Prop 13 Groundwater Storage Construction Grant Program

Proposition 13, the Safe Drinking Water, Clean Water, Watershed Protection and Flood Protection Act was passed by California voters on March 7, 2000 and included funding for groundwater storage and recharge projects. Administered by the California Department of Water Resources (DWR), on June 5, 2003 Kings River Conservation District submitted a grant application to compete for funding in the Prop 13 Groundwater Storage Program. DWR awarded KRCD with $2,737,753.00 in grant funding with a local cost share of $236,989.00; the project’s total cost was $2,974,651.00. The grant agreement between KRCD and DWR was executed on June 13, 2006 and all Projects were completed on February 28, 2008.

PROJECT: Alta Irrigation District Coordinated Groundwater Storage Project

Two projects were proposed within Alta Irrigation District (AID) and were delineated by the names Site A-1 and Site A-1. The overall goal of the Projects was to increase the amount of water captured or retained in the Kings River service area.

Site A-1 was the construction of a three cell basin covering twenty eight acres of land. Located on the southwest corner of the city of Dinuba, the three cell basin also serves as a regulation basin. Water is conveyed from each cell through a system of pipelines . The purpose of the basin is to recharge the groundwater aquifer by taking local storm water runoff from the city of Dinuba and flood flows from the Kings River. The twenty-eight acres is jointly owned by AID and city of Dinuba, and where AID has the water rights to flood flows.

Site A-2 is located two miles southeast of the city of Kingsburg and cover approximately 42 acres of land. Site A-2 was the enlargement of an existing basin that has been in operation for more than 10 years. Construction work included the enlargement of the existing five-acre basin to a forty-acre basin which was split up into four cells. Two of the cells were constructed for use as regulation basins. Wells were also installed to provide water to growers near Site A-2. The overall benefit of Site A-2 is its design ability to retain an estimated average of 500 AF of spill and recharge an estimated average of 1,600 acre-feet.