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As the region’s overall water supply and demand for municipal and industrial uses are almost on par at current usage levels, the San Benito County Water District is working on expanding resources to account for immediate future demands.
The water district has received about $20 million in state and federal grant funding to implement its Accelerated Drought Response Project.
The estimated cost of the project is $50 million and includes expanding the West Hills Water Treatment Plant, constructing five aquifer storage and recovery (ASR) wells and new pipelines.
“40% of the project will be paid for through grants, which is pretty fantastic,” said Holly Kennedy of HDR Engineering, the firm that worked on the 2023 San Benito Urban Areas Water Supply and Treatment Master Plan Update.
She presented an update of the plan to the Hollister City Council on Oct. 15.
Two of the three grants awarded required a match, but Kennedy said the agency can use the grants against each other to cover some of the required matching.
A $1.8 million grant from California Department of Water Resources requires a 50% ($900K) match while a $6.7 million grant from the U. S. Bureau of Reclamation requires a 75% ($5 million) match. The water district also received a second state grant of $11.5 million. All grants were awarded between 2022 and 2024.
Jeff Cattaneo, the district’s general manager, said the rest of the project will be funded either through bonds or reserves. He told BenitoLink the district has sufficient funds in unrestricted reserves to pay for the project but that the Board of Directors directed staff to evaluate issuing bonds.
“That’s the most likely outcome,” he said.
Cattaneo told the Hollister City Council that if bonds are issued, the district will use the reliability fee it collects to pay for the principal of the bond while the district pays off the interest portion.
He said the district conducted an analysis that concluded it would be paying $141 per acre foot a year for the next 20 years or $35 dollars annually for each water connection.
“It’s really not a significant amount when you look at it that way,” he said. “It will provide reliability in those drought years.”
The project is intended to allow the district to treat excess surface water during wet years and place it in underground storage. The water would be extracted during drought years.
Kennedy said the findings in the master plan indicate current water supply is sufficient to meet demand during normal hydrologic years, but there is a deficit of about 1,200 acre feet of high-quality water in dry and critical dry years.
“Additional supply of high-quality water is needed for growth beyond 2025,” according to the presentation slide she showed the council.
Cattaneo said the project is intended to serve the existing customers and that the district is working with Hollister and Sunnyslope Water District on a capacity fee that would be incorporated into connection fees to pay for another $50 million project that would service almost 6,000 homes. According to the U.S. Census, there are 21,697 housing units in the county as of July 2023.
“It takes us out quite a ways,” he said, referring to planning for future growth.
Kennedy said the project is part of the Hollister Urban Area Water and Wastewater Master Plan that was adopted in 2008 between San Benito County, Hollister and the water district. Since its adoption, the master plan has included the Sunnyslope Water District and the city of San Juan Bautista.
Completed projects included in the master plan are the construction of Hollister’s wastewater treatment plant in 2010, the construction of the Ridgemark Wastewater Treatment Plant in 2013, the Lessalt Wastewater Treatment Plant upgrade in 2014 and the construction of the West Hills Water Treatment Plant in 2017.
Kennedy said the projects required an investment of about $150 million in capital infrastructure.
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