Improving Water Supply Infrastructure to Support our Drought Response

Cloverdale is committed to increasing the City’s resiliency to cope with and respond to drought conditions. As part of the City’s continued and long-term drought response efforts, the City of Cloverdale was awarded a $3,005,000 grant from the State Department of Water Resources (DWR) in September 2022 as part of the Urban and Multi-benefit Drought Relief Grant Program to help fund water supply and distribution system projects across the city.

The DWR grant agreement includes funding for the following three projects:

1. Advanced Metering Infrastructure Upgrades
2. Well Replacement and Rehabilitation
3. Supervisorial Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) Expansion

Improving Water Supply Wells

The City is beginning its second project funded under the Grant, which will rehabilitate and replace two of the City’s water supply wells. As part of the City’s continuing efforts, the new well equipment will improve vital infrastructure, conserve water, and optimize the City’s Water Treatment Plant operations.

Cloverdale’s water supply comes from several wells located in the Cloverdale River Park along the west bank of the Russian River at the City’s Water Treatment Plant. The wells are drilled into Cloverdale’s water-bearing porous rock layer, known as alluvium, which is a mix of gravel, sand, silt, and clay deposited in the last 3 million years. The wells pump groundwater influenced by Russian River water into the plant for treatment. After treatment, the water is then pumped to the City’s main reservoirs and distributed through 40 miles of water mains throughout the City system.

During drought conditions, lower groundwater levels and decreased flow from the river have created difficulties for two older water supply wells. When pumping from these wells during low water levels, air and debris become mixed with the water, in a process known as air entrainment, and is carried into the treatment plant. This debris can clog the plant’s filters, requiring City staff to restrict pumping and repeatedly use water to backwash the filters to clear them. This process uses valuable water and reduces supply well and plant efficiency – and is only expected to intensify as drought and extreme weather conditions continue.

Water Supply Wells Project

To address this issue, the project will replace Well #7 and rehabilitate Well #8, shown on the included map. At Well #7, this replacement work will include:

• drilling three exploratory borings up to approximately 200 feet deep,

• construction of a new well by the bucket-rig method,

• construction of a new well pump station, and

• existing well abandonment.

At Well #8, the rehabilitation will include:

• testing of the existing well and the well pump and motor,

• installing a new well casing to reduce or eliminate air entrainment, and

• improvements to the pump station equipment.