The East Bay Municipal Utilities District and the Sacramento County Water Agency have recently joined together to construct a 900 million dollar pipeline project in order to supply water to customers in Sacramento County and the East Bay. Once completed, the Freeport Water Project will supply 85 million gallons of water per day to the SCWA. The SCWA will in turn supply customers in central Sacramento county to supplement ground water use. The project will supply East Bay MUD as a supplemental water source, to be used in dry years only, estimated to be 3 out of every 10 years. East Bay MUD currently serves 1.3 million customers in Alameda and Contra Costa Counties, and the Freeport Regional Water Project will serve 300,000 customers in Sacramento County.

The SCWA will receive water beginning in 2011, two years later than East Bay MUD, due to the construction of an additional surface water treatment plant. According to East Bay MUD project liaison Gerald Schwartz, East Bay MUD had water rights to the American River dating back to 1970. A lawsuit was brought before East Bay MUD by environmentalist groups, which was later joined by Sacramento County. After years of conflict and millions of dollars in litigation, Sacramento County and East Bay MUD decided to join forces and build common infrastructure. One segment of the project, known as the Folsom South Canal Construction project, is currently under construction and stretches from the Clay Station Pumping Plant on the American River to an East Bay MUD pumping plant on the Mokelumne River below Lake Comanche. The pipeline stretches along Liberty Road, and will impact traffic. Motorists should be aware that Liberty Road will be closed from Highway 88 to Mackville, from June 11th to the 23rd, 6:00 AM to 4:00 PM. For more information on this project, visit www.freeportproject.org.