23 days ago
SACRAMENTO COUNTY, CA - It's huge and massive and has probably caught the eye of motorists traveling on Interstate 5 near the south Sacramento water tower.
It's the Freeport water intake facility, a project designed to help meet future water demands in Sacramento County and the San Francisco Bay Area.
"It's a huge deal for the Sacramento County Water Agency," said Forrest Williams, project manager for the enormous facility. "The project's maximum capacity will be 185 million gallons of water a day."
Williams explained that 85 million gallons will be for residents served by the Sacramento County Water Agency and 100 million gallons will be for the East Bay Municipal Utilities District. "EBMUD will use it as a drought water supply which officials anticipate needing three out of every 10 years," Williams said.
The facility has eight giant pumps that will pull water from the Sacramento River just north of Freeport. It will be poured into a 17-mile pipeline that will transport the water to a new surface water treament plant on Florin Road in the Vineyard area.
The intake facility, which has been under construction for two years, has brought 500 jobs to the region, according to Williams.
The pump station, pipeline and new surface treatment plant is expected to cost $1 billion.
Williams said the intake facility, which is under going testing now, should be completed by next spring.
by Karen Massie, kmassie@news10.net
News10/KXTV
