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The Hydrologic Cycle
Surface water evaporates from the earth's surface to form clouds which release water, in the form of snow, sleet, hail or rain, back to the earth. Some water percolates into the ground and is stored as groundwater. Some water is collected in lakes and rivers or falls into the ocean. Water is constantly being renewed and reused in this way. This process of Evaporation, Condensation, and Precipitation is known as the Hydrologic Cycle.
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The City of Redding has two major sources of drinking water: surface water and groundwater. The Sacramento River and Whiskeytown Lake provide our customers with 71% of the water they use. This translates into approximately 5.61 billion gallons per year. The remaining 29%, or 2.32 billion gallons per year, is groundwater which comes from 14 wells drilled into the Redding Groundwater Basin.
We are fortunate in that we have a substantial water right diversion from the Sacramento River that dates back to 1886. Currently, our contract with the Bureau of Reclamation (USBR) allows a maximum annual diversion of 21,000 acre feet (af) or 18.7 million gallons per day (mgd). In addition, the City also has a smaller contract with the USBR for water to serve the Buckeye area - the northwest portion of our service area. Currently, this contract allows for a maximum annual diversion of 6,140 af, or 5.4 mgd, from Whiskeytown Lake. All surface water is treated at one of the two conventional Water Treatment facilities owned by the City of Redding.
The City's 14 wells are located in the southwest and southeast portion of our service area - the Cascade and Enterprise zones. These wells pump water from an underground aquifer - rock formations through which water filters slowly. These wells are used primarily during the summer when demand is high. Water pumped from our groundwater basin is of good quality and only minimal disinfection and treatment is necessary before the water enters our distribution system.
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