Thanks in part to a $21,253 technical assistance grant from the State Water Resources Control Board’s Safe and Affordable Drinking Water Fund, the City of Manteca will be able to provide safe water for Nile Garden Elementary School by consolidating the school into the City of Manteca’s public water system.
Rural Community Assistance Corporation (RCAC) is providing technical assistance to the City of Manteca to help comply with their Construction Financing Agreement for the consolidation of Nile Garden School with the city's water system. RCAC is overseeing the submittal of deliverables, assisting with invoicing and quarterly reporting, and providing community outreach services to educate school water users about the project. With RCAC's assistance, the city recently procured Wood Rogers as the engineering firm for the project.
Along with $4.7 million in additional funding from the Safe and Affordable Drinking Water Fund and $300,000 from the Department of Water Resources’ Proposition 84 grant program, this funding will allow the City to install approximately 6,500 feet of transmission mains, a new groundwater well, and an arsenic treatment system. The City will also be using the technical assistance grant to provide project updates to the community through public outreach.
Currently, Nile Garden Elementary School in the City of Manteca relies on a single groundwater well for its drinking water needs. The well has a history of groundwater contamination and has repeatedly violated the maximum contaminant levels for both arsenic and 1,2,3-trichloropropane. This project will mitigate these issues and provide students and faculty at the school with safe drinking water.
Both the city and the Manteca Unified School District have emphasized the importance of this project and look forward to working with partners to realize its benefits.
“Manteca Unified School District looks forward to the implementation of the Nile Garden Well 30 Project,” said Joan Arnold, Facilities and Operations Department Supervisor for Manteca Unified School District. “This project will establish a new potable water source for the school that is essential to ongoing operation of the campus. This project is also vital to the continued modernization of the school and is essential to the health of the surrounding community. MUSD values the support of State and Municipal partners in the continued development of the project.”
Elba Mijango, Associate Engineer from City of Manteca, also recognizes the value of this project: “The City of Manteca is happy to be working with the State Water Board and the Manteca Unified School District on the Nile Garden Well 30 Project because it will provide drinking water to Nile Garden Elementary School and add another water source to our community. City staff looks forward to continued work and collaboration to get this project completed.”