High Desert district works on water project

This certainly is good action for people in the high dersert area, as the populations is growing fast...

High Desert district works on water project
By CHUCK MUELLER Staff Writer

Saturday, December 04, 2004 - VICTORVILLE - Anticipating continued High Desert growth, a water district is constructing a system of ponds to percolate water into this city's underlying aquifer to meet future demand.

If the $10 million system is feasible, the Victor Valley Water District will link the ponds via an 8-mile-long pipeline to bring water from the California Aqueduct to the ponds.

Eventually, as much as 13,000 acre-feet of aqueduct water may be released annually into ponds on 64 acres at the southwest corner of Yates Road and Cypress Avenue. An acre-foot is about 326,000 gallons, the amount of water consumed yearly by a family of four.

The water district serves 20,000 customers in a 55-square-mile area encompassing Victorville and unincorporated Mountain View Acres to the west.

"Work is now under way on our pilot percolation project along the Oro Grande Wash,' said district spokeswoman Amy Lyn De Zwart. "The project, which includes two one-acre ponds, will provide the district with data to evaluate the cost-effectiveness of additional ponds.

"Water will be pumped from the underground basin into the ponds (so that) the water will seep back into the aquifer.'

De Zwart said a special monitoring well, drilled by the U.S. Geological Survey to a depth of 230 feet, will provide details about how far, how fast and in what direction the percolated water is flowing.Read More..