Unlike California’s majestic rivers and massive dams and
conveyance systems, groundwater is out of sight and underground,
though no less plentiful. The state’s enormous cache of
underground water is a great natural resource and has contributed
to the state becoming the nation’s top agricultural producer and
leader in high-tech industries.
Groundwater is also increasingly relied upon by growing cities
and thirsty farms, and it plays an important role in the future
sustainability of California’s overall water supply. In an
average year, roughly 40 percent of California’s water supply
comes from groundwater.
A new era of groundwater management began in 2014 with the
Sustainable Groundwater Management Act, which requires local
and regional agencies to develop and implement sustainable
groundwater management plans with the state as the backstop.
Tulare County Farm Bureau’s $10,000 contribution to the Kings
County Farm Bureau’s legal defense fund has inspired donations
from several of its members. The donations will help support
the farm bureau’s legal fight against the California State
Water Resources Control Board, which farm bureau members
believe overreached in enforcing the Sustainable Groundwater
Management Act (SGMA). On April 16, 2024, the 837-square-mile
Tulare Lake Subbasin, which is almost entirely in Kings County,
was put on probation for “groundwater over pumping” and as a
consequence, groundwater pumpers in the basin were to be
assessed $300 per well and $20 per acre-foot of water. In May,
however, Kings County Farm Bureau formed the SGMA Defense Fund
to contest these and other sanctions that were to be imposed by
the water board.
Kern water managers’ struck out again on their fourth attempt
to write an adequate plan to protect the region’s groundwater,
according to a report from state Water Resources
Control Board staff released Tuesday, which recommends the
board put the subbasin on probation at its Feb. 20 hearing in
Sacramento. Probation would bring with it requirements for
farmers to meter and register their wells at $300 each, report
all extractions and pay an added $20 per acre foot pumped to
the state. That’s on top of fees and assessments they already
pay to their water districts and groundwater sustainability
agencies. Specifically, the staff report found Kern’s
recently revised plans still don’t do enough to
protect water quality and domestic wells from going dry;
keep land from sinking around critical canals and other
infrastructure; and stem the chronic lowering of groundwater,
among other issues.
A proposed new agricultural water district could brighten
what had been shaping up as a grim future for a number of
farmers in the northern part of Tulare County’s flatlands under
the state’s groundwater law. Four private ditch companies are
working to form the new district to cover 84,000 acres, 24,000
of which are totally groundwater dependent. Pumping
restrictions under the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act
(SGMA) are expected to severely limit crop production in such
groundwater reliant areas. The proposed Consolidated Water
District has indicated it will use land assessment fees to buy
surface water and build systems to convey surface water
throughout the district. That’s significant, said Mark Larsen,
General Manager of the Greater Kaweah Groundwater
Sustainability Agency (GSA), which covers the area where the
new district is proposed.
The proposed fee for the Tuscan Water District has passed with
overwhelming support, securing more than 87% of the vote.
Property owners in the district gathered today to submit their
votes and voice concerns about the fees, which are based on the
acreage of their land. Despite the strong approval, the meeting
left many attendees feeling more confused and frustrated by the
process. The vote, which included a breakdown of over 34
million yes votes versus 4.8 million no votes, was a crucial
step for the TWD, which was established in 2023. The fees,
according to the district, are mandated by the state to support
groundwater conservation, storage, and use in the Vina
Subbasin. However, some property owners are expressing concerns
about the fairness and transparency of the proposal.
… California’s Sustainable Groundwater Management
Act—the state’s solution to groundwater depletion—is projected
to result in as much as a fifth of the San Joaquin Valley’s
farmland going fallow in the next 15 years. For farmers in the
region, their future depends on finding ways to farm while
adapting to the new paradigm of groundwater regulation.
In November, water managers and farmers in the Kaweah Subbasin,
where Wilbur farms, did something no other basin had since SGMA
enforcement began last year. After the subbasin’s initial
sustainability plan was deemed inadequate, it faced the
prospect of state intervention, beginning with a yearlong
probation period. Probation would have sidelined local projects
and imposed costly pumping fees on growers, more than doubling
the amount some local groundwater agencies charge farmers. Two
neighboring subbasins were put on probation last year.
But the Kaweah Subbasin’s groundwater agencies overhauled their
sustainability plan, and state regulators canceled the
probation hearing—for now—noting “substantial progress” in the
revised plan.
Kings County Water District board members hope to boost public
participation at their monthly meetings by moving the start
time back one hour. It will now meet at 2 p.m. on the first
Thursday of every month. … The board will open the meeting
asking if the public has any comment on its listed closed
session items, which typically can only include personnel
matters, potential purchase of property or litigation, per
California’s open meetings law. Then it will go into closed
session and reopen the public portion of the meeting at least
30 minutes later. The idea is that the public will know if
there was reportable action after the closed session, instead
of having to call the office or not knowing at all… The
water district, which covers areas within Kings County
including portions of Hanford, was in the hot seat last year
when farmers accused board members of making decisions without
their input. It was also the impetus behind the Mid-Kings River
Groundwater Sustainability Agency (GSA) implosion, after board
members voted to leave Mid-Kings and start their own GSA.
For the first time, the Environmental Protection Agency on
Tuesday warned that “forever chemicals” present in sewage
sludge that is used as fertilizer can pose human health risks.
In an extensive study the agency said that, while the general
food supply isn’t threatened, the risk from contaminated
fertilizer could in some cases exceed the E.P.A.’s safety
thresholds “sometimes by several orders of magnitude.” A
growing body of research has shown that the sludge can be
contaminated with manmade chemicals known as per- and
polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, which are used widely in
everyday items like nonstick cookware and stain-resistant
carpets. The chemicals, which are linked to a range of
illnesses including an increased risk of cancer, do not break
down in the environment, and, when tainted sludge is used as
fertilizer on farmland, it can contaminate the soil,
groundwater, crops and livestock.
Incoming President Trump made California water
policy a central talking point in his 2024
presidential campaign, with promises to increase water for
farms and cities and decrease water flowing to the Pacific
Ocean. It is clear that the incoming
administration—much like the first Trump administration—is
focused on California Water. In this and a following
blog, I examine what this is likely to mean for California
water management. A key takeaway is that California will
likely be able to continue many of its current water policies,
with marginal changes, although there will likely be increased
litigation between the state and federal government. The bad
news is that even California’s current policies are
inadequate to maintain healthy aquatic ecosystems across
the state, and California is likely to find it even harder to
move forward on these fronts while locked in ongoing struggles
with the federal government.
A groundwater agency on the western fringes of Kern County has
taken the unprecedented step of banning all pumping from wells
along the California Aqueduct for a 30-mile stretch. The move
is mainly designed to protect the vital artery that moves
hundreds of millions of gallons of water a day from northern to
southern California and is threatened by sinking land that
could crimp its ability to function. The ban is also
intended to prove whether groundwater pumping is the true
culprit.
We missed the goalpost. Most of Arizona’s urban areas were
supposed to reach “safe yield,” the point where we are
replenishing roughly as much groundwater as we pump, by 2025.
But we’re not anywhere close. The state’s five initial
groundwater Active Management Areas (AMAs), including Phoenix,
still pump more water than they replace. And, if anything, are
moving further away from their management goals, which were set
four decades ago. So, what do we do now? That remains the great
unanswered question. —Joanna Allhands writes opinions primarily about Arizona
water and the Colorado River.
… One major environmental concern associated with cannabis
cultivation is the excessive demand for water. Cannabis plants
require a large amount of water, particularly in arid regions
where many grow operations are located. Data from the
California Department of Water Resources show that legal
cannabis cultivation can consume more water than many other
crops, which puts additional strain on already limited water
supplies, especially in drought-stricken areas. In response,
certain states have begun adopting regulations to mitigate
water usage by requiring specific water allocations for
cannabis farms. For instance, California, which produces nearly
70% of the nation’s cannabis, instituted stricter water
regulations in response to prolonged droughts. Under the
Sustainable Groundwater Management Act, cannabis cultivators
must now develop and implement water conservation plans that
align with broader resource management strategies.
It was Kings County Supervisor Rusty Robinson’s turn to preside
over board meetings as chair this year, but he declined,
leaving the job to Supervisor Doug Verboon. This would be
Verboon’s second consecutive year as chair – the first time in
17 years a supervisor was chosen to lead twice in a row. …
Robinson’s motive? To keep Verboon, who is also a farmer, in
charge while the Tulare Lake groundwater subbasin, which covers
most of Kings County, faces scrutiny from the state. …
Verboon was also appointed chair for the Mid-Kings River
Groundwater Sustainability Agency (GSA). The GSA is governed by
his fellow supervisors and the vice mayor of Hanford. The
county was left to pick up the pieces the Kings County Water
District left the Mid-Kings GSA following accusations that
Mid-Kings managers were making decisions without input from
local growers.
A remarkably wet kickoff to Northern California’s rainy season
has coincided with a desperately dry fall in Southern
California — a huge disparity, perhaps unprecedented, between
the haves and have-nots of rainfall. Los Angeles usually gets
several inches of rain by now, halfway into the rainy season,
but it’s only recorded a fifth of an inch downtown since July,
its second driest period in almost 150 years of record-keeping.
The rest of Southern California is just as bone-dry. …
Northern California is always wetter than the semi-arid
southern half. But the scale of the north-south gap that has
persisted for several months has stunned experts. This season’s
stark imbalance isn’t bad in terms of water supply. That’s
because Northern California’s rain and snow feed major
reservoirs, which provide much of the water used by
Californians. If this occurred in reverse — a wet south and a
dry north — most of the water would remain uncaptured,
providing little benefit for supplies.
Permits for wells in Sonoma County are on hold indefinitely,
except for emergencies, after the county this week received a
court order that found that it violated the California
Environmental Quality Act or CEQA, and the state’s Public Trust
Doctrine in its 2023 well permitting plan. The court order
followed a lawsuit filed by two nonprofit organizations —
Russian Riverkeeper and California Coastkeeper Alliance — in
May 2023 aiming to block wells from draining groundwater,
threatening streams and the Coho salmon that spawn in them.
… The county said in a press release that it disagreed
with the basis for the ruling and was requesting a new trial
but would follow with the court’s direction in the
meantime.
The Tri-County Water Authority has a foot in each of the two
groundwater basins now under state probation and is scrambling
to find a path to compliance in each. Tri-County covers lands
in both the Tule and Tulare Lake subbasins, in the southern
portions of Kings and Tulare counties, respectively. Both those
subbasins have been placed on probation by the state Water
Resources Control Board for having inadequate groundwater
sustainability plans. Probation requires farmers to meter and
register their wells at $300 each, report extractions and pay
the state $20 per acre foot pumped. That’s on top of fees they
already pay their groundwater agencies and water districts. In
the Tulare Lake subbasin, probationary sanctions have been
paused while a lawsuit wends its way through the court system.
But that also means Water Board staff aren’t communicating with
local water managers to help them develop groundwater plans
that meet state expectations.
Even as groundwater levels have rapidly declined in farming
regions from California’s Central Valley to the High Plains,
the federal government has mostly taken a hands-off approach to
the chronic depletion of the nation’s aquifers. But in a new
report for the White House, scientists say the country is
facing serious and unprecedented groundwater challenges that
call for the federal government to play a larger role. Members
of the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and
Technology said the country needs better data to provide a
comprehensive picture of how much groundwater there is and how
fast it is being depleted. The scientists called for a national
effort to advance strategies for safeguarding aquifers,
including establishing a federal program that would provide
incentives to encourage states and communities to manage
underground water supplies sustainably.
A coalition of environmental groups challenged California’s
leading climate regulator Wednesday, alleging that a recent
update to a leading climate program will create additional
pollution in the state’s San Joaquin Valley. Their lawsuit
filed in Fresno county superior court calls on the California
Air Resources Board to “adequately disclose, analyze and
mitigate the significant environmental impact” caused by
amendments to Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS).
… Environmental laws “require CARB to acknowledge the
obvious—that providing substantial financial benefits for the
production of fuel derived from manure at factory farms
incentivizes factory farm expansion,” environmentalists wrote
in the complaint. But the agency “fails to adequately evaluate
and mitigate their impacts, including increased local
air pollution, impacts to groundwater, and climate
change,” they determined. CARB’s environmental review,
the petitioners concluded, “cannot support a meaningful process
or informed decisions about the LCFS amendments.”
Sonoma County has once again suspended permitting for
non-emergency well drilling, this time under the order of a
Sonoma County judge. The order follows an August ruling in
which Superior Court Judge Bradford DeMeo determined the county
violated state environmental law in its attempt to draft a
controversial ordinance governing wells and groundwater use. In
light of that finding, the county must halt non-emergency
well-permitting until it can complete an environmental review
of the ordinance in alignment with state law, the court
ordered. The county received the directive Wednesday afternoon
and “immediately stopped” issuing permits for non-emergency
wells, said Tennis Wick, director of Permit Sonoma, the
county’s planning and permitting department. But the county has
not yet begun the environmental review process because it plans
to appeal the decision, Wick said.
Our 2024 California Water Leaders cohort completed
its year with a report on its policy recommendations for
ensuring the state’s over-pumped groundwater
basins reach sustainability under the Sustainable
Groundwater Management Act. The landmark law known as SGMA
turned 10 in 2024 as many of the state’s sustainability plans
were moving into implementation. The goal is for those basins
to become sustainable by 2040 or 2042. The Water Leaders
cohort of 20 up-and-coming leaders – engineers,
attorneys, planners, scientists, water managers and other
professionals from water-related organizations –
worked collaboratively and had full editorial control on the
report.
Negotiations focusing on how Friant Water Authority will repay
the Bureau of Reclamation for a $22.2 million study mapping out
how to fix the northern and southern portions of the sinking
Friant-Kern Canal began Wednesday in Fresno. “We anticipate
these talks should go smoothly, and we look forward to the
conversation,” Wilson Orvis, Friant’s chief financial officer,
said at the beginning of the meeting, which went on for another
three hours as both sides scoured the draft contract line by
line. The details are vitally important, said one observer who
is involved in multiple legal actions over how to pay for
already completed repairs on one section of the canal. “Clarity
would have and will avoid further disputes as has occurred with
Phase 1 of the Middle Reach Capacity Correction Project,” said
Sean Geivet, General Manager of the Terra Bella, Saucelito and
Porterville irrigation districts.
After a four-hour workshop with state officials in Visalia,
Punjabi American farmers were left frustrated and questioning
whether California realized it had weaponized groundwater in a
way that could destroy the San Joaquin Valley. “SGMA has good
intentions,” said Selma grower Nick Sahota during the Dec. 5
event. “But it has become a weapon to destroy the San Joaquin
Valley.” He wanted to know if lawmakers had considered
the impacts not just on farmers, but trucking, convenience
stores and other ancillary valley businesses that rely on ag
when they passed SGMA in 2014. Sahota referred to the
Sustainable Groundwater Management Act, which aims to bring
severely overdrafted aquifers into balance by 2040. To do that,
local groundwater sustainability agencies, GSAs, have been
working to increase water recharge opportunities and reduce
pumping.
This year marks the 10-year anniversary of the approval of
California’s Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA),
which aimed to conserve the pumping of this valuable resource.
But nearly a decade after its passage, questions remain about
whether the law is fulfilling its promise and protecting its
users. Tien Tran, Senior Policy Advocate with the Community
Water Center and Nataly Escobedo Garcia, Policy Coordinator
with the Leadership Counsel for Justice and Accountability join
Insight to talk about the history of the law, the equity issues
surrounding water, and how implementation of SGMA could
change.
Texas agencies reported 252 new cases of groundwater
contamination during 2023 in the Texas Groundwater Protection
Committee annual report. The latest report compiles 2,870
open cases of groundwater contamination, some of which date
back decades. Nearly every county in Texas is impacted by the
problem. During 2023, Texas regulators notified 34 local
authorities—from El Paso to Houston—that newly identified
contamination could impact their public drinking water. An
additional 289 property owners were notified that groundwater
contamination may impact their private wells.
… Agriculture is the biggest consumer of groundwater
statewide, according to the Texas Water Development Board.
Reliance on groundwater varies around the state, which is
divided into water planning regions. In region F, which
stretches from the Permian Basin east toward San Antonio,
groundwater makes up more than 80 percent of the
water supply. In Region K, which covers the Lower Colorado
River including Travis County, groundwater provides only
28 percent of the water supply.
Several water districts held public hearings and voted to adopt
the latest version of the 2024 Kern Subbasin Groundwater
Sustainability Plan (GSP) that will be submitted to the State
Water Resources Control Board (SWRCB) the week of December
16. Water Board staff recommended the region be put on
probation based largely on a 2022 plan that was found
inadequate. Kern subbasin districts had submitted a new plan in
May 2024, but the inadequate finding was not lifted. A
hearing on whether to put Kern into probationary status is
scheduled for Feb. 20, 2025. Under probation, farmers
would have to meter and register their wells at $300 each,
report extractions to the state and pay $20-per-acre-foot
pumped. Those fees are on top of what they already pay to their
water districts and groundwater agencies. If locals can’t come
up with an acceptable plan after a year in probation, the state
could step in and issue its own pumping restrictions.
Colorado health officials are considering whether to eliminate
requirements to monitor and treat groundwater now being
discharged from large commercial structures, saying the
regulations add too much cost to business operations and to new
construction projects, including affordable housing
developments. The water can come from a variety of sources,
including underground parking structures and elevator shafts.
Roughly 100 such “dewatering systems,” as they are called, now
operate in the state, according to the Colorado Department of
Public Health and Environment, with the majority in urban
areas, such as downtown Denver and Cherry
Creek. Environmentalists, however, are sounding the alarm,
saying the water is often highly contaminated and, if it is
allowed to percolate through soils without treatment, will make
its way to rivers, such as the South Platte, causing more
serious contamination by adding more pollutants to streams
already tainted by arsenic and a group of chemicals known as
PFAS.
The Indian Wells Valley Groundwater Authority meeting Wednesday
kicked off with two major pieces of news: The authority will
receive $50 million in federal funding that it will use to help
build a pipeline to import water from the California Aqueduct
into the high desert basin and it settled a protracted lawsuit
with Mojave Pistachios. … The money is contained in the Water
Resources Development Act (WRDA), which was approved by the
House of Representatives Tuesday. It is expected to be
approved by the Senate on Dec. 17 and President Biden has
indicated he will sign the act in January, Peters said.
Seeking to prevent the California State Water Resources Control
Board from stepping in to regulate groundwater in critically
overdrafted subbasins, local agencies are working to correct
deficiencies in their plans to protect groundwater. With
groundwater sustainability agencies formed and groundwater
sustainability plans evaluated, the state water board has moved
to implement the 2014 Sustainable Groundwater Management Act,
or SGMA. … Under probation, groundwater extractors in
the Tulare Lake subbasin face annual fees of $300 per well and
$20 per acre-foot pumped, plus a late reporting fee of 25%.
SGMA also requires well owners to file annual groundwater
extraction reports.
Explore the lower Colorado River firsthand where virtually every drop of the river is allocated, yet demand is growing from myriad sources — increasing population, declining habitat, drought and climate change.
The 1,450-mile river is a lifeline to some 40 million people in the Southwest across seven states, 30 tribal nations and Mexico. How the Lower Basin states – Arizona, California and Nevada – use and manage this water to meet agricultural, urban, environmental and industrial needs is the focus of this tour.
Hilton Garden Inn Las Vegas Strip South
7830 S Las Vegas Blvd
Las Vegas, NV 89123
Last week, Assemblywoman Esmeralda Soria introduced AB 2060 to
help divert local floodwater into regional groundwater
basins. AB 2060 seeks to streamline the permitting process
to the California Department of Fish and Wildlife in support of
Flood-MAR activities when a stream or river has reached
flood-monitor or flood stage as determined by the California
Nevada River Forecast Center or the State Water Resources
Control Board (SWRCB). This expedited approval process would be
temporary during storm events with qualifying flows under the
SWRCB permit.
How will selling groundwater help keep more groundwater in the
San Joaquin Valley’s already critically overtapped aquifers?
Water managers in the Kaweah subbasin in northwestern Tulare
County hope to find out by having farmers tinker with a pilot
groundwater market program. Kaweah farmers will be joining
growers from subbasins up and down the San Joaquin Valley
who’ve been looking at how water markets might help them
maintain their businesses by using pumping allotments and
groundwater credits as assets to trade or sell when water is
tight.
This tour explored the Sacramento River and its tributaries through a scenic landscape while learning about the issues associated with a key source for the state’s water supply.
All together, the river and its tributaries supply 35 percent of California’s water and feed into two major projects: the State Water Project and the federal Central Valley Project.
Water Education Foundation
2151 River Plaza Drive, Suite 205
Sacramento, CA 95833
The 3ʳᵈ International Conference, Toward Sustainable Groundwater in Agriculture: Linking Science & Policy took place from June 18 – 20. Organized by the Water Education Foundation and the UC Davis Robert M. Hagan Endowed Chair, the conference provided scientists, policymakers, agricultural and environmental interest group representatives, government officials and consultants with the latest scientific, management, legal and policy advances for sustaining our groundwater resources in agricultural regions around the world.
The conference keynote address was provided by Mark Arax, an award-winning journalist and author of books chronicling agriculture and water issues in California’s Central Valley. Arax comes from a family of Central Valley farmers and is praised for writing books that are deeply profound, heartfelt and nuanced including The Dreamt Land, West of the West and The King of California. He did a reading from his latest book The Dreamt Land and commented on the future of groundwater in the Valley during his keynote lunch talk on June 18.
Hyatt Regency San Francisco Airport
1333 Bayshore Hwy
Burlingame, CA 94010
A new but little-known change in
California law designating aquifers as “natural infrastructure”
promises to unleash a flood of public funding for projects that
increase the state’s supply of groundwater.
The change is buried in a sweeping state budget-related law,
enacted in July, that also makes it easier for property owners
and water managers to divert floodwater for storage underground.
A new underground mapping technology
that reveals the best spots for storing surplus water in
California’s Central Valley is providing a big boost to the
state’s most groundwater-dependent communities.
The maps provided by the California Department of Water Resources
for the first time pinpoint paleo valleys and similar prime
underground storage zones traditionally found with some guesswork
by drilling exploratory wells and other more time-consuming
manual methods. The new maps are drawn from data on the
composition of underlying rock and soil gathered by low-flying
helicopters towing giant magnets.
The unique peeks below ground are saving water agencies’
resources and allowing them to accurately devise ways to capture
water from extreme storms and soak or inject the surplus
underground for use during the next drought.
“Understanding where you’re putting and taking water from really
helps, versus trying to make multimillion-dollar decisions based
on a thumb and which way the wind is blowing,” said Aaron Fukuda,
general manager of the Tulare Irrigation District, an early
adopter of the airborne electromagnetic or
AEM technology in California.
This tour explored the lower Colorado River firsthand where virtually every drop of the river is allocated, yet demand is growing from myriad sources — increasing population, declining habitat, drought and climate change.
The 1,450-mile river is a lifeline to some 40 million people in the Southwest across seven states, 30 tribal nations and Mexico. How the Lower Basin states – Arizona, California and Nevada – use and manage this water to meet agricultural, urban, environmental and industrial needs was the focus of this tour.
Hilton Garden Inn Las Vegas Strip South
7830 S Las Vegas Blvd
Las Vegas, NV 89123
It was exactly the sort of deluge
California groundwater agencies have been counting on to
replenish their overworked aquifers.
The start of 2023 brought a parade of torrential Pacific storms
to bone dry California. Snow piled up across the Sierra Nevada at
a near-record pace while runoff from the foothills gushed into
the Central Valley, swelling rivers over their banks and filling
seasonal creeks for the first time in half a decade.
Suddenly, water managers and farmers toiling in one of the
state’s most groundwater-depleted regions had an opportunity to
capture stormwater and bank it underground. Enterprising agencies
diverted water from rushing rivers and creeks into manmade
recharge basins or intentionally flooded orchards and farmland.
Others snagged temporary permits from the state to pull from
streams they ordinarily couldn’t touch.
This special Foundation water tour journeyed along the Eastern Sierra from the Truckee River to Mono Lake, through the Owens Valley and into the Mojave Desert to explore a major source of water for Southern California, this year’s snowpack and challenges for towns, farms and the environment.
This tour explored the Sacramento River and its tributaries through a scenic landscape while learning about the issues associated with a key source for the state’s water supply.
All together, the river and its tributaries supply 35 percent of California’s water and feed into two major projects: the State Water Project and the federal Central Valley Project.
Water Education Foundation
2151 River Plaza Drive, Suite 205
Sacramento, CA 95833
A pilot program in the Salinas Valley run remotely out of Los Angeles is offering a test case for how California could provide clean drinking water for isolated rural communities plagued by contaminated groundwater that lack the financial means or expertise to connect to a larger water system.
Managers of California’s most
overdrawn aquifers were given a monumental task under the state’s
landmark Sustainable Groundwater Management Act: Craft viable,
detailed plans on a 20-year timeline to bring their beleaguered
basins into balance. It was a task that required more than 250
newly formed local groundwater agencies – many of them in the
drought-stressed San Joaquin Valley – to set up shop, gather
data, hear from the public and collaborate with neighbors on
multiple complex plans, often covering just portions of a
groundwater basin.
This tour explored the Sacramento River and its tributaries
through a scenic landscape while learning about the issues
associated with a key source for the state’s water supply.
All together, the river and its tributaries supply 35 percent of
California’s water and feed into two major projects: the State
Water Project and the federal Central Valley Project.
Water Education Foundation
2151 River Plaza Drive, Suite 205
Sacramento, CA 95833
This tour traveled along the San Joaquin River to learn firsthand
about one of the nation’s largest and most expensive river
restoration projects.
The San Joaquin River was the focus of one of the most
contentious legal battles in California water history,
ending in a 2006 settlement between the federal government,
Friant Water Users Authority and a coalition of environmental
groups.
Hampton Inn & Suites Fresno
327 E Fir Ave
Fresno, CA 93720
An online
short course starting Thursday will provide
registrants the opportunity to learn more about how groundwater
is monitored, assessed and sustainably managed.
The class, offered by University of California, Davis and
several other organizations in cooperation with the Water
Education Foundation, will be held May 12, 19,
26 and June 2, 16 from 9 a.m. to noon.
Martha Guzman recalls those awful
days working on water and other issues as a deputy legislative
secretary for then-Gov. Jerry Brown. California was mired in a
recession and the state’s finances were deep in the red. Parks
were cut, schools were cut, programs were cut to try to balance a
troubled state budget in what she remembers as “that terrible
time.”
She now finds herself in a strikingly different position: As
administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s
Region 9, she has a mandate to address water challenges across
California, Nevada, Arizona and Hawaii and $1 billion to help pay
for it. It is the kind of funding, she said, that is usually
spread out over a decade. Guzman called it the “absolutely
greatest opportunity.”
This tour explored the lower Colorado River firsthand where virtually every drop of the river is allocated, yet demand is growing from myriad sources — increasing population, declining habitat, drought and climate change.
The 1,450-mile river is a lifeline to some 40 million people in the Southwest across seven states, 30 tribal nations and Mexico. How the Lower Basin states – Arizona, California and Nevada – use and manage this water to meet agricultural, urban, environmental and industrial needs was the focus of this tour.
Hyatt Place Las Vegas At Silverton Village
8380 Dean Martin Drive
Las Vegas, NV 89139
This tour ventured through California’s Central Valley, known as the nation’s breadbasket thanks to an imported supply of surface water and local groundwater. Covering about 20,000 square miles through the heart of the state, the valley provides 25 percent of the nation’s food, including 40 percent of all fruits, nuts and vegetables consumed throughout the country.
The lower Colorado River has virtually every drop allocated, yet demand is growing from myriad sources — increasing population, declining habitat, drought and climate change.
The 1,450-mile river is a lifeline to 40 million people in the Southwest across seven states, 30 tribal nations and Mexico. How the Lower Basin states – Arizona, California and Nevada – use and manage this water to meet agricultural, urban, environmental and industrial needs was the focus of this tour.
Hyatt Place Las Vegas At Silverton Village
8380 Dean Martin Drive
Las Vegas, NV 89139
This tour guided participants on a virtual exploration of the Sacramento River and its tributaries and learn about the issues associated with a key source for the state’s water supply.
All together, the river and its tributaries supply 35 percent of California’s water and feed into two major projects: the State Water Project and the federal Central Valley Project.
As California’s seasons become
warmer and drier, state officials are pondering whether the water
rights permitting system needs revising to better reflect the
reality of climate change’s effect on the timing and volume of
the state’s water supply.
A report by the State Water Resources Control Board recommends
that new water rights permits be tailored to California’s
increasingly volatile hydrology and be adaptable enough to ensure
water exists to meet an applicant’s demand. And it warns
that the increasingly whiplash nature of California’s changing
climate could require existing rights holders to curtail
diversions more often and in more watersheds — or open
opportunities to grab more water in climate-induced floods.
The San Joaquin Valley has a big
hill to climb in reaching groundwater sustainability. Driven by
the need to keep using water to irrigate the nation’s breadbasket
while complying with California’s Sustainable Groundwater
Management Act, people throughout the valley are looking for
innovative and cost-effective ways to manage and use groundwater
more wisely. Here are three examples.
Groundwater provides about 40
percent of the water in California for urban, rural and
agricultural needs in typical years, and as much as 60 percent in
dry years when surface water supplies are low. But in many areas
of the state, groundwater is being extracted faster than it can
be replenished through natural or artificial means.
Across a sprawling corner of southern Tulare County snug against the Sierra Nevada, a bounty of navel oranges, grapes, pistachios, hay and other crops sprout from the loam and clay of the San Joaquin Valley. Groundwater helps keep these orchards, vineyards and fields vibrant and supports a multibillion-dollar agricultural economy across the valley. But that bounty has come at a price. Overpumping of groundwater has depleted aquifers, dried up household wells and degraded ecosystems.
Since 1997, more than 430 engineers,
farmers, environmentalists, lawyers, and others have graduated
from our William R. Gianelli Water Leaders program. We’ve
developed a new alumni network
webpage to help program participants connect and keep in
touch.
An
online short course starting Thursday will provide
registrants the opportunity to learn more about how groundwater
is monitored, assessed and sustainably managed.
The class, offered by UC Davis and several other organizations in
cooperation with the Water Education Foundation, will be
held May 21 and 28, June 4, 18, and 25 from 9 a.m. to noon.
The bill is coming due, literally,
to protect and restore groundwater in California.
Local agencies in the most depleted groundwater basins in
California spent months putting together plans to show how they
will achieve balance in about 20 years.
This event explored the lower Colorado River where virtually every drop of the river is allocated, yet demand is growing from myriad sources — increasing population, declining habitat, drought and climate change.
The 1,450-mile river is a lifeline to 40 million people in the Southwest across seven states and Mexico. How the Lower Basin states – Arizona, California and Nevada – use and manage this water to meet agricultural, urban, environmental and industrial needs was the focus of this tour.
Innovative efforts to accelerate
restoration of headwater forests and to improve a river for the
benefit of both farmers and fish. Hard-earned lessons for water
agencies from a string of devastating California wildfires.
Efforts to drought-proof a chronically water-short region of
California. And a broad debate surrounding how best to address
persistent challenges facing the Colorado River.
These were among the issues Western Water explored in
2019, and are still worth taking a look at in case you missed
them.
A diverse roster of top
policymakers and water experts are on the
agenda for the Foundation’s 36th annual Water
Summit. The conference, Water Year 2020: A Year
of Reckoning, will feature compelling conversations
reflecting on upcoming regulatory deadlines and efforts to
improve water management and policy in the face of natural
disasters.
Tickets for the Water Summit are sold out, but by joining the waitlist we can
let you know when spaces open via cancellations.
To survive the next drought and meet
the looming demands of the state’s groundwater sustainability
law, California is going to have to put more water back in the
ground. But as other Western states have found, recharging
overpumped aquifers is no easy task.
Successfully recharging aquifers could bring multiple benefits
for farms and wildlife and help restore the vital interconnection
between groundwater and rivers or streams. As local areas around
California draft their groundwater sustainability plans, though,
landowners in the hardest hit regions of the state know they will
have to reduce pumping to address the chronic overdraft in which
millions of acre-feet more are withdrawn than are naturally
recharged.
California experienced one of the
most deadly and destructive wildfire years on record in 2018,
with several major fires occurring in the wildland-urban
interface (WUI). These areas, where communities are in close
proximity to undeveloped land at high risk of wildfire, have felt
devastating effects of these disasters, including direct impacts
to water infrastructure and supplies.
One panel at our 2019 Water
Summit Oct. 30 in Sacramento will feature speakers
from water agencies who came face-to-face with two major fires:
The Camp Fire that destroyed most of the town of Paradise in
Northern California, and the Woolsey Fire in the Southern
California coastal mountains. They’ll talk about their
experiences and what lessons they learned.
The southern part of California’s Central Coast from San Luis Obispo County to Ventura County, home to about 1.5 million people, is blessed with a pleasing Mediterranean climate and a picturesque terrain. Yet while its unique geography abounds in beauty, the area perpetually struggles with drought.
Indeed, while the rest of California breathed a sigh of relief with the return of wet weather after the severe drought of 2012–2016, places such as Santa Barbara still grappled with dry conditions.
Atmospheric rivers, the narrow bands
of moisture that ferry precipitation across the Pacific Ocean to
the West Coast, are necessary to keep California’s water
reservoirs full.
However, some of them are dangerous because the extreme rainfall
and wind can cause catastrophic flooding and damage, much
like what happened in 2017 with Oroville Dam’s spillway.
Learn the latest about atmospheric river research and forecasting
at our 2019 Water
Summit on Oct. 30 in Sacramento, where
prominent research meteorologist Marty Ralph will give the
opening keynote.
With a key deadline for the
Sustainable Groundwater Management Act in January, one of the
featured panels at our Oct.
30thWater
Summit will focus on how regions around California
are crafting groundwater sustainability plans and working on
innovative ways to fill aquifers.
The theme for this year’s Water Summit, “Water Year 2020: A Year
of Reckoning,” reflects critical upcoming events in California
water, including the imminent Jan. 31, 2020 deadline for
groundwater sustainability plans (GSPs) in high- and
medium-priority basins.
Our event calendar is an excellent
resource for keeping up with water events in California and the
West.
Groundwater is top of mind for many water managers as they
prepare to meet next January’s deadline for submitting
sustainability plans required under California’s Sustainable
Groundwater Management Act. We have several upcoming featured
events listed on our calendar that focus on a variety of relevant
groundwater topics:
Registration opens today for the
Water Education Foundation’s 36th annual Water
Summit, set for Oct. 30 in Sacramento. This year’s
theme, Water Year 2020: A Year of Reckoning,
reflects fast-approaching deadlines for the State Groundwater
Management Act as well as the pressing need for new approaches to
water management as California and the West weather intensified
flooding, fire and drought. To register for this can’t-miss
event, visit our Water Summit
event page.
Registration includes a full day of discussions by leading
stakeholders and policymakers on key issues, as well as coffee,
materials, gourmet lunch and an outdoor reception by the
Sacramento River that will offer the opportunity to network with
speakers and other attendees. The summit also features a silent
auction to benefit our Water Leaders program featuring
items up for bid such as kayaking trips, hotel stays and lunches
with key people in the water world.
Summer is a good time to take a
break, relax and enjoy some of the great beaches, waterways and
watersheds around California and the West. We hope you’re getting
a chance to do plenty of that this July.
But in the weekly sprint through work, it’s easy to miss
some interesting nuggets you might want to read. So while we’re
taking a publishing break to work on other water articles planned
for later this year, we want to help you catch up on
Western Water stories from the first half of this year
that you might have missed.
Our 36th annual
Water Summit,
happening Oct. 30 in Sacramento, will feature the theme “Water
Year 2020: A Year of Reckoning,” reflecting upcoming regulatory
deadlines and efforts to improve water management and policy in
the face of natural disasters.
The Summit will feature top policymakers and leading stakeholders
providing the latest information and a variety of viewpoints on
issues affecting water across California and the West.
One of California Gov. Gavin
Newsom’s first actions after taking office was to appoint Wade
Crowfoot as Natural Resources Agency secretary. Then, within
weeks, the governor laid out an ambitious water agenda that
Crowfoot, 45, is now charged with executing.
That agenda includes the governor’s desire for a “fresh approach”
on water, scaling back the conveyance plan in the Sacramento-San
Joaquin Delta and calling for more water recycling, expanded
floodplains in the Central Valley and more groundwater recharge.
Groundwater helped make Kern County
the king of California agricultural production, with a $7 billion
annual array of crops that help feed the nation. That success has
come at a price, however. Decades of unchecked groundwater
pumping in the county and elsewhere across the state have left
some aquifers severely depleted. Now, the county’s water managers
have less than a year left to devise a plan that manages and
protects groundwater for the long term, yet ensures that Kern
County’s economy can continue to thrive, even with less water.
This tour explored the lower Colorado River where virtually every drop of the river is allocated, yet demand is growing from myriad sources — increasing population, declining habitat, drought and climate change.
The 1,450-mile river is a lifeline to 40 million people in the Southwest across seven states and Mexico. How the Lower Basin states – Arizona, California and Nevada – use and manage this water to meet agricultural, urban, environmental and industrial needs is the focus of this tour.
Silverton Hotel
3333 Blue Diamond Road
Las Vegas, NV 89139
Although Santa Monica may be the most aggressive Southern California water provider to wean itself from imported supplies, it is hardly the only one looking to remake its water portfolio.
In Los Angeles, a city of about 4 million people, efforts are underway to dramatically slash purchases of imported water while boosting the amount from recycling, stormwater capture, groundwater cleanup and conservation. Mayor Eric Garcetti in 2014 announced a plan to reduce the city’s purchase of imported water from Metropolitan Water District by one-half by 2025 and to provide one-half of the city’s supply from local sources by 2035. (The city considers its Eastern Sierra supplies as imported water.)
Imported water from the Sierra
Nevada and the Colorado River built Southern California. Yet as
drought, climate change and environmental concerns render those
supplies increasingly at risk, the Southland’s cities have ramped
up their efforts to rely more on local sources and less on
imported water.
Far and away the most ambitious goal has been set by the city of
Santa Monica, which in 2014 embarked on a course to be virtually
water independent through local sources by 2023. In the 1990s,
Santa Monica was completely dependent on imported water. Now, it
derives more than 70 percent of its water locally.
The whims of political fate decided
in 2018 that state bond money would not be forthcoming to help
repair the subsidence-damaged parts of Friant-Kern Canal, the
152-mile conduit that conveys water from the San Joaquin River to
farms that fuel a multibillion-dollar agricultural economy along
the east side of the fertile San Joaquin Valley.
The growing leadership of women in water. The Colorado River’s persistent drought and efforts to sign off on a plan to avert worse shortfalls of water from the river. And in California’s Central Valley, promising solutions to vexing water resource challenges.
These were among the topics that Western Water news explored in 2018.
We’re already planning a full slate of stories for 2019. You can sign up here to be alerted when new stories are published. In the meantime, take a look at what we dove into in 2018:
This 2-day, 1-night tour offered participants the opportunity to
learn about water issues affecting California’s scenic Central
Coast and efforts to solve some of the challenges of a region
struggling to be sustainable with limited local supplies that
have potential applications statewide.
In the universe of California water, Tim Quinn is a professor emeritus. Quinn has seen — and been a key player in — a lot of major California water issues since he began his water career 40 years ago as a young economist with the Rand Corporation, then later as deputy general manager with the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, and finally as executive director of the Association of California Water Agencies. In December, the 66-year-old will retire from ACWA.
In 1983, a landmark California Supreme Court ruling extended the public trust doctrine to tributary creeks that feed Mono Lake, which is a navigable water body even though the creeks themselves were not. The ruling marked a dramatic shift in water law and forced Los Angeles to cut back its take of water from those creeks in the Eastern Sierra to preserve the lake.
Now, a state appellate court has for the first time extended that same public trust doctrine to groundwater that feeds a navigable river, in this case the Scott River flowing through a picturesque valley of farms and alfalfa in Siskiyou County in the northern reaches of California.
This tour explored the Sacramento River and its tributaries
through a scenic landscape as participants learned about the
issues associated with a key source for the state’s water supply.
All together, the river and its tributaries supply 35 percent of
California’s water and feed into two major projects: the State
Water Project and the federal Central Valley Project. Tour
participants got an on-site update of Oroville Dam spillway
repairs.
There’s going to be a new governor
in California next year – and a host of challenges both old and
new involving the state’s most vital natural resource, water.
So what should be the next governor’s water priorities?
That was one of the questions put to more than 150 participants
during a wrap-up session at the end of the Water Education
Foundation’s Sept. 20 Water Summit in Sacramento.
More than a decade in the making, an
ambitious plan to deal with the vexing problem of salt and
nitrates in the soils that seep into key groundwater basins of
the Central Valley is moving toward implementation. But its
authors are not who you might expect.
An unusual collaboration of agricultural interests, cities, water
agencies and environmental justice advocates collaborated for
years to find common ground to address a set of problems that
have rendered family wells undrinkable and some soil virtually
unusable for farming.
As California embarks on its unprecedented mission to harness groundwater pumping, the Arizona desert may provide one guide that local managers can look to as they seek to arrest years of overdraft.
Groundwater is stressed by a demand that often outpaces natural and artificial recharge. In California, awareness of groundwater’s importance resulted in the landmark Sustainable Groundwater Management Act in 2014 that aims to have the most severely depleted basins in a state of balance in about 20 years.
Spurred by drought and a major
policy shift, groundwater management has assumed an unprecedented
mantle of importance in California. Local agencies in the
hardest-hit areas of groundwater depletion are drawing plans to
halt overdraft and bring stressed aquifers to the road of
recovery.
Along the way, an army of experts has been enlisted to help
characterize the extent of the problem and how the Sustainable
Groundwater Management Act of 2014 is implemented in a manner
that reflects its original intent.
We explored the lower Colorado River where virtually every drop
of the river is allocated, yet demand is growing from myriad
sources — increasing population, declining habitat, drought and
climate change.
The 1,450-mile river is a lifeline to 40 million people in
the Southwest across seven states and Mexico. How the Lower Basin
states – Arizona, California and Nevada – use and manage this
water to meet agricultural, urban, environmental and industrial
needs was the focus of this tour.
Hampton Inn Tropicana
4975 Dean Martin Drive, Las Vegas, NV 89118
California voters may experience a sense of déjà vu this year when they are asked twice in the same year to consider water bonds — one in June, the other headed to the November ballot.
Both tackle a variety of water issues, from helping disadvantaged communities get clean drinking water to making flood management improvements. But they avoid more controversial proposals, such as new surface storage, and they propose to do some very different things to appeal to different constituencies.
This three-day, two-night tour explored the lower Colorado River
where virtually every drop of the river is allocated, yet demand
is growing from myriad sources — increasing population,
declining habitat, drought and climate change.
The 1,450-mile river is a lifeline to 40 million people in
the Southwest across seven states and Mexico. How the Lower Basin
states – Arizona, California and Nevada – use and manage this
water to meet agricultural, urban, environmental and industrial
needs is the focus of this tour.
Best Western McCarran Inn
4970 Paradise Road
Las Vegas, NV 89119
This tour explored the Sacramento River and its tributaries
through a scenic landscape as participants learned about the
issues associated with a key source for the state’s water supply.
All together, the river and its tributaries supply 35 percent of
California’s water and feed into two major projects: the State
Water Project and the federal Central Valley Project. Tour
participants got an on-site update of repair efforts on the
Oroville Dam spillway.
Participants of this tour snaked along the San Joaquin River to
learn firsthand about one of the nation’s largest and most
expensive river restoration projects.
The San Joaquin River was the focus of one of the most
contentious legal battles in California water history,
ending in a 2006 settlement between the federal government,
Friant Water Users Authority and a coalition of environmental
groups.
Groundwater replenishment happens
through direct recharge and in-lieu recharge. Water used for
direct recharge most often comes from flood flows, water
conservation, recycled water, desalination and water
transfers.
One of the wettest years in California history that ended a
record five-year drought has rejuvenated the call for new storage
to be built above and below ground.
In a state that depends on large surface water reservoirs to help
store water before moving it hundreds of miles to where it is
used, a wet year after a long drought has some people yearning
for a place to sock away some of those flood flows for when they
are needed.
Sinkholes are caused by erosion of
rocks beneath soil’s surface. Groundwater dissolves soft
rocks such as gypsum, salt and limestone, leaving gaps in the
originally solid structure. This is exacerbated when water is
acidic from contact with carbon dioxide or acid rain. Even
humidity can play a major role in destabilizing water
underground.
Irrigation is the artificial supply
of water to grow crops or plants. Obtained from either surface or groundwater, it optimizes
agricultural production when the amount of rain and where it
falls is insufficient. Different irrigation
systems are not necessarily mutually exclusive, but in
practical use are often combined. Much of the agriculture in
California and the West relies on irrigation.
The United States
Geographical Survey (USGS) defines freshwater as containing
less than 1,000 milligrams per liter dissolved solids. However,
500 milligrams per liter is usually the cutoff for municipal and
commercial use. Most of the Earth’s water is saline, 97.5
percent with only 2.5 percent fresh.
Springs are where groundwater becomes surface water, acting as openings
where subsurface water can discharge onto the ground or directly
into other water bodies. They can also be considered the
consequence of an overflowing
aquifer. As a result, springs often serve as headwaters to streams.
Potable water, also known as
drinking water, comes from surface and ground sources and is
treated to levels that that meet state and federal standards for
consumption.
Water from natural sources is treated for microorganisms,
bacteria, toxic chemicals, viruses and fecal matter. Drinking
raw, untreated water can cause gastrointestinal problems such as
diarrhea, vomiting or fever.
Extensometers are among the most valuable devices hydrogeologists
use to measure subsidence, but most people – even water
professionals – have never seen one. They are sensitive and
carefully calibrated, so they are kept under lock and key and are
often in remote locations on private property.
During our California
Groundwater Tour Oct. 5-6, you will see two types of
extensometers used by the California Department of Water
Resources to monitor changes in elevation caused by groundwater
overdraft.
Flowing into the heart of the Mojave Desert, the Mojave River
exists mostly underground. Surface channels are usually dry
absent occasional groundwater surfacing and flooding
from extreme weather events like El Niño.
Alluvium generally refers to the clay, silt, sand and gravel that
are deposited by a stream, creek or other water body.
Alluvium is found around deltas and rivers, frequently
making soils very fertile. Alternatively, “colluvium” refers to
the accumulation at the base of hills, brought there from runoff
(as opposed to a water body). The Oxnard Plain in Ventura
County is a visible alluvial plain, where floodplains have
drifted over time due to gradual deposits of alluvium, a feature
also present in Red Rock Canyon State Park in Kern County.
A new era of groundwater management
began in 2014 with the passage of the Sustainable Groundwater
Management Act (SGMA), which aims for local and regional agencies
to develop and implement sustainable groundwater management
plans with the state as the backstop.
SGMA defines “sustainable groundwater management” as the
“management and use of groundwater in a manner that can be
maintained during the planning and implementation horizon without
causing undesirable results.”
This issue looks at remote sensing applications and how satellite
information enables analysts to get a better understanding of
snowpack, how much water a plant actually uses, groundwater
levels, levee stability and more.
This handbook provides crucial
background information on the Sustainable Groundwater Management
Act, signed into law in 2014 by Gov. Jerry Brown. The handbook
also includes a section on options for new governance.
This 2-day, 1-night tour traveled through Inland
Southern California to learn about the region’s efforts in
groundwater management, recycled water and other drought-proofing
measures.
This 2-day, 1-night tour traveled from the
Sacramento region to Napa Valley to view sites that explore
groundwater issues. Topics included groundwater quality,
overdraft and subsidence, agricultural use, wells, and regional
management efforts.
The 28-page Layperson’s Guide to Groundwater is an in-depth,
easy-to-understand publication that provides background and
perspective on groundwater. The guide explains what groundwater
is – not an underground network of rivers and lakes! – and the
history of its use in California.
The 28-page Layperson’s Guide to Water Rights Law, recognized as
the most thorough explanation of California water rights law
available to non-lawyers, traces the authority for water flowing
in a stream or reservoir, from a faucet or into an irrigation
ditch through the complex web of California water rights.
This printed issue of Western Water looks at California
groundwater and whether its sustainability can be assured by
local, regional and state management. For more background
information on groundwater please refer to the Foundation’s
Layperson’s Guide to Groundwater.
This printed issue of Western Water examines
groundwater management and the extent to which stakeholders
believe more efforts are needed to preserve and restore the
resource.
This printed issue of Western Water looks at hydraulic
fracturing, or “fracking,” in California. Much of the information
in the article was presented at a conference hosted by the
Groundwater Resources Association of California.
This printed issue of Western Water examines
groundwater banking, a water management strategy with appreciable
benefits but not without challenges and controversy.
This printed issue of Western Water features a
roundtable discussion with Anthony Saracino, a water resources
consultant; Martha Davis, executive manager of policy development
with the Inland Empire Utilities Agency and senior policy advisor
to the Delta Stewardship Council; Stuart Leavenworth, editorial
page editor of The Sacramento Bee and Ellen Hanak, co-director of
research and senior fellow at the Public Policy Institute of
California.
This printed issue of Western Water looks at some of
the pieces of the 2009 water legislation, including the Delta
Stewardship Council, the new requirements for groundwater
monitoring and the proposed water bond.
This printed issue of Western Water examines
desalination – an issue that is marked by great optimism and
controversy – and the expected role it might play as an
alternative water supply strategy.
This printed issue of Western Water examines the Russian and
Santa Ana rivers – areas with ongoing issues not dissimilar to
the rest of the state – managing supplies within a lingering
drought, improving water quality and revitalizing and restoring
the vestiges of the native past.
This printed copy of Western Water examines California’s drought
– its impact on water users in the urban and agricultural sector
and the steps being taken to prepare for another dry year should
it arrive.
Statewide, groundwater provides about 30 percent of California’s
water supply, with some regions more dependent on it than others.
In drier years, groundwater provides a higher percentage of the
water supply. Groundwater is less known than surface water but no
less important. Its potential for helping to meet the state’s
growing water demand has spurred greater attention toward gaining
a better understanding of its overall value. This issue of
Western Water examines groundwater storage and its increasing
importance in California’s future water policy.
This issue of Western Water examines the issue of California
groundwater management, in light of recent attention focused on
the subject through legislative actions and the release of the
draft Bulletin 118. In addition to providing an overview of
groundwater and management options, it offers a glimpse of what
the future may hold and some background information on
groundwater hydrology and law.
This 25-minute documentary-style DVD, developed in partnership
with the California Department of Water Resources, provides an
excellent overview of climate change and how it is already
affecting California. The DVD also explains what scientists
anticipate in the future related to sea level rise and
precipitation/runoff changes and explores the efforts that are
underway to plan and adapt to climate.
20-minute DVD that explains the problem with polluted stormwater,
and steps that can be taken to help prevent such pollution and
turn what is often viewed as a “nuisance” into a water resource
through various activities.
Many Californians don’t realize that when they turn on the
faucet, the water that flows out could come from a source close
to home or one hundreds of miles away. Most people take their
water for granted; not thinking about the elaborate systems and
testing that go into delivering clean, plentiful water to
households throughout the state. Where drinking water comes from,
how it’s treated, and what people can do to protect its quality
are highlighted in this 2007 PBS documentary narrated by actress
Wendie Malick.
A 30-minute version of the 2007 PBS documentary Drinking Water:
Quenching the Public Thirst. This DVD is ideal for showing at
community forums and speaking engagements to help the public
understand the complex issues surrounding the elaborate systems
and testing that go into delivering clean, plentiful water to
households throughout the state.
Water truly has shaped California into the great state it is
today. And if it is water that made California great, it’s the
fight over – and with – water that also makes it so critically
important. In efforts to remap California’s circulatory system,
there have been some critical events that had a profound impact
on California’s water history. These turning points not only
forced a re-evaluation of water, but continue to impact the lives
of every Californian. This 2005 PBS documentary offers a
historical and current look at the major water issues that shaped
the state we know today. Includes a 12-page viewer’s guide with
background information, historic timeline and a teacher’s lesson.
This 7-minute DVD is designed to teach children in grades 5-12
about where storm water goes – and why it is so important to
clean up trash, use pesticides and fertilizers wisely, and
prevent other chemicals from going down the storm drain. The
video’s teenage actors explain the water cycle and the difference
between sewer drains and storm drains, how storm drain water is
not treated prior to running into a river or other waterway. The
teens also offer a list of BMPs – best management practices that
homeowners can do to prevent storm water pollution.
Fashioned after the popular California Water Map, this 24×36-inch
poster was extensively re-designed in 2017 to better illustrate
the value and use of groundwater in California, the main types of
aquifers, and the connection between groundwater and surface
water.
Water as a renewable resource is depicted in this 18×24 inch
poster. Water is renewed again and again by the natural
hydrologic cycle where water evaporates, transpires from plants,
rises to form clouds, and returns to the earth as precipitation.
Excellent for elementary school classroom use.
As the state’s population continues to grow and traditional water
supplies grow tighter, there is increased interest in reusing
treated wastewater for a variety of activities, including
irrigation of crops, parks and golf courses, groundwater recharge
and industrial uses.
The 20-page Layperson’s Guide to Water Marketing provides
background information on water rights, types of transfers and
critical policy issues surrounding this topic. First published in
1996, the 2005 version offers expanded information on
groundwater banking and conjunctive use, Colorado River
transfers and the role of private companies in California’s
developing water market.
Order in bulk (25 or more copies of the same guide) for a reduced
fee. Contact the Foundation, 916-444-6240, for details.
The 24-page Layperson’s Guide to the State Water Project provides
an overview of the California-funded and constructed State Water
Project.
The State Water Project is best known for the 444-mile-long
aqueduct that provides water from the Delta to San Joaquin Valley
agriculture and southern California cities. The guide contains
information about the project’s history and facilities.
The 24-page Layperson’s Guide to Integrated Regional Water
Management (IRWM) is an in-depth, easy-to-understand publication
that provides background information on the principles of IRWM,
its funding history and how it differs from the traditional water
management approach.
The 24-page Layperson’s Guide to California Water provides an
excellent overview of the history of water development and use in
California. It includes sections on flood management; the state,
federal and Colorado River delivery systems; Delta issues; water
rights; environmental issues; water quality; and options for
stretching the water supply such as water marketing and
conjunctive use. New in this 10th edition of the guide is a
section on the human need for water.
The 28-page Layperson’s Guide to Nevada Water provides an
overview of the history of water development and use in Nevada.
It includes sections on Nevada’s water rights laws, the history
of the Truckee and Carson rivers, water supplies for the Las
Vegas area, groundwater, water quality, environmental issues and
today’s water supply challenges.
Seawater intrusion can harm groundwater quality in a variety of
places, both coastal and inland, throughout California.
Along the coast, seawater intrusion into aquifers is connected to overdrafting of
groundwater. Additionally, in the interior, groundwater
pumping can draw up salty water from ancient seawater isolated in
subsurface sediments.
Overdraft occurs when, over a period of years, more water is
pumped from a groundwater basin than is replaced from all sources
– such as rainfall, irrigation water, streams fed by mountain
runoff and intentional recharge. [See also Hydrologic Cycle.]
While many of its individual aquifers are not overdrafted,
California as a whole uses more groundwater than is replaced.
The treatment of groundwater— the primary source of drinking
water and irrigation water in many parts of the United States —
varies from community to community, and even from well to well
within a city depending on what contaminants the water contains.
In California, one-half of the state’s population drinks water
drawn from underground sources [the remainder is provided by
surface water].
Groundwater management is recognized
as critical to supporting the long-term viability of California’s
aquifers and protecting the
nearby surface waters that are connected to groundwater.
California has considered, but not implemented, a comprehensive
groundwater strategy many
times over the last century.
One hundred years ago, the California Conservation Commission
considered adding groundwater regulation into the Water
Commission Act of 1913. After hearings were held, it was
decided to leave groundwater rights out of the Water Code.
California, like most arid Western states, has a complex system
of surface water rights
that accounts for nearly all of the water in rivers and streams.
Groundwater banking is a process of diverting floodwaters or
other surface water into
an aquifer where it can be
stored until it is needed later. In a twist of fate, the space
made available by emptying some aquifers opened the door for the
banking activities used so extensively today.
When multiple parties withdraw water from the same aquifer,
groundwater pumpers can ask the court to adjudicate, or hear
arguments for and against, to better define the rights that
various entities have to use groundwater resources. This is known
as groundwater adjudication. [See also California
water rights and Groundwater Law.]
If California were flat, its groundwater would be enough to flood
the entire state 8 feet deep. The enormous cache of underground
water helped the state become the nation’s top agricultural
producer. Groundwater also provides a critical hedge against
drought to sustain California’s overall water supply.
In years of average precipitation, about 40 percent of the
state’s water supply comes from underground. During a drought,
the amount can approach 60 percent.
For something so largely hidden from view, groundwater is an
important and controversial part of California’s water supply
picture. How it should be managed and whether it becomes part of
overarching state regulation is a topic of strong debate.
In early June, environmentalists and Delta water agencies sued
the California Department of Water Resources (DWR) and the Kern
County Water Agency (KCWA) over the validity of the transfer of
the Kern Water Bank, a huge underground reservoir that supplies
water to farms and cities locally and outside the area. The suit,
which culminates a decade-long controversy involving multiple
issues of state and local jurisdictional authority, has put the
spotlight on groundwater banking – an important but controversial
water management practice in many areas of California.
Groundwater, out of sight and out of mind to most people, is
taking on an increased role in California’s water future.
Often overlooked and misunderstood, groundwater’s profile is
being elevated as various scenarios combine to cloud the water
supply outlook. A dry 2006-2007 water year (downtown Los Angeles
received a record low amount of rain), crisis conditions in the
Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta and the mounting evidence of climate
change have invigorated efforts to further utilize aquifers as a
reliable source of water supply.
When you drink the water, remember the spring. – Chinese proverb
Water is everywhere. Viewed from outer space, the Earth radiates
a blue glow from the oceans that dominate its surface. Atop the
sea and land, huge clouds of water vapor swirl around the globe,
propelling the weather system that sustains life. Along the way,
water, which an ancient sage called “the noblest of elements,”
transforms from vapor to liquid and to solid form as it falls
from the atmosphere to the surface, trickles below ground and
ultimately returns skyward.
Traditionally treated as two separate resources, surface water
and groundwater are increasingly linked in California as water
leaders search for a way to close the gap between water demand
and water supply. Although some water districts have coordinated
use of surface water and groundwater for years, conjunctive use
has become the catchphrase when it comes to developing additional
water supply for the 21st century.
