Project to pipe Arcadia reservoir water to San Gabriel Riverbed

ARCADIA, Calif. (KABC) -- California's historic drought is taking its toll on the underground water supply. Now a project is underway in Arcadia to inject more water into the area's receding underground aquifer.

Peck Road Water Conservation Park in Arcadia has a small lake used to capture runoff from the San Gabriel Mountains. During a storm the lake can rise significantly after that the water sits here.

"When storm events come, it fills up and is wasted to the ocean. What we're looking at is to conserve this water," said Keith Lilley, an engineer with the L.A. County Department of Public Works.

The plan is to move the water from where it is to where they want it to be, about a mile and a half east through a pipe to the San Gabriel River. In this new area the ground is very porous. The idea is that the water would seep hundreds of feet down into the San Gabriel Basin aquifer below.

"You can think of the area above the aquifer as a giant filter, basically it's sands and gravels, and the water moves through those layers, it's cleaned up and then gets captured in this aquifer," said Lilley.

The aquifer is down to historic lows, so refilling it is crucial. The plan involves dredging parts of the lake at Peck Road Park and removing some plants. The concern is that it will disturb the birds and other wildlife in the area.

Ray Jillson is a bird-watcher who says this area has already gone through a lot of changes.

"What has changed mostly is the fact that it's been dry for so long that a lot of birds that normally come here haven't been coming for quite a while," said Jillson.

"I'm OK as long as it doesn't deplete what they have here," said park visitor Ed Bettinghausen. "They fish here, they stock it with trout and everything, and I don't know what's going to happen there if they're drawing water out that way."

"On that sediment there are willow trees and the willow trees attract birds, so we've been working with state Fish and Wildlife officials to develop a plan where we could help mitigate those impacts and prevent impacts to those species," said Lilley.

Officials hope to begin this project next year, and they'll complete the pipe and have the water moving over by 2016.