Green Sacramento County

The Sacramento County Water Agency (SCWA) continually monitors Water Supply System vulnerabilities. This can come in the form of political/legal issues, structural issues, contamination issues, or climate issues. SCWA, with the help of West Yost, has developed a tool to better predict water supply availability into the future using CalSIM as a base. SCWA is developing another RFP to update its Master Plan where outputs from this tool will be implemented into overall project delivery.  

On a regional level, SCWA (one of 26 purveyors in Sacramento County) works with the Regional Water Authority (RWA) to ensure water supply sustainability. Through RWA, SCWA is working with the State on the Voluntary Agreement process. RWA has developed the Regional Water Reliability Plan (RWRP) and Regional Drought Contingency Plan (RDCP) which are closely related planning efforts to evaluate the vulnerabilities of the water resources of the region and to identify the most promising opportunities to improve long-term water supply reliability at the agency, sub-regional, and regional levels. 

Two outcomes of the RWA planning efforts are the Groundwater Bank and the RiverArc project. SCWA participates in each of these projects to help ensure water supply resilience.  

The RiverArc project is described here: RiverArc Project 

The Groundwater Bank is described here: Sacramento Regional Water Bank – A Sustainable Storage and Recovery Program (sacwaterbank.com)  

Additionally, SCWA and the Planning and Environmental Review Division of the Community Development Department are collaborative partners representing the County in the Water Forum 2.0 Project.  This is the successor effort to the existing Water Forum Agreement and seeks to develop the next agreement which considers water supply constraints related to climate change and adaptation.     

11/29/23.