Stantec joins $800M Mojave Desert water project

Design and engineering agency Stantec will oversee improvement and building of the $800 million Mojave Groundwater Bank project in California’s Mojave Desert, water firm Cadiz introduced on the finish of February. The undertaking, which is able to pull water from an historical aquifer beneath the Mojave Desert, will provide California and Arizona.

When full, the groundwater financial institution would be the largest new water infrastructure undertaking within the Southwest, based on Los Angeles-based Cadiz. It is going to present 2.5 million acre-feet of latest water provide, 1 million acre-feet of underground storage capability and a pipeline community spanning greater than 350 miles between the Colorado River and California aqueducts. 

Stantec, headquartered in Edmonton, Alberta, will function the proprietor’s engineer, per the discharge. The agency will even help within the choice of the contractor beneath a building supervisor in danger supply mannequin and lead the engineering, procurement and building administration course of.

Stantec has many years of expertise working with utilities all through California and the West, stated John Hanula, senior vp at Stantec, within the launch.

“Water provide variability ensuing from local weather change threatens long-term water safety all through the Western U.S., and the water supply system have to be up to date and expanded to soundly and reliably meet the wants of our communities,” stated Hanula.

Cadiz is partnering with the Lytton Rancheria tribe of California, based on Indian Gaming, to assemble, personal and function the groundwater financial institution. It represents the primary large-scale water infrastructure undertaking off tribal lands in U.S. historical past, based on the agency.

Per Indian Gaming, the Lytton Rancheria will make investments $50 million within the undertaking, which is situated on the base of a 2,000-square-mile watershed system roughly 40 miles north of the Colorado River Aqueduct and 220 miles east of California State Water Venture amenities, which provide water to 27 million Californians in addition to farmland.

In the beginning of March, the project also secured a $175 million pledge from a lead investor, an unnamed publicly traded firm targeted on investing in water infrastructure initiatives, Water Finance & Administration reported. 

The undertaking has lengthy attracted fierce opposition, nonetheless: Conservation teams say pulling water from the aquifer would threaten natural springs and wildlife within the coronary heart of the Mojave Desert, the Palm Desert, California-based Desert Solar reported. Quite a few California officers have fought the undertaking, together with the late Sen. Dianne Feinstein.

Nonetheless, work is predicted to start in 2025, with preliminary water supply focused for as early as 2026, Indian Gaming reported.