State Water Efficiency & Enhancement Program History

In 2014, under an emergency drought declaration, Governor Brown authorized a new program called the State Water Efficiency and Enhancement Program (SWEEP). Funding for the program has come from the state’s Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund, raised from cap-and-trade allowance revenue, as well as Propositions 1 and 68.

Eligible projects currently include:

• Weather, soil or plant based sensors for irrigation scheduling

• Micro-irrigation or drip systems

• Conversion of a fossil fuel pumps to solar, wind, electric, or natural gas

• Improved energy efficiency (e.g. retrofitting or replacing pumps)

• Low pressure irrigation systems

• Variable frequency drives to reduce energy use and match pump flow to load requirements

• Reduced pumping (e.g. improved irrigation scheduling)

• Other management practices that save water and reduce GHG emissions (e.g. soil management practices such as cover cropping and compost addition that increase water-holding capacity)

More information is avaliable from https://calclimateag.org/sweep/