County Water District starts drilling wells for drought response project

Lea este artículo en español aquí.

Construction is underway for four aquifer storage and recovery wells as part of San Benito County Water District’s Accelerated Drought Response Project (ADRoP). 

San Benito County Water District General Manager Dana Jacobson said drilling the wells takes “a few days” but installing well components, pump testing and equipment can take several months.

The first well is located north of Fallon Road. Equipment is visible to motorists passing by near the Hwy 156 and San Felipe Road intersection. Two other wells are located between the first well and Fallon Road. A fourth well location is also along Fallon Road. 

Jacobson said a fifth well could be installed depending on the performance of the first four, but a location has not been identified.

ADRoP, whose cost projections have increased by $5 million since the $50 million initial estimate, proposes storing water underground during wet years and using it during drought years for current customers. The unused water that is allocated to local jurisdictions annually would be treated and injected into the aquifers.

The project also expands the West Hills Water Treatment Plant, the wells and associated transmission pipelines. 

San Benito County Water District General Manager Dana Jacobson said the locations for the wells were selected because the area’s existing groundwater is above average quality for the basin.

“This area also supports storage,” he said, “because stored water would have minimal migration, meaning that there is a very good chance most of the stored water would be recoverable when we need it.” 

Jacobson said the basin is estimated to have a capacity of up to 500,000 acre-feet, the equivalent of flooding more than 384,615 football fields in foot-deep water.

According to the presentation, ADRoP gives the county water district the ability to store and recover 2,700 acre-feet of water per year.

“Current groundwater levels are healthy and sustainable and are near historic high levels,” he said of the status of the basins.

The project is partially funded by three grants totalling $20 million, with the balance being split between the county water district, Sunnyslope County Water District and the cities of Hollister and San Juan Bautista in absence of any future grants. Grant funding included $6.7 million from the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, and two grants from the California Department of Water Resources totalling $13.3 million.

In 2024, Holly Kennedy of HDR Engineering, the firm that worked on the 2023 San Benito Urban Areas Water Supply and Treatment Master Plan Update, told the Hollister City Council that the current water supply was sufficient to meet the current demand during wet years but that there was a deficit of about 1,200 acre feet of high-quality water in dry years. 

We need your help. Support local, nonprofit news! BenitoLink is a nonprofit news website that reports on San Benito County. Our team is committed to this community and providing essential, accurate information to our fellow residents. Producing local news is expensive, and community support keeps the news flowing. Please consider supporting BenitoLink, San Benito County’s public service nonprofit news.