Campbell Power Plant
The Campbell Power Plant project, completed in 2020, provides up to one million gallons of recycled water per day to a 158-megawatt cogeneration plant operated by the Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD) in the City of Sacramento. The project supplies recycled water for use in the cooling towers at the power plant, which is located on 47th Avenue west of Franklin Boulevard. To deliver the recycled water, a six-mile transmission pipe was built from SacSewer’s EchoWater Resource Recovery Facility near Elk Grove.
The project demonstrates our commitment to environmental sustainability and is a core part of SacSewer’s comprehensive water recycling program. The recycled water for the cooling towers replaces the use of valuable potable water, thereby conserving the region’s precious potable water supply. The potable water saved equates to the water needs for about 2,200 single-family residential homes.
To build the project, SacSewer established a collaborative partnership with the City of Sacramento and SMUD. The new delivery pipeline is just the first phase of a larger shared vision between the City and SacSewer for future expansion of recycled water delivery. The six miles of new pipe will now serve as the backbone of an expanded network to irrigate parks and landscapes and serve numerous other potential recycled water users in the area.
Benefits
This project has numerous regional and environmental benefits, including:
- Conserves potable surface and groundwater supplies
- Provides a sustainable water supply for industry
- Establishes a backbone for future expansion opportunities to serve other recycled water uses
- Helps to meet local, regional, state, and federal water recycling goals
- Reduces discharge of treated effluent
- Complies with allowed uses of recycled water
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Funding
The total capital cost to design and construct the piping system was approximately $15 million. SacSewer secured about $6.8 million in state grant funding—roughly half the cost of the project—and the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation provided $40,000 to support the initial planning efforts. SacSewer also secured a 1% loan to help offset the remaining project costs.
