Fresh Water For Woodland And Davis

The city of Woodland, city of Davis and UC Davis are making the transition from groundwater to Sacramento River water.

The Woodland-Davis Clean Water Agency's new treatment facility is pumping 15 million gallons of water a day. Once it's intake structure is completed, it will supply 30 million gallons.　

Greg Meyer is the Public Works Director with the City of Woodland.

"The groundwater sustainability has always been an issue in an agricultural community and so, relieving the pressure for that is one benefit of going to surface water. But, also the quality of the groundwater over the years has been degrading."

He says Woodland will no longer use well water.

"Certainly the hardness of the water has always been difficult, but also, with the new Chromium 6 requirements that have come in, the water quality has become untenable in many of our wells."

The facility cost about $280 million.

Meyer says it will also help the agency meet requirements for waste water that will be pumped back into the river or that will be used for industrial or irrigation.

The City of Davis will use between 50-percent-and-70-percent river water depending on the time of the year.

UC Davis has not completed the plumbing required to use the 1.8 million gallons of river water it will receive each day. That project is expected to be completed in December.