Droughtsville, California, is in trouble.
Its water supply is endangered as multiple crises intensify: worsening droughts, competition for scarce supplies, sea level rise, groundwater contamination, earthquakes, wildfires and extreme weather. All of these factors, and more, threaten Droughtville’s ability to provide clean water to its residents.
The city is fictional, but the threats are not.
Vicki McDowell woke up on a Saturday morning in May, thinking about what she would make her son for breakfast. He was visiting from Hayward, and she wanted to whip up something special. Biscuits and gravy. Fried potatoes. Eggs.
She walked to the kitchen sink to wash her hands. Turned on the faucet. Nothing happened. Worried, she tried the bathroom sink. Still nothing. She flushed the toilet. It gurgled.
In the verdant San Joaquin Valley, one of the nation’s most productive farming regions, domestic wells like McDowell’s are drying up at an alarming pace as a frenzy of new well construction and heavy agricultural pumping sends the underground water supply to new lows during one of the most severe droughts on record.
California water officials have alerted local groundwater agencies in farming areas across the San Joaquin Valley that their plans for bringing aquifers into balance don’t adequately address how continuing declines in water levels could cause many more wells to run dry. The state Department of Water Resources notified agencies in six areas of the San Joaquin Valley this week that their groundwater sustainability plans are incomplete and have deficiencies that need to be corrected.
Today, the California Department of Water Resources initiated a $100 million funding program to restore capacity to portions of the California Aqueduct, San Luis Canal, Delta-Mendota Canal, and Friant-Kern Canal lost to land subsidence occurring during the last several decades.
“Fixing these canals is an important foundational piece to ensure a reliable and climate resilient water supply for California,” said DWR Director Karla Nemeth. “It enables us to move water during very wet conditions, which will be essential to adapting to more extreme weather. Restoring capacity in our existing infrastructure provides a critical link in diversifying water supplies by supporting groundwater replenishment throughout the Central Valley and water recycling projects in Southern California. It’s a prudent investment in our water future.”
Every winter, Imperial Beach finds some of its streets and sidewalks underwater. This week, researchers from San Diego State and UC San Diego started digging groundwater wells to see how sea-level rise plays a role in that flooding. The sea-level impacts how shallow the water table is underneath the city.
“Flooding overall is a very, very big thing in Imperial Beach,” said Hassan Davani, Ph.D.
The SDSU researcher said most studies predict sea-level rise will significantly impact California as early as 2050. However, Davani said Imperial Beach can’t wait that long to protect itself.
This happens regularly in the @CityofIB. A study is underway to figure out how to stop flooding in the future, especially if the sea level keeps rising. @nbcsandiego at 4:30 and 6:00. pic.twitter.com/d8cz7ZDERY
— Joe Little🎥🏀 (@LittleJoeTV) December 2, 2021
Camarillo’s long-awaited desalter plant will soon begin treating previously unusable groundwater to convert into drinkable water for residents and businesses.
The city unveiled the $66.3 million North Pleasant Valley Groundwater Desalter, located at 2727 Somis Road, at a ribbon cutting before a crowd of about 100 people on Tuesday.
Camarillo’s long-awaited desalter plant will soon begin treating previously unusable groundwater to convert into drinkable water for residents and businesses.
The city unveiled the $66.3 million North Pleasant Valley Groundwater Desalter, located at 2727 Somis Road, at a ribbon cutting before a crowd of about 100 people on Tuesday.
Groundwater in Calif.’s Central Valley is at risk of being depleted by pumping too much water during and after droughts, according to a new study in the American Geophysical Union journal Water Resources Research.
The study finds that groundwater storage recovery has been dismal after the state’s last two droughts, with less than a third of groundwater recovered from the drought that spanned 2012 to 2016.
The U.S. Supreme Court found that Tennessee didn’t steal groundwater from Mississippi, in a dispute with wide-ranging implications for how states manage natural resources.
The justices in Mississippi v. Tennessee said in a unanimous decision that interstate groundwater is covered by equitable apportionment, which is the standard process by which water resources are shared.
It’s the high court’s first use of the equitable apportionment doctrine related to interstate groundwater.
State officials warn some of the state’s most powerful and largest agricultural districts that their plans fail to address how over-pumping could harm local communities’ drinking water supplies.
With a severe drought and an increased reliance on groundwater basins, Calif.’s Department of Water Resources released the final version of its California’s Groundwater – Update 2020 report. The report, also known as Bulletin 118, contains critical information about the condition and use of the state’s groundwater, which is especially important as California faces the real-time impacts of climate change and drought.
“Groundwater plays a central role in sustaining our state’s ecosystems, businesses, agriculture and people, with some Californians relying solely on groundwater for drinking water,” said DWR Director Karla Nemeth. “The updated California’s Groundwater provides key information for the state and locals to better understand and manage groundwater as we adapt to variations in climate and navigate a historic drought.”
The Water News Network is San Diego County’s source for water news and information.
