Newly completed EchoWater Project to improve water treatment, groundwater sustainability - KCRA Sacramento

New Elk Grove plant to improve water treatment, groundwater sustainability

Newly completed EchoWater Project to improve water treatment, groundwater sustainability

Water treatment plant becomes second-largest plant of its kind in the United States

Water managers are celebrating the completion of a major project to upgrade the Sacramento Regional Wastewater Treatment Plant in Elk Grove.

The EchoWater Project makes the facility the second-largest water treatment plant of its kind in the United States. It improves standards for water quality, which will allow wastewater from Sacramento County and the city of West Sacramento to be reused.

"Really it’s a concept of what we call bringing water back,” said Christoph Dobson, the general manager of the Sacramento Regional County Sanitation District (Regional San).

Dobson said the water treatment facility has historically cleaned wastewater and then released it into the head of the delta. In a single day, the plant treats 135 million gallons of water from Sacramento County and the city of West Sacramento in Yolo County.

"We were at what’s called a secondary level of treatment before. And that was a fairly high standard at the time. But we’re now going to a much higher standard.” Dobson said.

That higher standard means much cleaner water will be returned to nature.

According to a statement from the California Water Boards, EchoWater will remove up to 99% of ammonia chemicals and 89% of nitrogen pollution; both of which are harmful to the environment in large amounts.

“We’re both helping the environment and also increasing our water supplies," said Yana Garcia, California's secretary of environmental protection.

That increase in water supply will be fully realized in 2025 when a complimentary project known as Harvest Water comes online.

Harvest Water will send up to 50,000-acre feet each year of safe, recycled water back to Central Valley farmers. That is enough for 16,000 acres of farmland.

“And they’ll be able to stop using or reduce the amount of groundwater that they pump out of the ground and instead irrigate their crops," Dobson said.

That reduction in groundwater use will hopefully allow underground aquifers to recover and become more sustainable in the future. Many groundwater wells throughout the state are severely depleted following decades of unregulated use.

“So projects like this let us deliver water to where it needs to go, treat water that would otherwise potentially be wasted, and invest in our ability to improve those groundwater aquifers,” Garcia said.

Dobson added that thanks to help from the State Water Board, the EchoWater Project was finished under budget and faster than originally planned.

In total, the EchoWater Project and Harvest Water Project are a combined $2.3 billion investment in the future of water use in the Sacramento Region.

“I think we’re just really proud of this project as an example of where California leads,” Garcia said.