Groundbreaking for new well in Palmdale
PALMDALE — The Palmdale Water District marked the development of a new water supply point with a groundbreaking for a new well, the first drilled by the District in more than 30 decades.
District staff and officials recently gathered at the site of Well 36, near 15th Street East and north of Rancho Vista Boulevard. The new well is expected to be in operation by early next year, officials said.
Once operational, it will produce between 1,000 and 1,300 acre-feet of water annually, or enough water for about 2,000 families in Palmdale.
An acre-foot of water is equal to 326,000 gallons and a family of four uses an average of 190,000 gallons of water, each year.
“The construction of Well 36 is happening at a very opportune time,” PWD Board President Gloria Dizmang said in a release announcing the start of drilling. “With the drought, we are not getting enough surface water from the State Water Project, so groundwater is so important. I applaud the staff for their foresight and making sure we continue to find ways to provide water to our customers.”
The Palmdale Water District relies on three sources of water to supply its customers: State Water Project surface water brought from Northern California through the California Aqueduct, snow melt and runoff collected in the reservoir behind Littlerock Dam and groundwater pumped from the underlying aquifer.
The groundwater is disinfected with chlorine and does not require the same intensive treatment as the surface water supply, which is held in Lake Palmdale and treated at the adjacent Leslie O. Carter Treatment Plant. Thus, the cost is less, primarily for the electricity to run the pumps.
The District has 17,000 acre-feet of groundwater rights available to it for this year. However, due to limitations of its wells, the District can only access 8,000 to 11,000 acre-feet, depending on the well performance, Re
source and Analytics Director Peter Thompson II said, in January. He uses the lower estimate for conservative projections of water supply availability.
The District currently has 22 active wells supplying groundwater. Last year, those wells pumped 9,844 acre-feet of water.
“This is an important milestone for us because our last well, Well 35, was drilled in 1991,” General Manager Dennis D. LaMoreaux said in the release. “Many of our operating wells are old, including one constructed in 1956, and some will soon be non-operable. This new well will give the District redundancy in our total groundwater pumping capacity.”
Before long, seven of the existing wells that are no longer viable and not financially beneficial to repair will be taken out of production, Engineering Manager Scott Rogers said.
The loss of these wells will decrease the District’s groundwater supply by about 1,800 acre-feet, he said.
The new well, Well 36, operating 80% of the year at 12 hours per day can produce 1,300 acre-feet, a year.
The new well costs $6.7 million, with $2.07 million for drilling and $4.6 million in equipment.
The District Board of Directors awarded the drilling contract to Zim Industries (as Bakersfield Well and Pump Co.), in January. The company had the lowest responsive bid of three received.