Background/Objectives
The Santa Clarita Valley Water Agency (SCV Water), located in southern California, has a diverse water supply portfolio that consists of local groundwater from the Upper Santa Clara River Valley Groundwater Basin, imported water from the California State Water Project (SWP) (which also includes banked water for dry years), and recycled water. As climate change continues to bring unprecedented droughts to the State of California, SCV Water has been planning for a resilient and sustainable water future. This presentation will tell the story of how SCV Water expanded its water supply portfolio to provide a reliable water source for the community of Santa Clarita. In addition, we will review the challenges faced in the last 4 years of operations, as extreme drought years followed by one of the wettest years and water quality regulations truly tested the water supply portfolio’s durability to provide a safe and reliable source of water.
Approach/Activities
SCV Water utilizes conjunctive use operations to manage its water. In times of drought the local groundwater supplies are critical to meeting demands when imported supplies from SWP are drastically constrained. In normal and wet years, when imported supplies are plentiful, SCV Water reduces groundwater production, operating the basin sustainably, to prevent groundwater overdraft. In addition, multiple dry year reserve programs (groundwater banks) are used to store surplus imported supplies in wet years and draw on these supplies in dry years. These dry year reserves were critical in meeting demands during the 2020-2022 period. This presentation will show how the integration of urban water management planning and investments in dry year reserves has been essential in meeting water demands through prolonged difficult periods of time. We will review short- and long-term planning strategies that helped the agency sustain operations during these challenging times.
Results/Lessons Learned
SCV Water utilizes reliability modeling which integrates all current and future supply and demand estimates running through almost 100 years of historical hydrology. The agency also developed a groundwater model to support management of local groundwater aquifers. In addition, SCV Water is planning on how to identify and integrate potential climate change impacts into planning scenarios and projects to help maintain water reliability into the future where more extreme conditions are expected. The reliability model was structured specifically using SCV Water operation strategies and program limitations to replicate real world operating conditions and project reliability into the future. Sarah will share what has worked well and what programs options are being considered to help meet future demands in all scenario types. We will cover the challenges faced, lessons learned and how we intend to improve planning by integrating more climate changing scenarios into our planning.