Overview Of The Placer County Water Agency
Placer County Water Agency (PCWA) was created through an Act of the California State Legislature in 1957. PCWA’s jurisdiction encompasses the entire County of Placer, and it is governed by an elected five-member Board of Directors.
History of PCWA Energy and Water Development - Development of the Middle Fork American River Project:
The immediate objective for the formation of the Agency was to preserve Placer County’s rich water resources for our future generations and protect these local benefits from development and exportation by other interests, as was occurring elsewhere in the state. It was at this time that San Francisco, Oakland, Los Angeles, and the federal and state governments, were building reservoirs in water-rich areas of California and aqueducts to move that water to supply new farmlands and growing coastal cities.
A bond measure to fund construction of the proposed Middle Fork American River Hydroelectric Project (MFP), backed by a 50-year PG&E contract for the energy output, passed by a vote of 25 to 1 and within 10 years of its formation, PCWA completed construction. The MFP’s reservoirs can store up to 340,000 acre-feet of water and its generators produce an average of 1.1 million megawatt hours of energy per year - enough clean energy to supply 240,000 homes.
The Gold Rush Water Supply:
By 1855, just 7 years after gold was discovered at Sutter’s Mill, miners had built over 175 miles of canals in Placer County to provide the water needed for hydraulic mining. But hydraulic mining was soon outlawed and by 1910, PG&E had purchased the system that brought water from the South Fork Yuba River across western Placer County and began installing hydroelectric generators to power a new system of electrification.
PG&E also found a growing market supplying water to west Placer agriculture. Because of its developed water supply, Placer County was the richest agricultural producing county in the state in the 1920-40s, supplying fresh fruit to New York over the continental railroad.
Gradually there was growing recognition that communities needed to treat their drinking water to prevent disease. The earliest systems, which consisted of settling ponds and chlorination, using PG&E supplied water, were installed by Lincoln and Roseville to supply their cities’ residents. By the late 1940s, PG&E built more modern filtered water systems to supply its retail customers in Rocklin, Loomis, Penryn, and Auburn.
PCWA Takes Over the PG&E Water System:
The 1950-60s brought growing mutual dissatisfaction between PG&E and its water customers. PG&E was far more interested in its profitable energy businesses, while increasing water safety regulations were adding costs and liability to their water enterprises. PG&E decided it wanted out of the retail water business, and PCWA was asked by the community to take over the responsibility.
In August 1967, a special election within PCWA’s newly formed Zone 1 to authorize the sale of $2 million in revenue bonds for the purchase of PG&E’s water system passed with 65% of the vote.
Then in 1975, the voters in Zone 1 authorized additional debt of $6 million to fund the construction of the Foothill Water Treatment Plant (WTP) along with transmission lines that permitted the Agency to interconnect the Foothill WTP with the existing Sunset WTP, to extend wholesale treated water service to the City of Lincoln, and to decommission Lincoln’s pond treatment system and outdated water treatment plants in Penryn, Loomis and Rocklin.
PCWA - Today
Water:
PCWA is the largest water purveyor in the county, serving more than 41,000 retail treated water customers in its Western Water System, which includes the original Zone 1 and extends east from Auburn to the communities of Applegate, Colfax, and Alta. PCWA continues to provide treated water on a wholesale basis to the City of Lincoln – a service it has also extended to California American Water Company for delivery west of Roseville, and to several historic community systems in the Loomis Basin. In addition, PCWA supplies water from its MFP to the City of Roseville and San Juan Water District, which operate their own treatment facilities. And PCWA continues to operate 170 miles of canals, serving irrigation water for pastures, orchards, rice fields, farms, ranches, golf courses, and landscaping – continuing the heritage of Placer County’s historic water delivery.
Energy:
PCWA’s MFP is the eighth largest public power project in California. It has five interconnected hydroelectric power plants, two major storage reservoirs (French Meadows and Hell Hole) and twenty-four miles of tunnels. The MFP can generate, at peak power, 224 megawatts.
The MFP is a workhorse of the real time California energy management system. The California Independent System Operator uses the flexible generation capacity of the MFP to help regulate grid frequency as electric demand and solar output changes throughout the day. And revenue from MFP generation enables PCWA to supply reliable American River water to Placer County residents at low cost.
The MFP also supports a wide range of recreational opportunities including camping, fishing and boating facilities at our mountain reservoirs, and whitewater sports downstream of the project.
Stewardship:
The old cliché, “Whisky’s for drinking, and water’s for fighting” is still true today. Southern California exhausted its available water supply over 20 years ago. Since then they have relied on stringent conservation requirements and expensive recycling programs to continue to meet the water needs of new development. In contrast, PCWA still has sufficient reserved water supplies in its MFP system to meet all of the county’s projected growth in demand for the next 30 years. This disparity in supply makes protecting Placer County’s resources challenging.
Challenges include drought and increasing state-wide water conservation requirements; climate change, with rising sea levels threatening delta ecosystems and the proposed twin delta tunnels to move Southern California intakes upstream and increase water exports; new state-wide groundwater sustainability requirements; and a proposed water tax to improve water to disadvantaged San Joaquin Valley communities. The list of real-time water issues in California today that threaten our finances and local water supply reliability are significant, and growing.
Plus, we have real needs right here in Placer County, where several small mountain communities are struggling to keep water supplies safe, reliable and affordable.
PCWA officials understand the complexities, interrelationships and importance of sustaining reliable and affordable water and energy for Placer County’s present and future needs. The Agency is actively involved in numerous collaborative partnerships, watershed stewardship, surface and groundwater management, integrated water resource planning, and regional infrastructure projects. Advocacy for Agency water entitlements and energy resources for Placer County are at the forefront of Agency-wide interests and activities.
Inquiries may be referred to the PCWA Customer Service Center at (530) 823-4850.