Construction at the Water Replenishment District on their $130 million Groundwater Reliability Improvement Program Recycled Water Project.
Foresight 30 years ago is today providing an option for a new source of water in the parched American West. Water scarcity across the West has been heightened with more than 20 years of a long-term drought.
The Title XVI Water Reclamation and Reuse Program was created in 1992. Public Law 102-575, the Reclamation Projects Authorization and Adjustment Act of 1992, was signed by President George H.W. Bush on October 30, 1992.
Title XVI of the Act authorized the Bureau of Reclamation to identify and investigate opportunities to reclaim and reuse wastewater and impaired ground and surface water in the 17 Western States and Hawaii. Reclamation provides cost-shared grants for planning, designing and constructing non-federal water recycling and reuse projects in partnership with local government entities.
"Over the past 30 years, Reclamation and our partners have shown how we can turn currently unusable water sources into a new, sustainable water source that is less vulnerable to drought and climate change," said Commissioner Camille Calimlim Touton. "Water recycling helps provide water to grow crops, sustain wildlife and the environment, and in turn, meet our mission of providing clean and reliable water.
Since the bill's signing, Reclamation has allocated more than $1.1 billion in federal funding for the design and construction of water recycling projects. Water reuse projects constructed with funding from the program reported actual deliveries of more than 440,000 acre-feet of water in 2021, or approximately 143 billion gallons of recycled water. That is enough water for more than 2.3 million people.
Two projects represent examples of the benefits of the Title XVI Water Reclamation and Reuse Program.
The Water Replenishment District of Southern California constructed a $130 million Groundwater Reliability Improvement Program Recycled Water Project. Reclamation provided $30 million in Title XVI Program funding to produce high-quality recycled water for the Central Coast Groundwater Basin replenishment. Their project will eliminate the need to import 21,000 acre‐feet of water annually. The project includes a flow equalization and pumping facility, an advanced water treatment facility, supplemental recharge wells, and groundwater monitoring wells.
The City of Nampa, Idaho, was selected to receive $3 million in Title XVI Program funding to construct a recycled water project to bolster their water supply's long-term availability and stability. The project includes the conveyance of treated effluent water from the Nampa Wastewater Treatment Plant to augment irrigation water supplies. The project is expected to deliver up to 12,439 acre-feet of recycled water per year by constructing a recycled water delivery pipeline from the wastewater treatment plant to the area's primary irrigation conveyance canal.
To learn more about the Title XVI Water Reclamation and Reuse Program, please visit www.usbr.gov/watersmart/title/.
