Salinas River Diversion Facility (SRDF)
This page gives an overview of the Salinas River Diversion Facility.
Contents
Summary
The Salinas River Diversion Facility(SRDF) is part of the Salinas Valley Water Project(SVWA) and was created to help mitigate sea water intrusion in the Salinas Valley. The facility consists of a rubber dam located 5 miles upstream from the mouth of the Salinas River. The dam is designed to retain water released from the Nacimiento Reservoir in a 100 acre foot detention pond. The intended use for this water is to help recharge the aquifer and to be used in irrigation. When the damn is activated, it creates a 100 acre-foot detention pond. with facilities designed to extract 23 million gallons of water per day for use in irrigation. The diverted water is mixed with recycled waste-water to be used on crops during high irrigation periods[1].
Planning and construciton
The SVWA and the SRDF were developed to accomplish two primary goals
- Halting seawater intrusion.
- Provide a flexible fresh water supply adequate for current and future (2030) needs[2].
Construction for the dam finished in May of 2010. The potential liquefaction of substrate during earthquakes required costly foundation considerations.
Costs
The initial cost of the facility was $14 million out of the $33 million Salinas Valley Water Project budget. The other funds were in part spent to upgrade the Nacimiento spillway to be able to increase available discharge.
2012 Repairs
In 2012, a high flow event cause erosion around the dam, requiring costly repairs, estimated at $1.8 million[3].
Special Status Species
The Salinas River is designated as critical habitat for the threatened steelhead trout. To mitigate impacts the rubber dam of the steehead, a fish ladder was incorperated into the rubber damn to bring it inline with the local steelhead recovery plans.
References
- ↑ Design and Construction of the Diversion Facility http://ussdams.com/proceedings/2010Proc/577-592.pdf
- ↑ http://www.mcwra.co.monterey.ca.us/SVWP/SVWP_Project_Description.pdf
- ↑ http://www.montereyherald.com/portal/water/ci_19991761?_loopback=1
Disclaimer
This page may contain student work completed as part of assigned coursework. It may not be accurate. It does not necessary reflect the opinion or policy of CSUMB, its staff, or students.
