2025

Please join the ECOS Water Committee on April 8, 2025 at 5:30 pm over zoom for a special guest presentation and discussion about the Harvest Water Program. Jofil Borja, Legislative and Regulatory Affairs Manager, and John Nurmi, Senior Civil Engineer, of the Sacramento Area Sewer District, will be presenting this deep dive into a large, local infrastructure project. Harvest Water will bring high quality recycled water (tertiary treated recycled water from the EchoWater Resource Recovery Facility) to the southern portion of Sacramento County for use in irrigating agricultural and existing habitat lands.

The project represents a long-term solution for future drought conditions by reducing the pressure on local groundwater aquifer stores by up to 50,000 acre feet per year, equivalent to 16 billion gallons per year, which is equivalent to roughly 2000 Olympic-sized swimming pools.

Harvest Water is currently under construction and is anticipated to be operational in 2027. By reducing the amount of groundwater pumped by farmers, it is anticipated that the groundwater aquifer can be restored to historic levels. This would bring a number of ecosystem benefits to the region including improvements in riparian and wetland habitat and increased streamflows in the Consumnes River. These benefits will enhance the habitats of various listed species including Sandhill crane, Swainson’s hawk, and fall-run Chinook salmon.

More info

Harvest Water Website
Harvest Water Ecosystem Benefits

To join the meeting

Link to join: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/6656164155
To phone in: 669-900-6833, Meeting ID: 665 616 4155

State and Local Leaders Spotlight Water-Wise Lawn Transformation Ahead of Anticipated Fourth Dry Year, RWA, Oct 21, 2022

October 21, 2022, Regional Water Authority E-News

As California prepares for another anticipated drought year, state and local leaders gathered yesterday at a small business in the heart of Folsom to spotlight their drought-resilient landscape, made possible by a rebate offered from the Regional Water Authority (RWA). The rebate is an example of how local water agencies are working to help California businesses and residents reduce their water use and embrace water-saving opportunities like transitioning to low-water landscaping.

Click here to read the full article.

California calls for more local water conservation

By Kathleen Ronayne, Associated Press | March 29, 2022 | The Sacramento Bee

Californians will be asked to further cut back on their water use, state officials said Monday as they warned water scarcity will shape the future of the drought-stricken state. But those cut backs would come from cities and local water districts, not the state, with members of Gov. Gavin Newsom’s administration saying allowing local retailers to set conservation needs is the best approach in a state of nearly 40 million people where water needs vary.

As drought deepens, Californians are saving less water

By Hayley Smith, Los Angeles Times | March 15, 2022 | The Sacramento Bee

LOS ANGELES — California will end winter in a perilous position as record-shattering dryness converges with lagging water conservation efforts in nearly every part of the state, officials said Tuesday. After months of cutting back, new data from the State Water Resources Control Board show that rather than conserving water, Californians increased urban water use 2.6% in January, compared to the same month in 2020 — the baseline year against which current savings are measured.

ECOS letter on Water Agencies’ Participation in Sacramento Area Turf Replacement Study

On February 14, 2022, the Environmental Council of Sacramento submitted a letter to Sacramento Area Water Agencies regarding their participation in a Sacramento Area Turf Replacement Study. Below is the content of the letter.

To: Sacramento Area RWA Water Agencies
The Environmental Council of Sacramento’s Water Committee has begun a project to calculate the potential water savings from conversion of ornamental grasses (turf) to drought-tolerant landscaping in the American River water purveyor area (i.e. Regional Water Authority member agencies). We are interested in your input and participation in this study. This letter describes the study plan. For more information or to participate, please contact Katrina Harrison, PE, ECOS Water Committee member and Project Manager, at kandchf[at]gmail[dot]com or (408) 644-9108.
The Water Committee has met with representatives of the Department of Water Resources (DWR) to share methodologies and inquire about data sources. DWR staff has been helpful but has suggested relying on publicly available datasets. Therefore, Water Committee plans to calculate the area of current ornamental grasses using 2019 or 2020 publicly available fine scale (~1 foot pixel size wherever possible) aerial and infrared imagery. Aerial images include National Agriculture Imagery Program (NAIP), Bing imagery, Planet, and NearMap.
This imagery dataset will be analyzed using the machine learning, or neural net, algorithms of the software program eCognition to determine turf grass area. Land classifications will be digitized in several sample areas, and the computer model will be trained using those areas including calculating the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) as well as a Tree Grass Difference Index. The aerial imagery processing will be validated manually to develop a calculation of the accuracy and estimated error bounds of the analysis.
Following calculation of the area of turf grass, ECOS Water Committee members plan to use California Native Plant Society information on the evapotranspiration and density of different plant palettes – lawn versus drought-tolerant landscaping – to determine the difference in water use. This difference will be multiplied by the area to determine potential water savings.
We appreciate any insight or methodology suggestions you may have. We would like to share our draft results with study participants and will make the final product available to the Water Forum for its consideration in the ongoing Water Forum 2 discussions. If you have an interest in participating, please contact Katrina Harrison at kandchf[at]gmail[dot]com or Ted Rauh at tnrauh[at]att[dot]net. We would appreciate hearing from you before the end of February so that your input can be included in the study.

Click here to view a PDF of the letter.

If the Sierra snowpack vanishes as feared, California will need ideas like this for water

By the Sacramento Bee Editorial Board | February 2, 2022 | The Sacramento Bee

Sacramento — which once only had to worry about seasonal floods — now worries each year about delivering water to its citizens in a hotter and drier California. But there is a way for Sacramento to capture rain and snow, and for the broader region to keep surface reservoirs like Folsom and Oroville lakes nearly full. This same technique could help Sacramento capture enough water to share with neighboring areas in dry years, as well as to store it when we need it most.