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.
New research further magnifies the growing risk rising
groundwater poses to San Francisco and other low-lying Bay Area
cities. The nonprofit SPUR (the San Francisco Bay Area Planning
and Urban Research Association) and the East Palo Alto
community organization Nuestra Casa released a study earlier
this week analyzing the impacts groundwater rise could have on
East Palo Alto. The research centered on the Peninsula city
because of its proximity to the water, making it one of the Bay
Area jurisdictions most susceptible to groundwater rise. But
the findings, researchers said, can be applied to all of the
Bay Area’s at-risk cities, including San Francisco. Groundwater
is rainwater that is stored underground in soils. It provides
50% of Americans’ drinking water and is a key resource for crop
irrigation and agricultural production. But as sea levels rise
due to climate change, groundwater is pushed up further towards
the surface. The closer the groundwater table gets to the
surface, the less capacity the soil has to absorb rain and,
consequently, the more likely heavy precipitation will cause
flooding, damage infrastructure and mobilize soil pollutants
like pesticides and asbestos.
It’s been two and a half months since the state brought the
hammer down on water managers in Kings County for lacking an
adequate plan to stem overpumping in the region and the
situation is, in a word – chaotic. One groundwater
sustainability agency (GSA) has imploded, leaving the county to
potentially pick up the pieces. Another doesn’t have enough
money in the bank to pay its newly hired manager. One GSA
has repeatedly canceled meetings, others appear to be crafting
their own plans and one is banking on being exempted as a “good
actor,” despite the state’s repeated insistence that there will
be no such exemptions in San Joaquin Valley basins now under
scrutiny. Oh, and the Farm Bureau is suing the state Water
Resources Control Board over its vote April 16 to put the
region, the Tulare Lake subbasin, into probation – the first
step toward a possible state pumping takeover. All this while a
deadline is rapidly approaching July 15 for all Kings County
pumpers to register their wells and begin tracking their
groundwater consumption.
As the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA) approaches
its tenth anniversary, California is making progress towards
implementation—but the 2020–22 drought shows that much work
still lies ahead. Drought poses a particular challenge for SGMA
compliance in many farming regions. Increased groundwater use
keeps crops irrigated when surface water is scarce, but it can
cause undesirable impacts such as dry wells, infrastructure
damage from land subsidence (sinking lands), and increased
rates of seawater intrusion. While SGMA allows some flexibility
for extra groundwater pumping during droughts, it also requires
local agencies to guard against these undesirable impacts.
California Forever plans to use a combination of water sources
to supply the needs of the new city, including tapping into
groundwater and surface water rights, which the company already
owns thanks to its purchase of more than 60,000 acres of
farmland. … They expect the groundwater and local surface
water to make up more than a quarter of the new city’s water
supply and will be used for some of the drinking
water. California Forever representatives said they also
plan to import almost a third of their water supply “upriver
from out-of-county sites in California,” conveying it through
“existing points of diversion on the Sacramento River and its
associated tributaries.” Water experts who have reviewed
California Forever’s plan said it’s clear the company did its
homework, but some vital questions remain — especially around
its plan to rely on water diverted from rivers in a state where
drought is so commonplace.
New research reveals why some rivers in the San Joaquin Valley
are causing the ground to uplift when others aren’t. The answer
lies beneath the ground’s surface. A new study from
scientists at Stanford University combines satellite data with
airborne electromagnetic (AEM) flight data to see exactly
what’s happening with recharged water from the Sierra
Nevadas. The satellite process, called interferometric
synthetic aperture radar (InSAR,) bounces signals onto the
ground which can read over time where ground has uplifted due
to groundwater recharge. The data, from the wet year of 2017,
shows water traveling through the valley underground uplifting
the surface as it moves. But other areas didn’t see the
same effect. The study points out two sites where there are
natural waterways, one near Fresno and one near Visalia. The
Fresno site didn’t see any uplift while the Visalia site did.
… They found that only areas with significant clay saw
uplift. If the ground is made up of too much coarse material,
like sand and gravel, the water sinks in fast but simply moves
through it and doesn’t uplift.
Over the past several years, California’s water managers have
seen a pattern emerge in farming areas of the Central Valley:
Even as declining groundwater levels have left thousands of
residents with dry wells and caused the ground to sink,
counties have continued granting permits for agricultural
landowners to drill new wells and pump even more water. A bill
that was sponsored by the California Department of Water
Resources sought to address these problems by prohibiting new
high-capacity wells within a quarter-mile of a drinking water
well or in areas where the land has been sinking because of
overpumping. Despite support from Gov. Gavin Newsom’s
administration, the measure was narrowly rejected in the Senate
last week after encountering opposition from the agriculture
industry, business groups, local governments and water
agencies.
Board members of Eastern Tule Groundwater Sustainablity Agency
signed a deal with Self-Help Enterprises this week to respond
to dry or damaged drinking water wells. The deal may, or may
not, be extended throughout the Tule subbasin as part of a
larger effort by managers to revamp their groundwater plan and
submit it to the state Water Resources Control Board by July 1
to try and stave off state intervention. But if this one piece
of the larger puzzle is any indication, July 1 may be a pipe
dream for a cohesive plan as other water managers are
negotiating their own deals with Self-Help and questioning
Eastern Tule’s ability to pay for a well program long term.
A research study in the East River Basin, a small, mountainous
river basin in western Colorado, shows that groundwater will
fall in a warming climate — and it can take streams down with
it. These streams, including the East River, carry water
from their headwaters through tunnels, canals and pipes to
homes, farms and businesses in the overstressed Colorado River
Basin. Groundwater’s role in this process has often been
overlooked: Most of the water in Colorado’s mountain streams
comes from snowpack, and without a lot of data, it’s been
assumed that groundwater is not really a huge player.
That’s not the case, said Rosemary Carroll, the lead researcher
on a groundwater study published in May in the academic
journal, Nature Water. “Groundwater is there to buffer your dry
water years,” Carroll said. “If you had no groundwater, you
would have a system go dry.”
The state postponed the Kaweah groundwater region’s Nov. 5
probationary hearing until Jan. 7, 2025, according to an
announcement at a “state of the subbasin” event held June 19 to
answer questions about what probation would mean. … Managers
of the three groundwater agencies that cover the subbasin,
which covers the northern part of Tulare County’s flatlands,
have written a new plan they hope addresses the Water Board’s
concerns about the need to protect domestic wells, stop chronic
groundwater decline and work in a coordinated manner.
Incorporated in that new plan is a $5.8 million-a-year contract
with Visalia nonprofit Self-Help Enterprises to monitor and
respond to residential well problems. It was the first domestic
well agreement of its kind in the San Joaquin Valley.
An Orange County court on Friday approved an injunction
mandating that Mojave Pistachios LLC pay $30 million in back
fees owed to the Indian Wells Valley Groundwater Authority for
pumping groundwater without an allocation in Kern County’s
eastern desert. That $30 million is the accumulation of a
$2,130-per-acre-foot fee for non-allocated pumping that was
established by the authority in its groundwater sustainability
plan and approved by the state back in 2022. … Under the
Sustainable Groundwater Management Act, groundwater agencies
are mandated to stem over pumping and maintain a balanced
aquifer, meaning more water isn’t perpetually taken out than
goes back in. The agencies are empowered to set fees and
enforce pumping allotments in order to achieve that balance by
2040. The Indian Wells Valley is severely overdrafted with only
about 7,600 acre feet of natural inflow every year and 28,000
acre feet of annual demand. Mojave Pistachios and others
dispute those numbers, claiming there’s far more water in the
basin than the authority has acknowledged.
The U.S. oil industry has a double-edged problem: It’s running
out of fresh water in one of the most productive U.S. regions
while being overwhelmed by chemical-laced liquids. In some
areas of the Permian Basin, nearly five barrels of briny water
comes out of the ground for every one barrel of crude. Until
recently, operators in the prolific region in Texas and New
Mexico relied almost exclusively on reinjecting that liquid
back into the ground or pumping it into open air waste pits.
But after earthquakes were linked to reinjenctions — and water
officials warned of dwindling freshwater and groundwater
supplies in drought-stricken areas — states, oil companies and
critics have been looking at ways to reuse this so-called
produced water. That is raising concerns, however, of the
long-term impacts of reusing produced water and its potential
impact on groundwater.
It was the legislative session that could’ve been on water.
Everyone talked a good game. Gov. Katie Hobbs kicked off the
session warning lawmakers that if they didn’t act on water, she
would. Lawmakers introduced hundreds of bills on the subject —
more than anyone can remember in recent history. Some would
have upended statewide water policy. A handful could have
upended it for the better. Yet efforts to build broad support
for those few bills ran out of runway, and a long, draining
session ended in rushed chaos. -Written by columnist Joanna Allhands, Arizona
Republic
Record snowfall in recent years has not been enough to offset
long-term drying conditions and increasing groundwater demands
in the U.S. Southwest, according to a new analysis of NASA
satellite data. Declining water levels in the Great Salt Lake
and Lake Mead have been testaments to a megadrought afflicting
western North America since 2000. But surface water only
accounts for a fraction of the Great Basin watershed that
covers most of Nevada and large portions of California, Utah,
and Oregon. Far more of the region’s water is
underground. … A new look at 20 years of data …
shows that the decline in groundwater in the Great Basin far
exceeds stark surface water losses. … While new maps
show a seasonal rise in water each spring due to melting snow
from higher elevations, University of Maryland earth scientist
Dorothy Hall said occasional snowy winters are unlikely to stop
the dramatic water level decline that’s been underway in the
U.S. Southwest.
Water experts say that officials must work closely with
communities to efficiently manage groundwater systems amid
climate change — despite growing animosity among landowners.
Scientists and experts at the nonpartisan Water Education
Foundation’s third international groundwater conference Tuesday
said that, with so many styles of groundwater management,
strong partnerships are the only way to sustainably handle
water supplies within and beyond California.
California Forever released a report Tuesday addressing one of
the biggest questions surrounding its billionaire-backed push to
build a new city on Solano County farmland: where exactly they
are getting the water to sustain a community of up to 400,000
people? Leaders say this initial review found they have secured
enough water for the first stage of buildout at 100,000 residents
and laid out the company’s plan for how they say they will scale
their water usage for when the community grows by four times.
Mike Shannon’s city hall office is a “war room” for water. Maps
of wells and charts of usage rates cover the beige room’s
meeting table and desk. A large television screen mounted on
the wall displays satellite images of a future groundwater well
project. Coworkers visit throughout the day, often to talk
about those plans to pump more water. As city manager of
Guymon — a town of about 13,000 in the state’s panhandle —
Shannon oversees a network of 17 groundwater wells, all
operating near capacity to draw water from the Ogallala
Aquifer, the only water source in this arid region of
tumbleweeds and sand dunes. … At the top of the
list was Seaboard, a pork processing plant on the north side of
town that slaughtered more than 20,000 hogs daily. The plant
used 3,500 gallons of water a minute, three times the amount
used by all the homes in Guymon combined.
Self-Help Enterprises has launched a partnership with three
groundwater sustainability agencies in the Kaweah Subbasin to
expand assistance for rural residents who lose water due to
lowering groundwater levels. The East Kaweah, Greater
Kaweah and Mid-Kaweah groundwater sustainability agencies will
invest up to $5.8 million annually to ensure that water users
in the area will receive emergency water supplies if their
wells go dry. The big picture: Along with the
emergency water supplies, Self-Help Enterprises will also
provide a long-term drinking water solution through its water
support program. Self-Help Enterprises has over a decade
of experience operating its water support program to provide
emergency water supply, interim supply – which includes tanks
and hauled water – and long-term solutions, such as working
with well drillers to replace failed wells.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is demanding the U.S.
Air Force and Arizona National Guard take action as
concentrations of toxic “forever chemicals” are increasing in
the groundwater in a historically contaminated area on Tucson’s
south side. The EPA found the pollution came from the nearby
military properties and ordered them to clean up the
contamination. High concentrations of PFAS, or per- and
polyfluoroalkyl substances, were detected in Tucson’s
groundwater near the Tucson International Airport at the
National Guard base and at a property owned by the U.S. Air
Force. The contaminants threaten the groundwater extracted at a
water treatment run by Tucson Water in the Tucson Airport
Remediation Project area, known as TARP. That water was
intended for drinking, the EPA said in its May 29 order.
The good news is that the San Joaquin Valley has managed to
store a little more groundwater since the drought of 2016. The
bad news is that it is hard to keep account of what’s working
and what’s not. On Tuesday, the Public Policy Institute of
California, a nonprofit policy research organization, released
an update report on the replenishment of groundwater in the San
Joaquin Valley, one of the areas of the state that is heavily
dependent on groundwater. The report also identified those
basins best suited to accept water recharge operations, with
the highest number being in the eastern and southern regions of
the valley.
Fireworks were already popping between board members of a key
Tulare County groundwater agency recently over an 11th hour
attempt to rein in pumping in the severely overdrafted area.
The main issue at the Eastern Tule Groundwater Sustainability
Agency (GSA) meeting June 6 was whether to require farmers in
subsidence prone areas to install meters and report their
extractions to the agency, which is being blamed for almost
single handedly putting the entire subbasin in jeopardy of a
state takeover. … In the end, the Eastern Tule
board voted 6-0 to require all landowners in the subsidence
management area along the canal to meter their wells and report
extractions by January 1.
The end of a two-year legal fight over who should pay, and how
much, to replenish the groundwater beneath Madera County could
be in sight. A motion to dismiss the lawsuit by a group of
farmers against the county is set to be heard June 18.
The outcome could determine whether Madera County, which acts
as the groundwater sustainability agency (GSA) for hundreds of
thousands of acres across three water subbasins, can finally
move forward on a host of projects to improve the water table
per the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA). From the
farmers’ point of view, the outcome of this case could make or
break their farms, some that have been in their families for
generations.
The city of Bakersfield and California Water Service Co. on
Sunday lifted the do-not-drink, do-not-use advisory issued
Tuesday to 42 commercial customers south of Lake Truxtun after
an oil company reportedly allowed pressurized natural gas and
crude oil into the municipal water system.
Making wine requires water. But how much? Water is a precious
resource in drought-prone California, and its use in
agriculture is rightfully a contentious topic. … While a wine
glut is compelling some grape growers to remove their
vineyards, some readers are suggesting that this might be a
good thing from a water use perspective. So I wanted to
understand: Just how big of a water suck are California
grapevines, really? The TLDR here is that California wine
grapes don’t gulp nearly as much water as crops like almonds,
pistachios and alfalfa. But the real story here is much more
complex …
Strategies to replenish groundwater basins—long used in some
areas of the San Joaquin Valley—have increasingly come into
focus as the region seeks to bring its overdrafted groundwater
basins into balance under the Sustainable Groundwater
Management Act (SGMA). In late 2023, following a very wet
winter and spring, we conducted a repeat survey of local water
agencies about their recharge activities and perspectives,
building on a similar survey at the end of 2017, a year with
similar levels of precipitation. We found signs of progress on
recharge since 2017, as well as areas where more work is needed
to take full advantage of this important water management tool.
Stormwater in L.A. and Orange Counties is captured via
spreading grounds, or large open areas of gravel and sand that
allow pools of water to form and percolate deep into
underground reservoirs. Since we’ve largely run out of room for
spreading grounds, other solutions are being explored. Slow it
down: Before we paved over our cities, water used to percolate
through soil across the region. Water agencies use dams to
capture and slowly release water over time to utilize spreading
grounds even during hot months. Use our yards: The majority of
L.A. is private property, meaning there’s a big opportunity for
owners to implement water features like swales, which can
capture water and allow it to sink into the soil, rather than
run out into the street.
Cover crops are planted to protect and improve the soil between
annual crops such as tomatoes or between rows of tree and vine
crops, but growers may be concerned about the water use of
these plants that don’t generate income. “Cover crops are one
of the most popular practices we see farmers employ through
our Healthy Soils Program,” said Karen Ross, secretary of
the California Department of Food and Agriculture.
… These potential benefits are especially salient in the
San Joaquin Valley, where groundwater challenges are more
acute. A new report evaluates the water implications of cover
cropping practices to lay the groundwork for their adoption in
the context of the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act,
or SGMA, which is intended to protect groundwater resources
over the long-term. “Yes, cover crops require a nominal
amount of water to establish – and sometimes rainwater is
sufficient – but the myriad co-benefits are worth it,” Ross
said.
On a recent morning, visitors wandered around Mexico City’s
Metropolitan Cathedral, Latin America’s oldest — and one of its
largest. Walking from chamber to chamber, tourists snapped
images of dramatic ceiling-high altars, soaring columns and
sculptures. But there’s another unintended detail that stands
out: the cathedral is leaning. … This sinking, which is known
as land subsidence, crops up across the world. While it can be
subtle in many places — it pushes land down around an inch
or two a year in much of the U.S. — the rates in
Mexico City are some of the highest in the world. Some
areas in Mexico City are slipping as fast as 20 inches a year
in recent decades, according to researchers. Overall, the
clay layers under the soil have compressed by 17 percent in the
last century.
A lengthy complaint alleging secretive, self-dealing on the
part of a prominent farmer and board member on a key Tulare
County groundwater agency slogged through a Fair Political
Practices Commission investigation over the past four years
resulting in, essentially, a slap on the wrist late last month.
Eric L. Borba, former chair of the Eastern Tule Groundwater
Sustainability Agency, was found in violation of the state’s
disclosure rules at the Commission’s April 25 meeting for not
listing his ownership in several ditch companies including the
value of those water assets. He was ordered to revamp his Form
700s, which public board members and executives must file each
year, and pay a $5,400 fine. The Form 700s now list Borba’s
ownership, through a variety of entities, in five area ditch
companies.
Officials in Berkeley and Albany are moving forward with plans
to test two popular bayside parks — César Chávez and the
Albany Bulb — for evidence of radioactive material
possibly dumped decades ago by the former Stauffer Chemical Co.
plant in Richmond. Richmond has been dealing with
radioactive material and other hazardous waste left by Stauffer
for decades, but Berkeley and Albany officials were warned only
this year that the company may have also discarded tons of
industrial waste into landfills that have since been covered
over and converted to the bayshore parks. The planned testing
in both cities will include uranium, thorium and the banned
pesticide dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT), on the advice
of the San Francisco Bay Regional Water Quality Control Board,
according to reports from both cities.
Above-average storms have allowed the Modesto Irrigation
District to offer Tuolumne River water to nearby farmers who
normally tap wells. It is getting few takers. The program is
designed to boost the stressed aquifer generally east of
Waterford, just outside MID boundaries. The district board on
Tuesday debated whether to drop the price to spur interest, but
a majority voted to leave it unchanged. The discussion came
amid a state mandate to make groundwater use sustainable by
about 2040. MID does not have a major problem within its
territory, which stretches west to the San Joaquin River. But
it is part of a regional effort to comply with the 2014 law.
This includes out-of-district sales of Tuolumne water in years
when MID’s own farmers have plenty. That was the case in 2023,
one of the wettest years on record, and this year thanks to
storage in Don Pedro Reservoir.
As the American West faces intensifying water challenges, water
managers, landowners, and water users are increasingly turning
to the Groundwater Accounting Platform as a data-driven tool
that enables them to track water availability and usage with
user-friendly dashboards and workflows. This critical tool is
now available throughout California to support sustainable
groundwater management practices. Unsustainable groundwater
pumping across much of the West has endangered long-term water
supplies and lead to millions of dollars of infrastructure
damage from sinking land. The Groundwater Accounting Platform
empowers users to manage long-term, and helps communities avoid
undesirable outcomes and maintain clean water supplies at lower
costs. Additionally, this critical functionality supports
Groundwater Sustainability Agencies as they manage resources in
priority basins under the Sustainable Groundwater Management
Act.
This current, remarkably average water year – not last year’s
barn burner – will be the true test to see how well
groundwater agencies are rejuvenating the San Joaquin Valley’s
withered aquifers, longtime water managers say. Yes, 2023’s
historic wet year did a lot to help groundwater levels rebound
in many parts of the valley. And the numbers were impressive:
453,000 acre feet of floodwater was captured for storage,
according to the state’s most recent semi-annual groundwater
report released this month. The valley captured 91% of the
state’s annual managed recharge, about 3.8 million acre
feet. Groundwater levels rose in 52% of monitoring wells
and stayed level in 44%. An area of about 800 square miles
saw ground uplift, 40 times more than uplifted in
2018-2022. But the state report notes even a record
breaking wet year isn’t enough to refill the aquifers and
groundwater deficit persists.
California is recognized as one of the world’s hotspots of
biodiversity, with more species of plants and animals than any
other state. And a significant number of the state’s species,
from frogs to birds, live in habitats that depend on
groundwater. … Spotting threats to vulnerable natural areas
has become a mission for Melissa Rohde, a hydrologist who has
spent years analyzing satellite data and water levels in wells
to come up with strategies for preventing ecosystems from being
left high and dry. … California is the only state with a
groundwater law that includes provisions intended to protect
groundwater-dependent ecosystems. But the law, adopted in 2014,
gives considerable leeway to local agencies in developing water
management plans that prevent “significant and unreasonable
adverse impacts.”
UC Riverside professor Jinyong Liu embarked on a scientific
challenge as an undergraduate chemistry student when he heard
people dub per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) as
“forever chemicals.” … Undetectable by sight, smell, or
taste, PFAS is part of everyday American life. It’s found in
personal care products like shampoo and dental floss, in
grease-resistant food packaging, and nonstick cookware. … In
2019, the State Water Resources Control Board ordered 30
airports, including the San Luis Obispo County Regional
Airport, to investigate their groundwater and soil for the
chemical. State regulators pinpointed pollution to a PFAS-rich
foam called aqueous film forming foam (AFFF), which has been
discharged into the environment since the mid-1970s through
firefighter trainings.
Cover crops could be an important tool in groundwater
management but are being unintentionally disincentivized by
groundwater sustainability agencies (GSAs,) according to a new
study. GSAs haven’t done enough analysis or
incentivization of cover crops, according to authors of the
study. In fact, the study suggests some GSAs are putting a
negative spin on the use of cover crops by accounting for their
water usage but excluding their water benefits. … [The study]
was a collaborative effort between many organizations and
agencies including the California Department of Food and
Agriculture, the University of California Agriculture and
Natural Resources and nonprofit Sustainable Conservation.
Around the world, demand for lithium is surging, and the
Imperial Valley is in a strong position to help meet that need.
State and local leaders have been working hard to ensure that
the communities of the valley will see more far-reaching
benefits this time if the industry continues to grow. As
California races to curb carbon emissions, advocates and
researchers say the growth of the lithium industry could be a
test of a so-called ”just transition.” That’s a movement to
cleaner energy sources that strengthens local communities,
rather than hollowing them out. … Lithium is a soft,
silvery-white metal that’s found in many places around the
world, including in hard rock, layers of sediment and
belowground pockets of salty water. It’s used to lubricate
aircraft engines, added as a fuel to military-grade torpedoes
and is prescribed by doctors as a treatment for bipolar
disorder.
In Arizona, water used to be a bipartisan area of politics,
albeit a contentious one. But partisanship and tension have
increased as water has drained away. Kathleen Ferris is a water
policy expert of more than 40 years who helped craft Arizona’s
monumental 1980 Groundwater Management Act. “Everybody keeps
saying that water is bipartisan, and in fact it’s not. It’s not
anymore, let’s put it that way. It used to be. You could say
that back in 1980, when we passed the Groundwater Management
Act, but you can’t say that anymore,” she said. Ferris believes
Arizona’s prospects have darkened over the years, largely due
to rural communities resisting conservation efforts. “Willcox,
for example, did not want any part of the Groundwater
Management Act. And yet here they are today, desperate for
help,” Ferris said.
Innovations and improvements are ongoing in the field of
agriculture as immortalized by a poet centuries ago who wrote,
“Nothing stays the same, save eternal change.” Fortunately for
farmers, something creative is always on the horizon that will
make things faster, easier, and sometimes even cheaper.
One such evolution involves organic growing and how it differs
from conventional farming. Developed in the early 1900s, the
concepts of organic agriculture included use of animal manures,
cover crops, rotation of crops, and biologically based pest
controls. Encyclopaedia Britannica calls it, “A
sustainable agriculture system that evolved as a response to
the environmental harm caused by chemical pesticides and
synthetic fertilizers. Compared with conventional agriculture,
organic farming uses less pesticide, reduces soil erosion,
decreases nitrate leaching into groundwater and surface water,
and recycles animal wastes.” -Written by contributing writer Lee Allen.
The fallout and recriminations in Kings County continue over
the state Water Resources Control Board’s historic decision to
place the Tulare Lake subbasin on probation for failing to come
up with a cohesive plan to protect the region’s groundwater.
The Kings County Farm Bureau, which has already sued the Water
Board over the probationary designation, is now demanding the
resignations of the manager and entire board of directors of
one local water board, saying they are at fault for putting the
region in jeopardy with the Water Board. The Farm Bureau is
seeking to oust Kings County Water District General Manager
Dennis Mills and all of the district’s board members. Mills and
three of those board members also sit on the Mid-Kings River
Groundwater Sustainability Agency (GSA).
Mark Arax, an award-winning journalist and author of books
chronicling agriculture and water issues in California’s
Central Valley, will provide the keynote talk at an
international groundwater conference next month. The
event, Toward
Sustainable Groundwater in Agriculture: The 3ʳᵈ International
Conference Linking Science & Policy, returns
to San Francisco June 18-20 for the first time since 2016 and
will highlight advances on sustaining groundwater in
agricultural regions across California and around the
world. Arax, author of The Dreamt
Land, West of the West and The King
of California, is from a family of Central Valley farmers.
He is praised for writing books that are deeply profound,
heartfelt and nuanced. He will do a reading from his
latest book The Dreamt Land and comment on the
future of groundwater in the Valley during his keynote lunch
talk on June 18.
As Texas wildfires burned toward the nation’s primary nuclear
weapons facility, workers hurried to ensure nothing flammable
was around buildings and storage areas. When the fires showed
no sign of slowing, Pantex Plant officials urgently called on
local contractors, who arrived within minutes with bulldozers
to dig trenches and enlarge fire breaks for the sprawling
complex where nuclear weapons are assembled and disassembled
and dangerous plutonium pits — hollow spheres that trigger
nuclear warheads and bombs — are stored. … There’s the
40-square-mile Los Alamos National Laboratory in New
Mexico, where a 2000 wildfire burned to within a half mile (0.8
kilometers) of a radioactive waste site. The heavily
polluted Santa Susana Field Laboratory in Southern
California, where a 2018 wildfire burned 80% of the site,
narrowly missing an area contaminated by a 1959 partial nuclear
meltdown.
Los Osos could end its building moratorium by the end of the
year and see new construction for the first time in decades
under a plan led by the California Coastal Commission and San
Luis Obispo County. The proposal could eventually bring 1%
residential growth to a community that has been under a
building ban since 1988. The history of Los Osos’
moratorium began with the septic tank discharge prohibition
issued by the Central Coast Regional Water Quality Control
Board in 1983. That agency found that the town’s 5,000 septic
tanks were sending millions of gallons of effluent down the
drain and into both the groundwater and the bay. The county
then carried out a multi-decade struggle to site and fund a new
water treatment plant, finally launched in 2012 and put into
service in 2016.
The Biden administration is moving forward with new permitting
guidance to curb pollution that moves through groundwater in
response to a landmark Supreme Court ruling. In a decision
praised by environmental advocates, the high court ruled in
2020 that wastewater treatment plants and industrial facilities
must obtain federal permits for groundwater pollution that
affects major bodies of water. Since then, however, questions
have emerged over how to interpret and apply the ruling, which
said that permits are necessary if groundwater pollution has
the “functional equivalent” of directly contaminating a lake,
river or other surface water. The Trump administration issued
its own interpretation of the ruling in January 2021, which EPA
under President Joe Biden scrapped months later.
The Kings County Farm Bureau and two of its farmer members have
filed suit against the state Water Resources Control Board,
claiming the board exceeded its jurisdiction when it placed the
Tulare Lake groundwater subbasin on probation April 16. A writ
of mandate was filed May 15 in Kings County Superior Court. A
writ is an order asking a governmental body, in this case the
Water Board, to cease an action. The farm bureau is asking the
board to vacate the resolution, which was passed unanimously.
“The board’s decision to place the (Tulare Lake Subbasin) on
probation violated the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act
and expanded the board’s authority beyond its jurisdiction,” a
Kings County Farm Bureau press release states. The filing
asks for declaratory and injunctive relief, and cites eight
causes of action under the writ that the “probationary
designation is arbitrary, capricious, and lacking in
evidentiary support.”
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.
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.
Explore 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.
