Bureau of Reclamation Commissioner John W. Keys, III, will recognize a grant award to the Contra Costa Water District (CCWD) on Thursday, October 14, at 9:30 a.m. at the site of CCWD's Pumping Plant on the Contra Costa Canal in Oakley, California (see directions below).

The $200,000 grant is from the U.S. Department of the Interior's Water 2025 Challenge Grant Program. It will be used to fund a portion of CCWD's $9.13 million Canal Encasement Project (Project). The Project will encase a 2,100-foot portion of the Contra Costa Canal to reduce salinity and water quality impacts of groundwater seepage from adjacent agricultural areas. Contra Costa Water District has already received $7.3 million toward the Project from a California State grant funded by Proposition 13.

Reclamation began construction of the Contra Costa Canal in 1937. Three years later, at this site in Oakley, the facility delivered the Federal Central Valley Project's first water supplies. The canal delivers water to a population of 450,000 in central Contra Costa County. It winds for 52 miles from Knightsen to Martinez. The first 4 miles of the canal, from Knightsen to Oakley, are unlined and subject to water quality degradation from agricultural drainage and seepage.

Contra Costa Water District is one of 19 water agencies in the West, and one of four in California, selected for a Water 2025 Challenge Grant this year. These grants are administered by Reclamation and provide local water districts throughout the West with funds to support a variety of projects to make more efficient use of existing water supplies through water conservation, efficiency, and water market projects.

Directions to Event:

From Oakland - Take Hwy 24 through the Caldecott Tunnel toward Lafayette. Take Interstate 680 North toward Concord. Take Hwy 242 North toward Pittsburg. Take Hwy 4 East to Oakley. Just past the sign for Rose Avenue, turn left into driveway of Bill's Auto/Truck Repair Shop. Follow signs to Pumping Plant.

From Livermore - Take Interstate 580 East toward Tracy. Take Vasco Road exit toward Brentwood. Vasco Road merges into Walnut Boulevard. in Brentwood. Turn right on Oak Street. Turn left on Hwy 4 toward Oakley. Just past E. Cypress Road, look for Bill's Auto/Truck Repair Shop and turn right into the driveway. Follow signs to Pumping Plant.

From Stockton - Take Interstate 5 South. Take Hwy 4 East into Oakley. Just past E. Cypress Road, look for Bill's Auto/Truck Repair Shop and turn right into the driveway. Follow signs to Pumping Plant.