Eastern Municipal Water District is about to embark on a first-of-its-kind plan in Riverside County to increase the amount — and improve the quality — of groundwater in the San Jacinto Valley.

Collectively called Groundwater Reliability Plus, the projects are expected to help drought-proof the region by increasing storage and purifying recycled water. The projects include constructing multiple facilities to recharge water and to increase sources of water around the San Jacinto River.

“It will help us better deal with future conditions of drought,” said Joe Mouawad, EMWD’s assistant general manager for planning, engineering and construction.

EMWD, which serves portions of Hemet and San Jacinto as part of its 555-square-mile service area from Moreno Valley to Temecula, already has recharge facilities in San Jacinto and has plans to construct more. It gets about half of its water from imported sources, and the project will help collect more water locally.

One process will blend treated recycled water into natural water sources that can ultimately be used for drinking water after further filtration and treatment. Officials say the water is safe and the process has been successfully used in other districts throughout the state.

“It’s proven, it’s science-based,” district spokesman Kevin Pearson said.

Recharge is a process where water moves downward from surface water to groundwater. It is the primary method through which water enters an aquifer. Recycled water is wastewater that has been purified so it can be used again for new, non-drinking purposes.

“Our objective is to continually increase the amount of water we can recharge into the ground,” said Mouawad.

Consumers can look at the new storage capabilities as a sort of savings account, officials said. Water can be collected when it’s plentiful and stored until it’s needed.

“We can put it in in the winter and take it out in the summer,” Mouawad said.

No other water district in Riverside County has a recycled underground recharge program, although the process has been done successfully in Chino, Orange County and San Diego.

As it is, EMWD doesn’t let any water go to waste, recycling wastewater for uses such as irrigating farms, parks and golf courses.

“In the last three years we used every drop we’ve generated,” Mouawad said.

Additional potable water will also help the district as it grows.

“Our service area is only 40 percent built out,” Pearson said. “We have to meet the demands in the future. We just came out of this major drought, we need to be prepared for three, four, 10 droughts down the road.”

The construction project will bring water from EMWD facilities on Sanderson Avenue to ponds throughout the San Jacinto Valley, including a new facility that will be constructed at Mountain and Esplanade avenues.

The multi-million project will be paid for through money set aside for construction and from new hook-ups. There will be no additional charge to the district’s 146,000 customers, Mouawad said.

The projects also will help meet the conditions of a settlement related to water rights for the Soboba Band of Luiseño Indians. The four water providers in the San Jacinto Valley are responsible for sustaining the amount of water in the basin.

The settlement came after the tribe filed suit over seepage of water from the Soboba Reservation into the Metropolitan Water District’s nearby San Jacinto Tunnel.

Construction for the water banking project could be completed in the summer of 2019. The purified water replenishment project could be completed by 2022. The district is starting its public outreach program in May, meeting with chambers of commerce, service clubs, homeowners associations and the like to explain the project.