Domestic Water Project
The possibility of serving drinking water to local communities has been discussed off and on for nearly 20 years. It has long been recognized that as land comes out of production and urbanization takes its place; that the water once used to support agriculture on those parcels of land, could transition to supplies for homes, businesses and other domestic uses.
Turlock Irrigation District has prepared an EIR (Environmental Impact Report) on the District’s proposal to construct a new water treatment plant in Stanislaus County, near Hughson. The new plant would be located in the vicinity of the intersection of Geer and Hatch Roads and would treat water drawn from the Tuolumne River near the Geer Road Bridge.
Water for the treatment plant would be released as needed from Don Pedro Reservoir, flowing down the river to an infiltration gallery pipe system in the bed of the river, where it would be collected and pumped to the plant for treatment. Treated water would then be conveyed via new pipelines to the communities of Turlock, Ceres, South Modesto and Hughson which currently rely on groundwater supplies exclusively for their drinking water needs.
Delivering the project water down 25 miles of the river would allow that water to pass through critical spawning and rearing reaches of the river before being diverted for consumptive use. In this manner, water used for urban supplies would also provide significant environmental benefits to Chinook salmon and other fish that live in the Tuolumne River. The EIR addresses the potential environmental effects of constructing and operating the proposed project.
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