LIVE OAK – Construction of the Soquel Creek Water District’s crown jewel water purification facility in Live Oak continues to progress and optimism among local water agency officials is building along with it.
“This is a showcase piece,” said Melanie Mow Schumacher, program director for the Pure Water Soquel Project, during a guided tour of the construction site on Monday. “We really had to incorporate not just the function of producing water, but also the form of what this looks like in our community.”
The 12,700-square-foot facility is the “heart” of the project, meant to not only secure fresh water for the Mid-County Groundwater Basin, but also to serve as a resource for water education across the county.
The basin has been severely over-drafted in recent decades due to the ongoing regional and statewide drought and is now facing a threat from seawater intrusion, which would destroy the critical water resource if it goes unchecked.
“An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure if you can stop seawater intrusion,” said General Manager for the Soquel Creek Water District Ron Duncan. “You just don’t want to fail a community in their water supply.”
The facility, estimated to be up and running before the end of 2023, is expected to receive roughly 1.3 million of the 8 million gallons of treated wastewater that is processed on a daily basis by the Santa Cruz Wastewater Treatment Facility, according to Duncan. He added that it has capacity to eventually expand and provide 2.6 million gallons per day.
The treated water will travel through 8 miles of underground water pipeline through the cities of Santa Cruz and Capitola, until it arrives at the Pure Water facility at 2505 Chanticleer Ave. It will then undergo an intensive four step purification process before it gets injected into three seawater intrusion prevention wells in Soquel serving as a buffer against the seeping salt water.
“Whenever you see the first one of these go into any community, it’s a pretty big deal,” said Water Director for the City of Santa Cruz Rosemary Menard, who attended the facility tour. “We have different things that we’re exploring at slightly different paces, but they’re not in conflict, they’re all synergistic.”
While Santa Cruz receives only about 5% of its water supply from the Mid-County Basin and suffers from its own unique set of water scarcity issues, Menard said the scale of challenges posed by a rapidly changing climate will require continued inter-agency cohesion.
“Collaboration is a good thing, it’s not just necessary,” Duncan added. “In this area it’s like a super-strength. I would put us up against anyone in California, as far as that goes.”
Though the capacity increase in Live Oak will require a new environmental impact report, according to Duncan, the expansion has draw interest from the City of Santa Cruz, Scotts Valley Water District and Santa Cruz Mid-Ground Water agency, all of which see its collaborative potential.
The basin is the exclusive water source for more than 40,600 residents in the Soquel Creek Water District, ranging from Capitola to La Selva Beach. It produced 3,348 acre-feet of water in 2020 or roughly 1 billion gallons, according to its website. That’s enough to cover more than 3,000 football fields in a foot of water.
The Pure Water Project has received more than $80 million in federal and state grants for its $145 million price tag and was recently featured in the international BBC mini-documentary series called “The Journey of Water,” chronicling innovative water projects from around the world.
But the district wasn’t the only one that received recognition on Monday. Menard took the opportunity to laud county residents as a whole for their internalization of “water use efficiency as an ethic.” And rightfully so, because all of the water used in the county comes from local sources.
“The reality is the cavalry is not coming to save us,” Menard said. “If we don’t work together and save ourselves, we’re either going to get together and figure out how to survive or we’re going to sink together.”
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September 23, 2022 at 05:30AM
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Work continues on Pure Water Soquel facility - Santa Cruz Sentinel
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