North State

Fast-growing communities along the north coast find themselves facing a number of daunting challenges. First, the north state's major river basins are both wastewater discharge points and drinking water sources. Because municipal wastewater treatment facilities are pushed to the limit, local governments must finance expensive wastewater treatment system upgrades that prevent spills and overflows. Environmental groups have quickly sued when wastewater treatment upgrades aren't quickly completed - and that has cost some cities dearly: money which could fund wastewater system upgrades has instead paid fines and legal settlements.

In Healdsburg, for example, the city's wastewater storage pond near the Russian River began overflowing in 1995, with effluent escaping into the river repeatedly. While the city pursued temporary fixes and upgrades, state officials have been cracking down with orders to fast-track projects - and environmentalists have sued. In Ferndale, a similar situation has emerged at Salt River and Frances Creek. Fortuna, Eureka, Santa Rosa and Cotati also face similar wastewater treatment quagmires. Fixes can be expensive. In Fort Bragg, for example, $2.5 million was set aside to bring that community's wastewater facilities up to par. Local bond issues and development fees are a key source of funding for improvements, but additional funds are needed.

Many watershed restoration projects are helping federally protected fisheries. Some $50 million, for example, has been spent restoring natural flows to Battle Creek southeast of Redding. Restorations such as these have statewide benefits.

By removing obsolete dams, installing fish ladders and breaching levees, water projects have helped to restore natural floodways. This has reduced the chance that environmental concerns will touch off pumping restrictions that will harm farmers and reduce the amount of water needed by cities. More storage is needed, however, to meet the challenge. For example, Colusa

County may host a new reservoir to store water for dry-season releases into the Delta and river system. Additionally, Colusa County may host a new reservoir to store water for dry-season releases into the Delta and river system.

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Bay Area

If you live in the greater San Francisco Bay Area, chances are that the water from your tap has traveled hundreds of miles from the Sierra Nevada to you. From the snowmelt in the highest peaks, your water enters rivers, is stored in reservoirs, then transported through tunnels, canals and pipelines to treatment plants. Once you use the water, it goes through your city's wastewater or storm water system. Some of this water is treated and reused before being discharged to the Bay or the ocean.

Some of the infrastructure that brings you fresh, safe, clean drinking water was built in the late 1800s and early 1900s - and almost the entire system was designed to serve a population half the size of today's. This infrastructure also was designed and built before modern environmental concerns and regulations. As a result, we have a water infrastructure serving today's complicated Bay Area economy and urban population that was built for another time during a different set of circumstances.

And that infrastructure is aging. Water system and wastewater system distribution pipes are in dire need of replacement because of normal wear. This infrastructure is also vulnerable in the event of an earthquake. More than 6,000 miles of the Bay Area's concrete water pipes are buried in ground subject to liquefaction and at risk of catastrophic failure. Miles more of remaining 19th century sewer pipes are made of brittle brick and clay that are fast deteriorating.

There are many ways to fix these problems, but they require time, money, and political will. The San Francisco Public Utilities Commission, identified $4.6 billion in improvements needed to bring water and sewer systems serving 2.4 million people up to par. The East Bay Municipal Utility District is spending $400 million effort to tap the Sacramento River for additional supplies to meet the future needs of its 1.2 million customers in Alameda and Contra Costa counties. At the Contra Costa Water District, a study is in the works to significantly expand Los Vaqueros Reservoir. Other water agencies would share the expanded reservoir and the costs.

Water recycling and conservation programs also are among the solutions, as reduced and more efficient use of water resources produces a net gain. One of the largest recycling projects in the works is in the City of San Jose where a $78 million expansion of an existing recycling system is in the planning stages. Recycled water will be used by two new power plants being developed in the San Jose area.

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Sacramento/San Joaquin Valley

Farms and communities throughout the Sacramento and San Joaquin river and Delta are at ground zero for the state's water supply and water quality issues. Because two-thirds of Californians get their drinking water from this river and estuary system, what happens here has a ripple effect through the rest of the state. The issues here, however, are much the same: how to make efficient use of available water, appropriately treat wastewater, develop new water sources and restore over-drafted aquifers.

In the lower Sacramento Valley alone, about a million people rely on aquifers as their sole source of drinking water. Water officials are looking for ways to recharge aquifers during the wet season to help prevent shortages and over-drafting during the summer. In Stockton, where a third of the city's 105,000 customers get their drinking water from city-owned wells, $6 million in water infrastructure improvements are needed to reduce the city's dependence on groundwater.

In the meantime, wastewater treatment in this part of the state is crucially important. Wastewater from this region is currently discharged into the river and Delta system that many other parts of the state use as drinking water.

Wastewater treatment systems need expansion and repairs. The Regional County Sanitation District in the Sacramento area has jurisdiction of over 3,000 miles of sewer pipelines around the state Capitol, and must add another 90 miles to facilitate planned growth. Wastewater infrastructure in the Sacramento area is beyond the brink because capacity has not kept up with mounting pressures from urban expansion. Sewage spills into both the American and Sacramento rivers, and other tributaries, are now commonplace.

Unique solutions are in the works, but in piecemeal fashion. In Placer County, for example, developers of the 1,800-home residential community, Bickford Ranch, agreed to oversize the sewer line for their project so nearby Auburn can take the pressure off of its own overwhelmed wastewater treatment system. In addition, the nearby city of Lincoln will receive $7 million to help modernize and expand its own wastewater treatment system.

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Central Valley (Fresno/Merced)

In the farm-rich Central Valley, groundwater, river restoration, conservation, and efficient use are very important.

The city of Fresno has 250 groundwater wells, 1,718 miles of water distribution pipe in the ground, 1,413 miles of wastewater pipe, and a service population of 432,000 people. The city can deliver 145 million gallons a day of treated drinking water to its customers. In addition, the city lays claim to water from the same vast reservoirs used by many Central Valley farms: Millerton Lake and Pine Flat Reservoir. Water from these reservoirs replaces, gallon for gallon, all of the water Fresno pumps from aquifers. Water goes through canals to a recharge facility, where it is pumped into the ground during the wet season. This makes up for a long-term overdraft of city wells, as water is taken faster than it can be replaced naturally.

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Central Coast

Agriculture has for more than a century been the mainstay of the soil rich Salinas Valley and for decades a seemingly endless supply of ground water drawn from wells deep in the region's aquifer has helped keep farms producing. Today, however, uncontrolled use of the aquifer is causing a serious water quality problem. Because of over-drafting, ground water levels have fallen and seawater has slowly seeped into the aquifers. This threatens the region's $2 billion annual agricultural industry and residential customers   in coastal communities from Santa Cruz to San Luis Obispo counties. First reports of sea water intrusion along the Monterey coast were made more than 50 years ago but solutions are still in the development stage.

Water officials are trying to reverse the trend. Reconstruction of spillways, re-operation of reservoirs, construction of new conveyance and storage, and initiation of water recycling programs are all on the drawing board. An expanded water distribution system will cost over $30 million. There are also plans for a new pipeline connecting the Central Valley Project to Pajaro Valley reservoirs for recycled water so that farms do not have to rely as much on ground water for summer irrigation. More stored and recycled water use would also leave river flows higher for fish and aquifer recharge. But there are other pressures on the groundwater basin. Water officials expect groundwater pumping for urban use will have nearly doubled during the 35-year period that ends in 2030.

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