Developing California’s Largest Agricultural Recycled Water Project

Landmark Project Backed by State and Federal Financing

SacSewer partnered with Woodard & Curran in 2013, based on our recycled water expertise, to support the Harvest Water program. Since then, more than 125 Woodard & Curran employees have worked on the project, taking a multidisciplinary approach to provide services including recycled water planning, engineering and permitting, GIS and hydraulic modeling, groundwater modeling and monitoring, regulatory compliance, program management, funding support, ecological program support, utility support, public outreach and customer recruitment, and data management systems and innovation. The goal of the project, once complete, is to deliver up to 50,000 acre-feet per year of reliable recycled water for irrigation of more than 16,000 acres of agricultural land, supporting the region’s pasture and fodder crops, as well as grapes, nuts, and tomatoes.

This massive undertaking was originally intended to be implemented over four phases based on an early feasibility study. However, around the same time the California Water Commission announced Proposition 1, dedicating $2.7 billion through the Water Storage Investment Program (WSIP). SacSewer, with the support of Woodard & Curran’s fiscal solutions team, leveraged the feasibility study to apply for a portion of this funding, and was ultimately awarded $364.8 million, paving the pathway for single phase project implementation. Additionally, the project was awarded a $30 million grant from the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, under the Title XVI Water Reclamation and Reuse Program. Woodard & Curran is actively supporting additional state and federal funding opportunities for the Harvest Water program.

Modeling predicted benefits

As a key part of WSIP, SacSewer had to enumerate the public benefits Harvest Water would provide to the region. Woodard & Curran’s groundwater modeling experts utilized integrated surface water and groundwater modeling to demonstrate how delivering recycled water to agricultural users would reduce demand on the groundwater basin in different climate scenarios. This modeling also helped substantiate how the Harvest Water program would raise groundwater levels by 35 feet over the next 15 years, adding approximately 370,000 acre-feet to the basin storage. The resulting maps informed efforts to identify key benefits, such as sustaining more than 5,000 acres of riparian and wetland habitats, enhancing habitats for a variety of listed species, increasing streamflow in the Cosumnes River for migration of Chinook Salmon, and reducing salinity and nutrients in the Sacramento and Delta waterways.

Building up the agricultural customer base

Harvest Water is the first introduction to non-potable reuse for the agricultural community in southern Sacramento County. With up to 120 connections to area parcels planned, this required SacSewer to engage in robust public outreach to ensure end users understood the water was safe for their crops. Throughout the project, Woodard & Curran has served as a liaison between our client and the agricultural community in community engagement efforts. One example of this work is a series of fact sheets developed to educate the agricultural community on elements of the project, tertiary treatment, and comparative water quality data from local groundwater, EchoWater effluent, and drinking water. This communication effort helped our client gain trust from local farmers and ranchers early on.

As part of the recycled water recruitment efforts, Woodard & Curran’s digital innovation team customized their proven Opti platform to streamline data management. The platform provides a centralized location for communications with area farmers, parcel maps, crop types, growing cycles, and other pertinent information. The data collected during the customer recruitment process served as the basis for estimating how much recycled water could be used based on agricultural activities. The project also included development of an electronic water ordering system that will help manage recycled water deliveries based on customer demand.

Navigating the regulatory process

Woodard & Curran has played an integral role in the complex permitting and regulatory journey for Harvest Water. From early in the planning stages, our experts prepared environmental documents, secured critical permits and approvals, and coordinated with numerous local, state, and federal agencies to ensure full compliance. This included preparation of the Environmental Impact Report (EIR) under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) and an Environmental Assessment (EA) for review under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). Our team is also leading the water quality permitting to support coverage for Harvest Water under the California’s Order WQ 2016-0068-DDW: Water Reclamation Requirements for Recycled Water Use. We coordinated directly with the Division of Drinking Water (DDW) and the Regional Board to develop the permitting strategy. In fall 2025, DDW approved the “Harvest Water Recycled Water Engineering Report for Distribution and Use” led by our team, which was a critical step in the permitting process.

With extensive planning and design behind the project, construction has begun on the new pumping station, 42 miles of new purple pipeline, and service connections to agricultural customers. It is expected that the Harvest Water system will be operational in 2027.