Vail Lake Reservoir (or is that Fail Lake Reservoir?)
Bill focuses on Vail Lake as resource
Tinm O'Leary - Press Enterprise
Federal legislation aimed at helping Temecula and Murrieta meet their future water needs by boosting the use of Vail Lake was announced Thursday by Rep. Mary Bono.
The bill would provide up to $20 million toward improvements at the heart of a $300,000 study that was adopted by Rancho California Water District directors more than a year ago.
That supply plan was crafted because water consumption throughout the area -- demand that tripled over the past 25 years -- is expected to double again before growth spurts ebb by about 2050, local officials predict.
"Water is a precious commodity to the Riverside County region, and the protection of this resource is of paramount importance for our community and local business," Bono, R-Palm Springs, said in a news release. She said the funding, if approved, would also help area agriculture.
The bill was accompanied by letters of support from the Metropolitan, Western and Eastern water districts along with The Nature Conservancy and associations representing avocado and citrus growers.
Key aspects of the Rancho water district strategy include boosting the levels of runoff-fed Vail Lake by installing a $5.5 million pipeline aimed at allowing the district to store more water there.
Another $20 million would be spent installing another set of pipes to move lake water to the area's Wine Country, which now relies on costly treated water to irrigate crops, process wine and meet other needs.
The increased water stored in Vail Lake, which is about 15 miles east of Temecula, would also be used to recharge groundwater basins. Eighteen wells would be drilled at a cost of about $22.5 million to pull stored supplies from those underground basins.
Note: The Metro Water District of Southern California considered this site for a regional water storage reservoir in 1990 but abandoned it after it was found that the site had a slide prone area and that the likely mitigations that would be demanded by environmentalists would be staggering. Would the geological conditions at Vail Lake make it "Fail Lake?"
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