The Pajaro Valley Water Management Agency celebrated the culmination of the College Lake Water Supply Project with a ribbon-cutting in Watsonville last week.
About 100 people, including representatives of PV Water, elected officials, and community members, celebrated last Friday, the agency said in a media release.
At the event, the Department of Water Resources and the Department of Conservation awarded approximately $11.8 million in grant funds to support the $80 million project.
The project was undertaken to address saltwater intrusion and safeguard the agency’s supplemental water supply.
The project — led by PV Water, a state-funded water management district and groundwater sustainability agency serving the greater coastal Pajaro Valley — is a milestone in the ongoing effort to achieve sustainable groundwater resources, and is the largest new source of supplemental water for the region since the completion of the Watsonville Area Water Recycling Facility in 2009.
After the agency broke ground in spring 2024, Amy Newell, the board chair of PV Water, wrote in Lookout’s Community Voices opinion section that the project would help protect farmland from seawater intrusion and preserve wildlife habitats. The new facilities are expected to significantly improve water quality in the valley and supply nearly 700 million gallons of fresh water annually to farmers.
Groundwater has historically supplied more than 90% of the Pajaro Valley’s water supply, but long-term overpumping has contributed to water levels dropping below sea level. This has made the area vulnerable to seawater intrusion, degrading water quality and reducing the groundwater storage capacity. PV Water hopes the new water source will reduce this strain by capturing rainwater that would otherwise be lost to the ocean.
The new facilities feature three major components: a water intake facility with a passage for native fish, a water treatment plant, and a nearly 6-mile-long water pipeline to distribute treated water to approximately 6,300 acres of farmland. Facilities also include two new pumps to draw water from the lake, an adjustable weir with fish passage, water treatment technology, sediment drying beds, chemical storage, a treated water pump station and a treatment support building.
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