development work focused on turnout options, conveyance capacity, and well fields.
“We have a lot left to do on this project, but we’re in a much different place than last year, certainly and definitely in a very different place than we were two years ago,” said John Perez, managing director of government affairs at CIM group. “Early indications with potential participants and clients give us the impression that there’s significant demand for a project like this. It’s our intention to continue our current path of progress so we can deliver not only on the specific public benefits required to meet our Prop One obligations but also deliver affordable storage for districts that serve residents across the state of California.”
THE PROJECT
The Willow Springs Water Bank is located in the Antelope Valley, just south of the Tehachapi Mountains near Lancaster and Palmdale. Once fully developed, the facility will have the capacity to store up to 1 million acre-feet of water, making it the largest water storage site south of the Grapevine. Spanning 320 acres, the project will include percolation ponds and four fully equipped wells.
The project scope includes building new wells and pipelines to deliver stored water from the bank back to the California Aqueduct for distribution to project participants. The site boasts permeable soils and existing infrastructure that has already been utilized for water recharge.
HOW THE PROJECT FUNCTIONS
In wet years, when partner agencies have access to a lot of water, excess water is conveyed to the water bank through the California Aqueduct to be stored for future use. In dry years, when the State Water Project allocation is low, water can be pumped out of the water bank back to the California Aqueduct for delivery to downstream contractors or upstream contractors through exchange agreements.
For the ecosystem benefits, the Department of Fish and Wildlife determines if a pulse flow is required. If so, water would be released from Lake Oroville and flow down the Feather River. That water would be replaced by water from the water bank, either directly to downstream contractors or through exchange agreements for upstream contractors.
“This assumes that in prior years, enough water has been banked in wet years to facilitate that type of operation,” said Jennifer Gandin, Principal, Investments at The CIM Group.
Public benefits include up to 215,000 acre-feet of emergency water storage for communities along the California Aqueduct in case of water supply failures. Additionally, it provides pulse flows of nearly 29,000 acre-feet for the Feather River during dry and normal years.
Project participants must commit to helping deliver the public benefit. “What that means is that they have to incur a cost in the form of foregoing water in certain years – dry and below normal years, but what they get from it is that they are effectively getting access to discounted storage through the grant funding supporting and funding some of the shared infrastructure, as well as the amount of water they able to capture in wet years far outweighs the amount of water they have to forgo for the public benefits,” explained Chris Bailey. “So they are incentivized because they get access to cheaper storage and excess storage that they can use for future needs.”
OTHER STATE PROJECT CONTRACTORS INTERESTED
Following the signing of the MOU with AVEK, the project proponents extended invitations to other State Water Project contractors to participate in the project. This outreach resulted in nine potential partners expressing interest in a total of 670,000 acre-feet of water storage and 170,000 acre-feet of put and take capacity annually. These potential participants, including those upstream, in-basin, and downstream relative to the project site, recognize the significant benefits the project could bring to their operations.
“This demonstrates the massive support and need for undergrounding water storage operations in the state of California,” said Chris Bailey.
The next step is to meet with the interested parties to walk them through the public benefits and how they would be expected to participate. An updated cost estimate is in the works, and then they will need to reaffirm their interest and commit more formally. Mr. Bailey said they hoped to complete that by the end of this year.
MORE WORK TO BE DONE
Project proponents estimate they will complete the remaining WSIP requirements for a final award hearing in 2027; Construction is expected to be complete in 2029.
In the meantime, there’s still much work to be done. Project proponents are meeting with state officials regarding the pulse flows and determining the turnout capacity for the California Aqueduct once they have reaffirmed interest from other State Water Project contractors. They are working with AVEK on the pipeline’s precise path, right-of-way, and size. They are exploring the possibility of expanding AVEK’s turnout rather than building a new one as well as using AVEK’s existing easements for the pipeline route.
“The project is evolving, and we’re actively working in terms of building out a larger water bank, given the amount of interest that we’re seeing from the State Water Project contractors,” said Mr. Bailey. “We are in discussion with some of the local landowners here about securing easements and have some signed up already.”
