The Water Replenishment District Celebrates Groundwater Awareness Week

March 10, 2022 (Lakewood, California) –Groundwater Awareness Week was established in 1999 to highlight the importance of groundwater management and to celebrate local groundwater efforts across the country. This year’s Groundwater Awareness Week is celebrated from March 6^th through March 12^th.

 Groundwater is a critical component of California’s water supply and serves as a resource for many different industries and uses, including farms, urban and rural communities, and ecosystems across the state. In southern Los Angeles County, groundwater accounts for nearly half of all the water used in the region. The Water Replenishment District (WRD) is the largest groundwater agency in California, protecting and providing groundwater for four million people in 43 cities across southern Los Angeles County. WRD was formed in 1959 to protect the groundwater resources of the Central and West Coast Groundwater Basins.

Historically, the region imported water from hundreds of miles away using a series of aqueducts, reservoirs, and canals to fill our groundwater basins. Thanks to WRD’s Water Independence Now (WIN) program, recycled water makes up 100% of the water supply used to replenish those basins at the spreading grounds. WRD reached this milestone in 2019 with the completion of the Albert Robles Center (ARC) for Water Recycling and Environmental Learning.

“WRD is proud to protect our watershed and provide high-quality groundwater at affordable rates,” said WRD President John D. S. Allen. “Our WIN program has provided a local and environmentally sustainable supply of water in the region. For generations to come, southern Los Angeles County will have access to a supply of groundwater, even in droughts and dry years.”

Groundwater basins serve as the state’s water savings account and are intended to provide a reliable water source during drought conditions when we have less rain and snowpack. In fact, the state’s groundwater basins have the capability of storing 850 million acre-feet to 1.3 billion acre-feet of water, or 8 to 12 times the combined storage capacity of all major above-ground reservoirs in California.

 “Our next goal is to complete our Water Independence for All (WIN 4 All) program by 2040,” continued Director Allen. “Through WIN 4 All, WRD and other water agencies will work together to store billions of gallons of water in empty and unused aquifers.  When WIN 4 All is complete, the groundwater supply will be enough to offset the need for imported water in WRD’s service area. This will build drought resiliency for generations to come.”