Wednesday October 25, 2023
LAist —
The first stage of a new groundwater storage project in the Antelope Valley is now up and running after three years of construction.
The High Desert Water Bank, which is through a partnership with the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California and the Antelope Valley-East Kern Water Agency (AVEK), has the capacity to store and withdraw enough water to serve about 210,000 Southern California homes each year.
The new facility can store 280,000 acre-feet of water, which is four times the capacity of Big Bear Lake, according to Metropolitan.
The water will come from the State Water Project, a 705-mile storage and delivery system that serves 27 million people across California. It will then be directed into recharge basins, which are essentially huge ponds that allow the water to slowly seep 200 feet down into the Antelope Valley groundwater basin. There will be a series of recovery wells or groundwater pumping wells in that basin for agencies to draw from when it’s needed.