IBank Board Approves $8.6 Million Loan to Alta Irrigation District for Water Conservation
The London West Pond Recharge Project will capture excess water to mitigate drought conditions
SACRAMENTO (April 2, 2025) — The California Infrastructure and Economic Development Bank (IBank) board of directors approved $8.6 million in loan financing for the Alta Irrigation District for a project that will improve water drainage and supply and help with flood control efforts.
The Alta Irrigation District is a public agency that supplies irrigation services to agricultural customers and recharges the local water supply. The district spans the eastern side of the San Joaquin Valley in parts of Tulare, Fresno, and Kings counties. It operates about 250 miles of open canals and 75 miles of pipeline and serves about 2,900 agricultural customers.
The $8.6 million Infrastructure State Revolving Fund financing will reimburse a land purchase and the construction of an 80-acre water recharge facility in Tulare County. The London West Pond land is next to the Traver North Pond, a project that IBank financed through a $4.4 million loan in November 2024.
The irrigation district says the project is needed to capture more groundwater that will help mitigate drought conditions. Low lying embankments less than six feet in height will be constructed from onsite soil for two or more basin cells. The project will include multiple recharge and regulation cells, canals and pipeline, control structures, turnouts, interconnection structures, booster pumps, electrical, and connections to the existing London Pond monitoring wells.
Drought periods over the last 50 years have caused an increase in agricultural groundwater pumping and the district says this project is needed to capture surface water that will help offset groundwater pumping by recharging the aquifer, creating a buffer during dry years when surface water is scarce. These efforts will also contribute to the district’s groundwater sustainability efforts in compliance with California’s Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (2014). The project serves a disadvantaged community and will help with greenhouse gas reduction by raising the water table, which reduces energy use when pumping groundwater in the area.
“IBank has decades of experience financing critical water projects just like this and we are proud to support California’s agricultural economy,” said IBank Executive Director Scott Wu. “This project will help ensure one of the state’s largest agricultural regions has the water it needs, even in dry years.”
“We need to move quickly on these types of projects to meet SGMA obligations and support our growers with a reliable water supply year to year,” said Chad Wegley, Alta Irrigation District General Manager. “With the latest funding secured through IBank we have forward momentum to start on London West Pond construction as soon as 2026.”
The London West Pond Recharge Project is expected to generate 15 temporary construction jobs.
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