Will Lodi use excess water to recharge groundwater?

San Joaquin County and local water districts are trying to convince the city of Lodi to take the water it buys from the Woodbridge Irrigation District and contribute it toward a groundwater recharge project at Micke Grove Park.

The idea is for Lodi to ship the Mokelumne River water it has purchased from Woodbridge, along a Woodbridge Irrigation District canal to an area west of Micke Grove Park, then construct a pipeline heading east to the park, said Ed Steffani, manager of the North San Joaquin Water Conservation District.

The city of Lodi began purchasing 6,000 acre-feet of water per year for $1.2 million annually from the Woodbridge Irrigation District in 2003, but the water has gone unused because Lodi doesn't yet have a treatment plant for the water.

So far, the city has been able to stockpile the 30,000 acre-feet of water it has purchased from Woodbridge, but 2011 is the final year the city can bank water without losing it.

County officials have an answer: Transfer that water to Micke Grove Park, just south of town.

Gutierrez, who is also chairman of the county's Groundwater Banking Authority, said he would like to use Lodi's water and the county-owned Micke Grove Park as a demonstration site. If successful, the county can show other communities that they, too, can take their water and let it soak into the groundwater basin, Gutierrez said. And that includes Southern California. With the threat of a peripheral canal taking water away from the Delta and south to Kern County and the Los Angeles basin, the Micke Grove project can demonstrate that groundwater recharge is a viable alternative, Gutierrez said.

"Most people don't understand when we talk about groundwater recharge as an alternative means of storing water," Gutierrez said. "If we can demonstrate an actual model of how groundwater recharge works, we have a project that can be replicated."

Lodi Mayor JoAnne Mounce and Councilman Larry Hansen said they haven't heard anything from the county about such a request.

The Board of Supervisors added $570,000 to its 2008-09 fiscal year budget to complete design and construction of the Micke Grove recharge project. Gutierrez said that all the county needs is the water itself.

The North San Joaquin Water Conservation District is a strong advocate of soaking Mokelumne River water into the ground to replenish the groundwater basin.

However, the Lodi City Council voted last October to construct a $30 million water treatment plant west of Lodi Lake and decided against groundwater recharge.

Wally Sandelin, Lodi's public works director, isn't sold on the groundwater recharge method. Due to evaporation and saturation in the soil, only about 70 percent of the water used for recharge actually gets into the groundwater basin, Sandelin said.

Hansen said it will take a lot of convincing by the county to get him to support moving Lodi's water to Micke Grove Park. The county isn't alone in pursuing Lodi's water for the Micke Grove project. Melvin Panizza, president of the Stockton East board of directors, sent a letter to Board of Supervisors Chairman Ken Vogel applauding the county's work in trying to get Lodi to use its Woodbridge water for the Micke Grove project, at least until Lodi completes construction of its water treatment plant.

"The Micke Grove recharge/banking facility is an opportunity to put the city's water to beneficial use this year and allow the North San Joaquin Water Conservation District to eventually replace this supply with its (Mokelumne River) water supply," Panizza said in his letter.

Stockton East and the other two districts in the Eastern Water Alliance — North San Joaquin and Central San Joaquin water conservation districts — are willing to help the county to assure completion of the Micke Grove project.

If the Lodi City Council decides to put the city's water into the groundwater basin at Micke Grove, the city must get permission from the Woodbridge Irrigation District to use that water outside the Lodi city limits, Sandelin said.

Contact reporter Ross Farrow at rossf@lodinews.com.