Members of the Fallbrook Land Conservancy will hold a meeting Wednesday to discuss the environmental benefits associated with Fallbrook Public Utility District's plan to harvest water from the Santa Margarita River.

District Manager Keith Lewinger and chief engineer Jack Bebee will present details about the project, a joint venture between the district, Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton and the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation to collect, filter and store river water for local use.

Land Conservancy officials will talk about the project from an environmental perspective, focusing on benefits like land preservation and continued public access.

The public meeting will be held at 5 p.m. at the conservancy's Palomares House, 1815 S. Stage Coach Lane, Fallbrook.

"I think it's a really important project for the Fallbrook area," said Conservancy Chairman Wallace Tucker. "We have supported the project for some time, so I wanted the board of directors and the public to know the details."

The project would harvest water from the river during the winter, when water is most plentiful, utility district officials said. The water would be filtered using a yet-to-be-constructed nano-filtration treatment plant at Camp Pendleton and then stored underground until drier months, when it would be pumped back to Fallbrook as needed.

Water from the river would provide about 40 percent of the district's water supply, reducing its dependence on imported water and making more imported water available to other parts of the county, officials said.

A federal bill signed into law in June authorized the Bureau of Reclamation to build the project and made it possible for the federal government to loan the utility district $60 million at low interest to finance its part of the $150 million project, public information officer Noelle Denke said. Camp Pendleton will pay much of the balance.

Construction is expected to begin late next year.

Currently, the district is working on the environmental impact report required for construction, Denke said.

Tucker said the project comes with environmental benefits, including land preservation.

The 1,384-acre river property owned by the utility district would be permanently preserved for "passive recreational use," like walking and biking on trails, to protect the river's water quality, conservancy officials said.

Contact staff writer Morgan Cook at 760-740-3516.