Opinion: The College Lake Water Supply Project is essential for the water security of all who call the Pajaro Valley home
The College Lake Water Supply Project will significantly increase our ability to combat seawater intrusion while also supporting the Pajaro Valley’s job-creating agricultural sector, helping it to remain strong to help feed the people of this region and beyond. … Following winter rains, PV Water will store water in College Lake while ensuring that ample in-stream flows continue beyond the new facilities to preserve bird habitat and protect endangered steelhead. PV water operators will disinfect diverted water at a water treatment plant along Holohan Road and then pump it to PV Water’s existing coastal distribution system, which serves over 6,000 acres of farmland most affected or most threatened by seawater intrusion. … The project will improve water quality in the valley by supplying approximately 700 million gallons of fresh water annually (2,200 acre-feet) to growers along the coast, to supplement our already existing recycled water and recovered water from Harkins Slough.
—Written by Amy Newell, chair of the board of directors of PV Water.