Your Water Supplies

Where Your Water Comes from

The District overlies a portion of the Main San Gabriel Groundwater Basin, which is the main source of water for the District. This underground aquifer is like a large pool of water, which gets replenished from local rainfall and water imported from northern California and the Colorado River when available. Originally, water was supplied from 3 wells to about 765 domestic service connections. The District has grown to provide water service to 77,000 people through approximately 12,470 water service connections. The system now includes 7 wells plus booster stations, water treatment facilities, reservoirs, and more than 100 miles of transmission and distribution pipelines. To provide additional supply, the District has connected to the Metropolitan Water District’s middle feeder line on Ramona Boulevard, and has installed emergency interconnections with adjoining water agencies.

Groundwater Supplies

Valley County Water District operates 4 production wells, all of which extract groundwater from the adjudicated Main San Gabriel Basin. The Main San Gabriel Basin is located in eastern Los Angeles County and includes the water-bearing sediments underlying most of the San Gabriel Valley and includes a portion of the upper Santa Ana Valley that lies in Los Angeles County. This groundwater basin is managed by the Main San Gabriel Basin Watermaster.

Annually, the Main San Gabriel Basin Watermaster sets the Operating Safe Yield for the groundwater basin and adopts the Water Production Assessments levied on the groundwater producing agencies for extracting water from the groundwater basin. Valley County Water District has an adjudicated right to 3.01517% of the annual Operating Safe Yield. For the period of July 2014 through June 2015, the Operating Safe Yield was set at 150,000 acre-feet, which provides Valley County Water District with 4,522.76 acre-feet in water production rights.

As a party to the adjudication, there is no limit to the quantity of groundwater that may be extracted by Valley County Water District, however replacement water must be purchased from Upper San Gabriel Valley Municipal Water District for any volume of groundwater extracted beyond the allocated annual water production rights. Valley County Water District prefers to rely exclusively on groundwater supplies as its primary source of water for residents and businesses.

Imported Supplies

Imported water supplies are available to Valley County Water District, including:

Upper San Gabriel Valley Municipal Water District via Metropolitan Water District

Upper San Gabriel Valley Municipal Water District is a wholesale member agency of Metropolitan Water District. Valley County Water District installed an imported water supply connection with Upper San Gabriel Valley Municipal Water District in 1999. Historically, imported water supplies from Upper San Gabriel Valley Municipal Water District have been purchased when groundwater production supplies become temporarily unavailable or when emergency circumstances require supplementing high periods of demand. Imported water supplies purchased from Upper San Gabriel Valley Municipal Water District are extremely expensive in comparison to the groundwater supplies available, and as such Valley County Water District prefers to rely exclusively on groundwater supplies as its primary source of water for residents and businesses.

Covina Irrigating Company

Valley County Water District has formed a business relationship with Covina Irrigating Company. Imported water supplies available to Valley County Water District from Covina Irrigating Company are provided on a limited basis through the ownership of shares of stock. Valley County Water District currently holds 111 shares of stock with the company, of which each share typically converts into one acre-foot of water available for purchase. Valley County Water District will usually import water from Covina Irrigating Company in an amount equal to its allotment based on shared ownership. However, the Covina Irrigating Company imported water supply connection may also serve as an available water supply resource when groundwater production supplies become temporarily unavailable or when emergency circumstances require supplementing high periods of demand.

Emergency Supplies

Over the years, Valley County Water District has installed and maintained emergency water supply connection agreements for mutual aid purposes with neighboring water utilities, including:

  • Azusa Light and Water
  • San Gabriel Valley Water Company
  • Southwest Water Company (formerly Suburban Water Systems)
  • Valley View Mutual Water Company

These emergency water supply connections are all currently inactive and would not be used unless a major catastrophic emergency occurred and warranted their activation.