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Rising calls to regulate California groundwater

Posted by: Maven on May 14, 2009 at 8:57 am

From the New York Times:

For the third year in a row, Mark Watte plans to rely on the aquifer beneath his family farm for three-quarters of the water he needs to keep his cotton, corn and alfalfa growing, his young pistachio trees healthy and his 900 dairy cows cool. That is 50 percent more than he used to take, because the water that once flowed to the farm from snow in the Sierra Nevada has been reduced by a long dry spell and diversions to benefit endangered fish.

Since 2006 the surface of the aquifer, in the Kaweah subbasin of the San Joaquin basin, has dropped 50 feet as farmers pumped deeper, Mr. Watte says. Some of his pumps no longer reach far enough to bring any water to the surface.

If he lived in almost any other state in the arid Southwest, Mr. Watte could be required to report his withdrawals of groundwater or even reduce them. But to California’s farmers and developers, that is anathema. “I don’t want the government to come in and dictate to us, ‘This is all the water you can use on your own land,’ ” said Mr. Watte, 57. “We would resist that to our dying day.”

Although California has been a pathbreaker in some environmental arenas, like embracing renewable energy and recycling, groundwater rights remain sacrosanct. But the state government is facing growing pressure to embrace regulation.

Recent scientific studies indicate that in the long term, climate change is diminishing the potential for the Sierra snowpack to generate enough runoff. Aquifers are thus a crucial insurance policy for water users.

Critics argue that refusing to monitor and regulate groundwater could prove catastrophic to the state’s real estate sector and its $36 billion agricultural economy. “We really have reached the limit of surface water in California,” said Tony Rossman, a San Francisco lawyer specializing in water rights. “The answer so far has been to drill deeper,” he said. “This can’t continue.”

Read more from the New York Times by clicking here.

May 14, 2009 · Filed Under Groundwater

Comments

2 Responses to “Rising calls to regulate California groundwater”

  1. jkpiraino on May 15th, 2009 2:08 am

    Are we crazy? What if the smelt HAD been declared endangered? Are we really willing to cut off 35% of our water supply to preserve what is actually “fish bait”?

    Perhaps if we simply closed all the farms in California, then asked everyone south of San Francisco to leave the State, we could preserve every species that fanatical environmentalists would like. Feed fish bait. Starve people.

    Can we really be this stupid? Judge Wanger issued the court order to shut off a third of California’s water supply. What we really need is to shut down Oliver Wanger by removing him from office.

  2. WaterSource on May 15th, 2009 5:51 am

    Only fools and angels dare wade into the groundwater arena…

    In 1969 CO declared that wells were TRIBUTARY to the surface streams ( except designated groundwater basins & exempt domestic wells) and as such were to be administered in the priority system according to prior appropriation doctrine. It has taken 40 years for the law to be enforced and now the wells of the South Platte, Arkansas and Rio Grande River basins either have to augment their depletions or SHUT-OFF !

    The wells were simply depleting the water available for the older senior surface water rights. It was the senior water right owners that eventually convinced the administrators to protect their vested water rights.

    Eventually, groundwater depletions in CA will get severe enough that CA too will have to decide if its water rights are subject to a prior appropriation doctrine or reparian ( take what you want from under your own land).

    A truly new fresh water NON-TRIBUTARY Source has been offered for confidential investigation & verification to CA, NV and the Bureau of Reclamation that can yield ONE MILLION acre feet each year for storage in existing reservoirs like Lake Mead or in the groundwater aquifers. Development of the Source will not damage the environment or the water rights of anyone, anywhere because the water is NON-TRIBUTARY to all CA streams.

    With coordination and cooperation among governmental agencies ( the angel part), the Source could be developed so that NO POWER is required to deliver the water and the delivery system could be kept Quagga Mussel free.

    CA may soon come to realize that her water, like her economy, needs to be protected with resources that are REAL and in perpetuity. Conservation efforts and desalination are to be encouraged, but long term, a vast natural resource of one million acre feet each year should not be ignored.

    WaterSource waterrdw@yahoo.com Retired Water Rights Analyst

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