VenturaWaterPure Project Site Visited by Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland

In December of 2023, Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland and Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Water and Science Michael Brain traveled to California, joining U.S. Congressman Salud Carbajal and members of the Ventura City Council, where they highlighted how President Biden’s Investing in America agenda is bolstering efforts to make Western communities more resilient to drought and wildfire in the wake of the climate crisis. They toured the construction site for the first facilities associated with the VenturaWaterPure Project, which received more than $18 million from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.

In Ventura, Secretary Haaland, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary Brain and Congressman Salud Carbajal met with local leaders and stakeholders to celebrate new investments in advanced water treatment and water recycling infrastructure – critical programs as Western communities continue to face the impacts of drought and reduced water supplies.  The new facility will further treat recycled water, producing up to 3,600 acre-feet of water of new potable supply in its first phase, while also protecting the Santa Clara River Estuary through reduction of tertiary treated discharges produced by the Ventura Water Reclamation Facility. Due to important City policy decisions made over the last several years, the City of Ventura’s diversion of tertiary treated flows to advanced water treatment is expected to result in improved estuary water quality and hydrology, benefitting at least four listed species that occupy the estuary:  the California least tern, the snowy plover, the tidewater goby and the California steelhead.

The visit was recently highlighted in the Ventura County Star. 

Mary Lynn Coffee, who leads the Nossaman team that is advising on the project, and Nancy Smith, a Nossaman Infrastructure Partner, attended the event.