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Water Purification Center Groundbreaking: Soquel Creek Water District
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On Friday, the Soquel Creek Water District hosted a groundbreaking ceremony for its $88 million Advanced Water Purification Center, which will purify treated Santa Cruz wastewater for recharge wells, addressing seawater intrusion.
“After many years of working to find a way to protect our groundwater supply for the long term and achieve sustainability, I am happy to announce that the advanced water purification center — the heart of Pure Water Soquel — is now under construction and anticipated to be completed and operational in 2023,” said incoming Soquel Creek Water District Board President Tom LaHue. “This has been a monumental, multi-year effort.”
This construction is on Chanticleer Avenue near Soquel Avenue in Live Oak, not far from Capitola, which is served by the Soquel Creek Water District.
The state considers the Mid-County groundwater basin — the sole source of water supply for customers of Soquel Creek Water District — as “critically overdrafted,” resulting in a shortage of drinking water and verified seawater contamination of the aquifer at several locations.
This project is designed to maintain a barrier against further seawater contamination, and provide a high-quality, reliable, and sustainable water supply for generations to come. About 50 invited guests attended the groundbreaking. “Projects like Pure Water Soquel are critical to fighting drought and reducing climate change impacts throughout the West,” said Tomas Torres, director of the Region 9 Water Division of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, which is helping finance the treatment system. “This represents the future of water in the West.”
State Water Board Chair E. Joaquin Esquivel said, “Water recycling is a creative solution, and we are working with partners like the Soquel Creek Water District to help broaden access to recycling projects beyond big, major cities.”
Other dignitaries who spoke: Richard Welsh, principal deputy regional director for U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, Interior Region 10, State Senator John Laird and State Assemblymember Mark Stone.
“Groundbreaking” page 12
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Members of the Soquel Creek Water District Board of Directors, the Santa Cruz City Council, and the Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors spoke as well.
After the speeches, the group of dignitaries ceremonially turned over shovels-full of dirt to applause.
With a theme of “Water Transformed,” the groundbreaking gave attendees a chance to take selfies with an over-sized butterfly wing backdrop, in the colors of the Pure Water Soquel logo.
Some posted pictures with #watertransformed to commemorate the occasion.
The MidCounty area is not connected to any state or federal imported water system — it relies on rainfall to naturally replenish the groundwater — but rainfall has been in short supply due to persistent drought.
Soquel Creek Water District has been in a ‘Groundwater Emergency and Stage 3 Water Shortage Emergency’ every year since 2014.
District customers have stepped up water conservation, but district staff say a reliable supplemental source of water is needed to raise groundwater levels and prevent further seawater intrusion. Pure Water Soquel is designed to accomplish that.
This construction is the third key elementofPureWaterSoquel.Construction of an eight-mile pipeline system to recycle water from the Santa Cruz Wastewater Treatment Facility to the Water Purification Center got underway last spring and will continue through 2022.
Three seawater intrusion prevention wells, where the purified water will be stored underground to recharge the aquifer, are substantially complete. n •••
For more info see www.soquelcreeekwater. org/pws.
“Draper” from page 10
Dave was born April 16, 1942, in Secaucus, N.J., the middle child with two older brothers, Don (Arizona) and Jerry (Florida), and two younger twin sisters, Dana and Carla (Oklahoma).
Growing up, he was introverted and insecure.
“Team sports were uncomfortable for him, but tinkering around with a little hand-gripper led to dips between chairs, which led to buying a used weight set from a neighbor,” Laree said.
At age 21, he won the Mr. New Jersey title, then came out West for a job with magazine publisher Joe Weider, who pioneered competitions of the top bodybuilders.
Journalist Dick Tyler, later author of West Coast Bodybuilding Scene, dubbed Dave the “Blond Bomber,” a nickname that fit.
Here is Tyler’s line about Dave at Mr. America 1965, competing after several Herculean and better-known contestants: “When Draper posed, you could see the looks of surprise on everyone’s face. “
Dave and his first wife Penny had a daughter named Jamie, who died in 2016. They have two grandkids, Taylor, who lives in Santa Cruz and teaches infant rescue swimming locally, and Cooper, who lives with his wife Jacki in Clovis. Cooper and Jacki have a daughter named Vivianne—Dave and Penny’s great-granddaughter.
For Dave, Thanksgiving 2021 was “terrific,” Laree said. “His family was all here and spent the day together laughing and eating good food.” n •••
Photos courtesy of Laree Draper
