More Than 50 Years of Water Resource Solutions
The Monterey County Water Resources Agency has worked with the Salinas Valley community to conserve water and control floods for more than half a century. Since 1947, the water resources agency has implemented and secured water resource solutions. Key examples of water resource management solutions in the Salinas Valley include:
The Nacimiento Dam (1957) and San Antonio Dam (1965) have provided critical flood protection and added in excess of 1 million acre-feet of water to the Salinas Valley groundwater basin. Without the dams, that water would have flowed to Monterey Bay and would not have been available for agricultural and urban use.

Hydropower Production at Nacimiento Dam, since 1987, has generated revenues of more than $4.7 million that have contributed to local water solutions and to California’s energy self-reliance.

Monterey County Water Recycling Projects, a combination of the Castroville Seawater Intrusion Project and the Salinas Valley Reclamation Project, began construction in 1995 and started delivering recycled water to fields near Castroville in 1998. The projects reduce pumping of groundwater and slow down seawater intrusion.

Monterey County installed the first-ever automated flood warning system in the nation in 1977. Over the past 25 years, four remote sensors have been expanded to 53 stations that monitor rain and stream levels on the Salinas, Arroyo Seco, Pajaro, and Carmel rivers and their tributaries so that flood warnings can be issued and emergency services can be supported.

Other services include outreach and education for water conservation; water level and water quality monitoring; and nitrate research and management.
 
Recycled Water is Reducing Seawater Intrusion

The Monterey County Water Resources Agency has partnered with the Salinas Valley community to stop seawater intrusion. By using recycled water pumped from the Monterey Regional Water Pollution Control Agency, farmers found they can safely irrigate their crops and reduce pumping of seawater-tainted groundwater. The unprecedented success of the Castroville Seawater Intrusion Project has lead to the next step in fighting seawater intrusion – the Salinas Valley Water Project. Through the SVWP’s installation of a rubber dam on the Salinas River near Marina, seasonally stored water can be pumped into the Castroville Seawater Intrusion Project’s pipelines for delivery as irrigation water, thus reducing the need to pump groundwater.
 
What is an acre-foot?

One acre-foot equals 326,000 gallons, covering one acre a foot deep. An acre is the size of a football field. In the Salinas Valley, a typical household uses approximately a third of an acre-foot per year.
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