Cooperation among water supply agencies facilitates progress, a concept currently demonstrated in a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) which AVEK Directors approved during their Board Meeting on February 27, 2024. The MOU  involves an agreement between AVEK, Palmdale Water District (PWD), and Littlerock Creek Irrigation District (LCID), for the Littlerock Creek Recharge Project. The Project will benefit each agency as well as the Antelope Valley State Water Contractors Association, an organization comprised of those three local State Water Project contractors.  AVEK Directors had approved an agreement between those entities on June 27, 2023 that enabled AVEK and PWD to use LCID’s State Water Project (SWP) Turnout as a point of delivery to recharge their water supplies directly into Littlerock Creek. Recharge successfully continued through December 31, 2023, yielding over 9,500 acre-feet of additional SWP supply delivered for local recharge. 

To continue collaborations for recharge, an MOU based on the 2023 agreement has been drafted with a 10-year term component which kicks off once the document is executed. However, a clause allows the agreement to be terminated sooner by any of the three agencies.

At this time AVEK and PWD will continue to use the turnout for recharge through Littlerock Creek. They will evenly share the annual storage capacity which provides as much as 7,500 acre-feet each. They agree to compensate LCID by transferring stored imported water supplies to LCID at a rate of 0.10 acre-feet for every acre-foot of water delivered through the Project. They will also share costs for all materials associated with the project implementation. LCID remains responsible for maintenance, repairs and/or restorage costs for the project, among various other responsibilities.

This mutually beneficial project for all three suppliers isn’t their first time in joining forces. AVEK, PWD, and LCID have collaborated on projects in the past. Their teamwork symbolizes a united front and shared commitment to building local water supply reliability.