Major Tasks Completed

  • Groundwater Banking Feasibility
  • Due Diligence
  • Groundwater Modeling
  • Water-level Volumetric Calculations
  • Evaluation of Groundwater Elevation and Water Quality Data
  • Cost Estimation for Treatment Scenarios
  • Potential Recharge Basins Evaluation

Due Diligence Support for Various Water Bank Locations

Client

Confidential

Location

Central Valley, CA

Water Resources icon

Since 2020, EKI has supported our client in the assessment of multiple water banking opportunities. Work efforts have included in-depth analysis of existing water bank performance, risk factors and declining groundwater levels, and systemizing the process to support its on-going water bank assessment.

Due Diligence: EKI provided due diligence and technical support to evaluate potential groundwater banking sites. The work included analyzing existing water bank performance and risk factors, estimating projected storage changes using numerical groundwater modeling and volumetric calculations, and gauging groundwater elevation and water quality data through custom analytical tools for statistical analysis. EKI also developed conceptual cost estimates for various treatment scenarios and assessed new water banking opportunities by reviewing hydrogeologic conditions, infrastructure requirements, operational strategies, and potential recharge basin locations.

Water Bank Siting and Feasibility Study. EKI is supporting our client with groundwater banks siting within the area of interest in the Central Valley and conducting a feasibility study on potential sites. EKI has developed a geographic information system (GIS)-based screening tool to systematically identify and rank potential sites for groundwater banking using a set of key hydrogeologic, institutional, and infrastructure criteria. This involves estimation of storage and recharge capacities of the potential sites, identification of potential partners, and evaluation of potential constraints and next steps.

Outcome

Based on EKI’s work and recommendations for target sites and next steps, our client is now moving forward with the development of new water banking, transfer, and exchange opportunities. This will eventually help our client manage wet year water supplies and provide critically important dry year supplies to meet demands and to protect the county’s groundwater basin from over drafting and subsequent land subsidence.