A small, abandoned reservoir near Hilmar could become a means of conserving water for the Turlock Irrigation District.
Its board on Tuesday will consider spending $2.34 million to fix up the reservoir, part of a former water treatment plant, so it could catch canal water that otherwise would run into the Merced River.
The project would save an average of 2,550 acre-feet of water per year, and a future expansion could boost that to about 9,000, a staff report said.
TID delivers close to 360,000 acre-feet in a normal year throughout its service area, which stretches to south Modesto. It is providing a little less than half of that this year because of the drought.
http://www.modbee.com/2014/06/01/3368291/small-reservoir-could-conserve.html?sp=/99/1571/&ihp=1