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Peter Gleick: Stealing water from the future: California’s massive groundwater overdraft newly revealed

Posted by: Maven on December 16, 2009 at 8:23 am

From Peter Gleick at the City Brights blog:

“A NASA report summarizing data collected from new satellites confirms what most water observers have known for a long time. Massive amounts of groundwater are being sucked out of California’s Central Valley groundwater aquifers — unreported, unmonitored, and unregulated.

Water Number: Between October 2003 and March 2009, more than 24 million acre-feet (30 cubic kilometers) of groundwater were pumped out of California’s Central Valley. This is overdraft of groundwater — the pumping of groundwater faster than nature recharges it. Most of the overdraft is occurring in the San Joaquin Valley and it is occurring at a rate far faster than previously reported by the California Department of Water Resources.

This rate of overpumping is more than 4.4 million acre-feet per year — more than three times above DWR’s previous estimates. DWR estimates are grossly unreliable because, as I have discussed many times in this column before, no one actually measures, monitors, or reports groundwater use. Whoever can pump it can have it, to the detriment of everyone else, our wetlands, and runoff into our rivers and streams. As one of the scientists on the project, Jay Famiglietti said, “GRACE data reveal groundwater in these basins is being pumped for irrigation at rates that are not sustainable if current trends continue.” … “

Continue reading Peter’s commentary at the City Brights blogsite by clicking here.

December 16, 2009 · Filed Under Groundwater, San Joaquin Valley

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