Historically, most of the water delivered to Sacramento County Water Agency customers has been from underground aquifers, which are becoming significantly depleted. Built as part of a conjunctive use program, the Vineyard Surface Water Treatment Plant helps reduce dependency on these local groundwater resources by providing high-quality drinking water from the Sacramento River. This allows the aquifers to naturally replenish.
The 50 MGD plant uses conventional surface-water treatment processes like flash mixing, coagulation-flocculation, filtration, and chlorination for disinfection. The solids handling processes minimize waste-stream flows to the sanitary sewer while optimizing treated-water quality. A sludge lagoon provides a drying bed for solids produced by the centrifuges, reducing water content by 50% before landfill disposal. A fish-gate capture system at the flow-control structure monitors performance of fish screens at the intake on the Sacramento River.
The 38,000 square-foot administration and operations building is LEED® Gold certified. It features extensive use of natural lighting, reduced use of water, on-site solar panels, and computer-controlled lighting heating, ventilation, and air conditioning systems.
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