The Hi-Desert Water District (HDWD) has broken ground on the second phase of a $103 million sewage collection system in Yucca Valley, California, marking a major step in a decade-long wastewater infrastructure program that will connect more than 2,000 households to centralized sewer services.
When completed later this year, the new system will convey an estimated 210,000 gallons of wastewater per day through 32 miles of new pipelines to the Yucca Valley Wastewater Treatment and Water Reclamation Facility. Commissioned in 2020, the facility is the region’s first centralized treatment plant and provides critical capacity for wastewater recycling and groundwater protection.
The expansion is funded primarily through a $103 million grant from the 2021 California Budget Act, with additional financial support from the State Water Resources Control Board via a $138 million low-interest loan, a $750,000 Clean Water State Revolving Fund grant, and $7 million in Proposition 1 groundwater protection funding. Since 2016, the project has received more than $248 million in state assistance.
“Water and wastewater infrastructure projects are massive undertakings that require time, expertise and extensive financing that most small communities cannot raise on their own,” said State Water Board Member Laurel Firestone. “Without low interest loans and grants, major projects like this one would be too expensive to build, especially in economically disadvantaged communities.”
According to HDWD Board Chair Scot E. McKone, “This critical project would not have been feasible financially for our customers without the grants and low-interest loans from the state and the Clean Water State Revolving Fund.”
The initiative was spurred by the Colorado River Basin Regional Water Quality Control Board’s 2011 ruling, later updated in 2021, prohibiting septic discharges into Yucca Valley groundwater following a USGS study that found elevated nitrate levels linked to septic effluent.
By advancing this project, California underscores its commitment to safeguarding water resources while expanding wastewater reuse opportunities.
