California aquifers boosted by a wet year, recharge efforts
After years of pervasive declines, groundwater levels rose significantly in much of California last year, boosted by historic wet weather and the state’s expanding efforts to replenish depleted aquifers. The state’s aquifers gained an estimated 8.7 million acre-feet of groundwater — nearly double the total storage capacity of Shasta Lake — during the 2023 water year that ended Sept. 30, according to newly compiled data from the California Department of Water Resources. A large portion of the gains, an estimated 4.1 million acre-feet, came through efforts that involved capturing water from rivers swollen by rains and snowmelt, and sending it to areas where the water percolated into the ground to recharge aquifers. The state said the amount of managed groundwater recharge that occurred was unprecedented, and nearly double the amount of water replenished during 2019, the prior wet year.
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