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Harding Drain Project

The City of Turlock (City) is proposing to construction a new wastewater outfall pipeline from the City’s existing outfall at the intersection of Harding Road and Prairie Flower Road to the eastern bank of the San Joaquin River

The project’s primary goal is to eliminate the discharge of the City’s treated wastewater to the Harding Drain, a constructed agricultural irrigation drain owned, operated and maintained by the Turlock Irrigation District (TID). By bypassing the Harding Drain, the city could discharge directly to the San Joaquin River, upstream of the current confluence between the Harding Drain and the San Joaquin River. The Proposed Project does not involve any increase to the City’s existing permitted treatment capacity.

Changing the point of discharge from Harding Drain to a direct discharge to the San Joaquin River will serve at least two beneficial purposes. First, removal of the City’s permitted wastewater discharges from Harding Drain will relieve the City of the need to coordinate with TID regarding management of wastewater flows in the Drain, allowing TID to efficiently operate and maintain its system. Second, the project will allow TID and agricultural operations that discharge to Harding Drain to separately monitor and manage water quality associated with agricultural activities, which are subject to separate regulatory requirements.

An Environmental Impact Report was prepared for the project pursuant to the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). The project is nearing final engineering design and will go out to bid later in the spring of 2008. Construction of the project may take up to two years.