Silicon Valley Clean Water
Antelope Valley-East Kern Water Agency (AVEK), in partnership with Metropolitan Water District (Metropolitan), is implementing a $131M groundwater bank. The objectives of the project are to store up to 280,000 AF of Metropolitan’s SWP water supply with water recovery of up to 70,000 AFY over four consecutive years.
The project is located on a 1,500-acre site in unincorporated Los Angeles County, adjacent to the East Branch of the California Aqueduct. The project includes a robust field exploration program and groundwater modeling analysis to refine the facility requirements needed to meet the project objectives.
KJ is providing program management services to AVEK, including support with implementation strategies, value engineering, consultant selection, team management, technical oversight and support, cost and schedule management, and field testing. The project includes a new 250-cfs turnouts on the East Branch and 36- to 72-inch pipelines to convey State Water Project (SWP) water to the project site, where water is recharged via percolation basins.
Approximately two dozen recovery wells to extract water for conveyance back to the East Branch are a key part of the operation. It is anticipated that the project will be in recharge operation during average and wet years and in recovery operation during dry years. The project provides Metropolitan with a reliable dry-year water supply in relatively close proximity to its service area and provides AVEK with a new revenue source and platform for water banking expansion in the future to serve its own water demands or other potential partners.
