Tag Archive for: Groundwater

OPINION: No, We Shouldn’t Pump Desert Groundwater Near Joshua Tree To Help Store Electricity

For years developers have tried to figure out how to repurpose Kaiser Steel’s former open-pit iron mine at Eagle Mountain in Riverside County. One idea: Use it as a massive landfill, a proposal that fortunately never came to fruition. The current owners of the site now want to convert it into an immense, $2.5-billion hydroelectric battery, using daytime power to pump water from a lower-elevation pit to a pit 1,400 feet farther up the mountain, then running the water downhill at night through turbines to create energy.

Owens Valley Groundwater Basin Goes Low

California’s Department of Water Resources came out with its latest prioritization of state groundwater basins and, tentatively, the Owens Valley basin is now low. Over the short life of the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act, Owens Valley has gone from medium to high and now low priority. That prioritization would have had an impact three years ago.

California’s New Natural Resources Secretary Takes On Challenge Of Implementing Gov. Newsom’s Ambitious Water Agenda

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.

PWD Approves More Groundwater Tests

To better understand if a proposed project to bolster the underlying groundwater basin with recycled water may work, the Palmdale Water District Board of Directors on Monday agreed to a contract amendment with its consulting firm to conduct more tests. The Palmdale Regional Groundwater Recharge and Recovery Project is planned near Avenue L and 100th Street East, where treated wastewater will be allowed to percolate into the ground to be stored. However, the district is still studying the area to ensure it is appropriate for the water recharge.

Yuima is among the smallest water districts in the San Diego County metropolitan area, covering 13,460 acres. Its 10 largest water users are all agricultural customers, consuming approximately 70 percent of total district water deliveries annually. Photo: Yuima Municipal Water District Pauma Valley

Cooperation Preserves Pauma Valley Groundwater

Instead of waiting for Yuima Valley’s precious groundwater supplies to dry up, the Yuima Municipal Water District and local farmers are working cooperatively to create a sustainable long-term strategy for maintaining the region’s economy and quality of life by proactively managing the valley’s aquifer.

To the east in Borrego Springs, the chronically water-short community offers a warning about over-tapping groundwater. Borrego Springs expects to face a 75 percent reduction in water supplies by 2040. The current plan is to let 3,800 acres of agriculture go fallow because farms use 80 percent of the community’s groundwater.

Yuima farmers also have relied on groundwater supplies for decades. Crops such as citrus and avocado flourish in the valley, nestled between Palomar Mountain and Valley Center.

But Yuima farmers want a different kind of future than they see unfolding in other groundwater-dependent areas of arid West.

Working with growers to sustain agriculture

The Yuima Municipal Water District worked with farmers to find realistic, reliable, cost-effective strategies for his customers to keep their farms flourishing without 100 percent reliance on groundwater. Photo: Yuima Municipal Water District

The Yuima Municipal Water District worked with farmers to find realistic, reliable, cost-effective strategies for customers to keep their farms flourishing without 100 percent reliance on groundwater. Photo: Yuima Municipal Water District

Richard Williamson, general manager of the Yuima water district, is working with growers to sustain production and avoid groundwater depletion. When groundwater is pumped faster than it’s recharged, negative effects include reduced water quality, reduced surface water supplies, and land subsidence (or sinking).

“What we’ve tried to do is work on a program encouraging farmers to join our system,” Williamson said. “Many have been pumping wells on their property, and they know it will be curtailed in the future due to new laws protecting groundwater. They need to look to imported water to make up the difference.”

Yuima is among the smallest water districts in the region, covering 13,460 acres. Its 10 largest water users are all agricultural customers, consuming approximately 70 percent of total district water deliveries annually.

Facing increasing state regulations and increasingly hot summers, Williamson worked with farmers to find realistic, reliable, cost-effective strategies for his customers to keep their farms flourishing without 100 percent reliance on groundwater. Adopting a rate structure giving farmers lower pricing in exchange for flexible reliability is the key. The strategy allows the district to slow water deliveries to agricultural customers when imported water supplies are in high demand, similar to power companies offering reduced rates for interruptible service.

“There was a fair amount of discussion and education,” said Williamson. “Farming interests knew they had to come up with an alternative source of water to replace what they might not have in the future. They know it doesn’t serve anyone to draw the system down to nothing. They can look across this valley. All you see is green, citrus and horticulture being raised.”

Yuima agricultural water users try new program

Pauma Valley’s largest agricultural water user and a large avocado farm were the first to sign on. “It was a win-win situation,” said Williamson, “They still pump groundwater, but not as much as they used to. It will help everyone under the new groundwater regulations. Knowing it’s always available, they can set their watering patterns to meet the best efficiency from their water dollars as they possibly can.”

Now Yuima MWD is working to offer imported water supplies through the new program to additional farms by increasing system capacity.

“We currently have projects under way that will double our amount of imported water coming into the district,” said Williamson. “That will be done by 2020, so at that point it will coincide with these new regulations in place. We want to be ready with other agriculture interests. They are under the gun and need alternative sources of water.”

Williamson said so far, Yuima hasn’t faced water supply interruptions. “Because Pauma Valley is such a close-knit community, we will call our biggest users and warn them, ‘Things are a little tight, can you water at night or cut back watering time a little bit to get through this crunch?’ Everyone has been extremely cooperative with this idea.”

Williamson says the goal for his district is to remove the supply interruption provisions completely when capacity upgrades are completed in 2020.

“This valley is all about two things: agriculture, and Indian gaming. The tribes have indicated they don’t want to see agriculture hurt here. They feel it creates a really nice environment,” Williamson said. “This district takes a lot of pride being part of that environment. We want to be a positive influence, rather than wearing a black hat.”

 

 

 

Cooperation Preserves Pauma Valley Groundwater

Instead of waiting for Yuima Valley’s precious groundwater supplies to dry up, the Yuima Municipal Water District and local farmers are working cooperatively to create a sustainable long-term strategy for maintaining the region’s economy and quality of life by proactively managing the valley’s aquifer. To the east in Borrego Springs, the chronically water-short community offers a warning about over-tapping groundwater. Borrego Springs expects to face a 75 percent reduction in water supplies by 2040. The current plan is to let 3,800 acres of agriculture go fallow because farms use 80 percent of the community’s groundwater. Yuima farmers also have relied on groundwater supplies for decades. Crops such as citrus and avocado flourish in the valley, nestled between Palomar Mountain and Valley Center.

Golf Course Will Be Site Of Groundwater Treatment Plant

In an effort to end Thousand Oaks’ near total reliance on imported water, public works staff is asking the City Council to commit $16.6 million over the next two years to build a groundwater treatment plant at the city’s publicly owned golf course.  The Los Robles Greens Golf Course Groundwater Utilization Project which will be offset with an estimated $6 million in State Water Project (Prop. 1) grants is the single most expensive item on the city’s proposed $97-million 2019-21 capital improvement program budget, which outlines spending on public infrastructure over the next two fiscal years.

The Central Valley Is Sinking As Farmers Drill For Water. But It Can Be Saved, Study Says

A team of Stanford University researchers believe they have identified the best way to replenish the shrinking aquifers beneath California’s Central Valley. The groundwater beneath the Central Valley has been steadily depleting, particularly as the state’s $50 billion agricultural industry relied on it during a series of droughts. Each year, more water exits the aquifer than goes into it. The study from Stanford’s School of Earth, Energy and Environmental Sciences, published in the journal Water Resources Research, found that unless action is taken, the ground in that region will sink more than 13 feet over the next 20 years.

Olivenhain Tries Desalinating Groundwater

Construction starts this month on a $1.5 million test well to show whether desalinated groundwater could supplement the drinking water supply for 86,000 customers of the Olivenhain Municipal Water District. The district serves parts of Encinitas, Carlsbad, San Diego, San Marcos, Solana Beach and neighboring communities, and relies almost entirely on water imported from the Colorado River and Northern California. Like agencies throughout Southern California, it’s looking for ways to diversify its water supply.

Cal City OKs Groundwater Plan

The City Council ap­proved a regional plan for managing the area’s ground­water resources, which brings a measure of local control and to qualify for state funds for water-re­lated projects. The Fremont Basin In­te­grated Regional Water Plan has been in the works for at least four years, fill­ing in a hole in water plans in the area, as the sur­rounding groundwater basins already have plans in place.California City is one of three pri­mary stake­hold­ers in the document, with the An­telope Val­ley-East Kern Water Agency and the Mojave Public Utility District.