CASE STUDY
The Stanislaus Regional Water Authority’s Regional Surface Water Supply Project
Project Summary
The Stanislaus Regional Water Authority (SRWA) was established to spearhead the Regional Surface Water Supply Project (RSWSP). This initiative diversified water sources for the Cities of Turlock and Ceres by treating surface water from the Tuolumne River, purchased from the Turlock Irrigation District (TID), for potable uses.
Our Role
Montrose (Formerly Horizon Water and Environment) was critical to SRWA for environmental planning and California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) compliance for the RSWSP. From early in the project, our tasks included:
- Preparing an Initial Study/Mitigated Negative Declaration (IS/MND) for testing an existing infiltration gallery on the Tuolumne River to assess its viability as a diversion facility.
- Developing an Environmental Impact Report (EIR) to evaluate the use of the infiltration gallery and the construction of a wet well, pump station, raw water pipeline, water treatment plant, treated water pipelines, and storage tanks.
Challenges
We collaborated closely with SRWA and project engineers to ensure that environmental constraints were thoroughly considered during the project planning and design process. This involved:
- Developing a successful regulatory permitting strategy.
- Testing and connecting the infiltration gallery.
- Developing effective impact avoidance and minimization measures.
- Monitoring environmental conditions during project construction.
Outcome
The EIR was successfully certified in August 2018. We continued to support SRWA with regulatory permitting compliance and monitoring through the design and construction phases.
