Roseville details long‑term water supply strategy, highlights RiverArc, groundwater storage and planned raw‑water pipeline

Roseville Environmental Utilities officials said the city has planned for growth through required water‑supply assessments and a diversified water portfolio, and described ongoing regional projects intended to increase redundancy and drought resilience.

"Any project that is within the current city boundary limits has sufficient water allocated through build out," Water Utility Manager George Hansen said, describing the water supply assessment (WSA) process required under the California Environmental Quality Act and SB 16 before project entitlements are completed.

Environmental Utilities Director Sean Bigley said Roseville's portfolio includes surface water from Folsom Reservoir under a Bureau of Reclamation contract, contracts with the Placer County Water Agency and investments in aquifer storage and recovery wells and recycled water. "It's sort of our underground, storage account or bank account, if you will, for water that allows us to add to that water supply reliability," he said, describing how the city recharges the groundwater basin during wet periods and extracts it in dry periods.

Panelists highlighted two categories of projects shaping near‑term resilience. First is regional collaboration through the Sacramento Regional Water Authority on initiatives such as RiverArc, a planned Sacramento River intake that would allow agencies including Roseville to access federal Sacramento River supplies instead of relying only on the American River and Folsom Reservoir. Sean said RiverArc would give the region "a lot more flexibility" during hot or dry conditions when the American River is temperature‑sensitive.

Second, staff described a local conveyance project called the Rural Water Supply Project (raw water pipeline) that would connect Roseville's distribution system to PCWA's Foothill Water Treatment Plant upstream of Folsom Reservoir. Hansen said the project would include nearly 14 miles of piping and pumping facilities to create an alternate conveyance path. He said the effort is being pursued under a Section 219 Army Corps partnership and that the federal partner would provide a substantial share of construction funding under that authority; preliminary Army Corps work received an appropriation of about $75,000 to develop a project partnership agreement.

Hansen and Bigley emphasized the projects are intended to provide redundancy rather than immediate new water rights: the pipeline and RiverArc are designed to access supplies already contracted to the city or region from alternate intakes and treatment facilities during constrained conditions.

Staff also described the role of groundwater banking and aquifer storage and recovery in Roseville's strategy. George Hansen said the City "sit[s] on at least about 300,000 acre‑feet of storage" and participates with regional groundwater sustainability agencies implementing the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act. The Sacramento Regional Groundwater Bank was cited as an example of cooperative infrastructure to store surplus in wet years for use in dry years.

Officials said they will continue to pursue federal and state funding to limit rate impacts on customers and to maintain interagency coordination. No formal council votes or policy actions were taken during the presentation.