Manteca has gone wet and wild.

Up until 2001 Manteca was a dry city in terms of public water, non-residential water features. Now there are no less than 16.

And - when development picks up - there are two more on the drawing board.

The list of Manteca water features include:

•The interactive water play feature at Library Park. The design incorporates area history and geography in the rubber-like facing design as well as water sprays that duplicate both the power of a train as well as field irrigation.

•Stadium Retail Center has a 40-foot fountain in a storm-retention park along the Highway 120 Bypass. Its height adjusts according to wind speed to reduce evaporation loss.

•Del Webb at Woodbridge has two manmade lakes - including one stocked with fish for residents - as well as a pair of fountains at the entrance of the Union Road neighborhood. The lakes are supplied with non-potable water from a shallow well independent of the city’s municipal water drinking system.

•Atherton created an entry lake with a faux bridge for Avalon/Woodward Park neighborhoods just off South Main Street.

•The Promenade Shops at Orchard Valley includes a two-acre lake plus a pair of free-standing water fountains.

•A water fountain is part of the Maple Avenue Plaza next to the Rotary mural in downtown.

•A fountain is part of the East Highway 120 exposure of the Manteca RV & Camper dealership.

•The unique “world” fountain that features a huge one-ton-plus granite sphere etched with the continents floating on a thin sheet of water in the fountain at the entrance to Crossroads Grace Community Church on Moffat Boulevard.

The largest water features - including the one at the Stadium Retail Center - tap into a high water table that is a source of non-potable water that is ideal for irrigation but not for drinking. Del Webb uses their non-potable well to irrigate grass and other landscaping at their community parks and recreation center.

It is the same water table that Manteca has started tapping into to irrigate parks. By taking park irrigation away from the domestic system it saves more expensive water and it also improves pressure for domestic and park use. There is an added bonus of a high nitrate level that reduces the need to fertilize and actually makes grass greener at no additional expense.

Two other proposed water features include:

•A shallow reflecting pool lined with flags of the various branches of the military as well as Old Glory is being planned at a veterans’ memorial going up between a hotel site and the future South County satellite for county offices on Daniels Street across from Big League Dreams.

•A water play park at Woodward Park. With a push of an oversized button kids will be able to access a bunch of water fun from water cannons that swivel so they can have water fights to buckets suspended way above the ground that, when they reach a critical point, tip over spilling their cooling contents on top of them.