Coachella Valley agrees to take less water from Colorado River

Coachella Valley Water District (CVWD) has agreed to conserve water on the Colorado River by curtailing replenishment at its Thomas E. Levy Groundwater Replenishment Facility (Levy) for the remainder of 2022.

CVWD has also submitted two proposals to the Bureau of Reclamation to participate in the Lower Colorado Conservation and Efficiency Program for up to three years with combined conservation up to 35,000 acre-feet per year.

“Although delivering water to the Levy Facility is important for CVWD’s groundwater management, temporarily suspending delivery to the facility will allow CVWD to achieve the goal of contributing materially to the River,” said CVWD General Manager Jim Barrett. “CVWD is fortunate to have a diversified water portfolio available to meet the needs of our local communities.”

Major conservation actions taken by CVWD include:

• Investment in its irrigation delivery system to minimize system losses through the use of pipes and also metering 100% of properties served.
• Use of drip irrigation in about 60% of CVWD’s service area, which allows the average water application to be less than 3.8 acre feet per acre.
• Lining of a 49-mile section of the Coachella Canal saves 132,000 af/yr.
• Lining of the remaining 35-mile section of Coachella Canal (in conjunction with San Diego County Water Authority (SDCWA) and San Luis Rey Band of Indians), saves 26,000 af/yr (which is transferred to SDCWA).

CVWD’s federal Colorado River water order is 399,000 af for 2022, which is about 9% of the state’s allocation. About 260,000 af of this is delivered to local farms, and the balance is delivered for environmental mitigation, groundwater replenishment, large landscape irrigation, and for use by other agencies.