Managing the drought and beyond with proactive planning

Although public attention on water supply peaks during droughts and ebbs when water is plentiful, planning and investments in Roseville's water future are happening all the time, regardless of the conditions. And while emergency water conservation targets are one important response, they are by no means Roseville's only strategy for ensuring that we have adequate supplies to meet our needs and continue to grow and prosper as a community. In a recent opinion piece (page 4, Aug. 20, "Water crisis and more water restrictions") in Gold Country Media, a Roseville resident (Brian Parry) suggests that conservation mandates are necessary because of a failure to plan and prepare for droughts. In truth, Roseville has been working for years to make our water supplies resilient to droughts. Groundwater storage/recovery: In recent years, Roseville has been enhancing its ability to pump water into the groundwater basin during wet years and recover that water during dry years. In 2019, when there was excess water at Folsom, Roseville purchased 950 acre-feet of water and pumped it into the basin underlying Roseville. Now, Roseville has started pumping from its groundwater wells to offset up to 20 percent of water deliveries from Folsom Lake and help maintain water levels in Folsom Reservoir. Roseville is also accelerating the construction of two additional groundwater wells to be operational in the next 18 to 24 months. We are also partnering with regional water agencies to develop additional infrastructure strategies to bolster overall reliability that benefits Roseville specifically. New water infrastructure: Roseville is actively developing a new pipeline to deliver water from the upper American River, which will help reduce our reliance on the plumbing from Folsom Lake. Roseville is also participating, along with a dozen other agencies, in the development of Sites reservoir. This planned "off-stream" reservoir will not connect directly to Roseville, but the water stored here will be used to maintain river flows and relieve pressure on Roseville's direct water sources, such as Folsom Reservoir. Under no circumstances was Sites projected to be online in time for this current drought. If all goes according to plan, Sites is projected to be constructed by 2030. Building reservoirs is challenging, time-consuming and expensive – the last major reservoir took 12 years and even Folsom took 11 years to plan and build. The good news is that the federal government and the state of California are making significant investments in this facility. Since Roseville joined the planning effort in 2016, we have contributed a little more than $200,000 to the planning effort, representing a very economical investment compared to the water security benefit Sites could provide, once built. Water investments are multifaceted. We are working on a number of fronts to secure water supply both now and into the future, including: Long-term contracts: Last year, Roseville secured a new contract with the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation to receive surface water stored at Folsom Lake in perpetuity. In addition, Roseville has contracted with Placer County Water Agency (PCWA) for additional surface water supplies. The city's most recent agreement with PCWA provides Roseville a credit for water that it conserves in Folsom Lake in 2022. Comprehensive planning: Roseville continues to address water supply reliability through long-term, comprehensive planning. These planning efforts have led to the expansion of the city's robust water recycling program, which can deliver 1 billion gallons of recycled water annually for use throughout Roseville and in neighboring communities. Responsible approach to growth: Droughts inevitably lead to questions about new growth. After all, if water is scarce for today's residents, how can we add more? First, proposed development must ensure adequate water supplies and pay for the infrastructure necessary to deliver that water. Second, new growth areas are required to be far more water efficient than existing homes and landscaping. These areas are also "plumbed" to take advantage of Roseville's recycled water, something that can't be done economically in older parts of the city. The bottom-line is that new homes are not approved without ensuring there is sufficient water to meet needs throughout the city regardless of water supply conditions. Using water efficiently: As we are now experiencing, conservation is a crucial way to maximize our water supplies by reducing our use, especially outdoors, during droughts. But we should always be looking for ways to use water as efficiently as possible. Even when water is plentiful, Roseville is committed to helping our residents and businesses with information, training, rebates and other tools that make our homes and gardens efficient users of water. Being efficient also recognizes that water systems throughout our region and our state are interconnected and must work in harmony with the natural environment. Roseville is proud to be a prosperous, smart growth-minded city with water supplies managed under one roof. Maintaining that economic prosperity, reasonable rates and water supply reliability means taking a comprehensive, balanced approach to managing our natural resources – including water. While the speed and intensity of the current drought requires an "all of the above" response that includes conservation, the fact is that many years of forethought and investment are already paying dividends to manage through this and future droughts. Richard D. Plecker, P.E., is Roseville's Environmental Utilities director.