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A Tangle of Rules to Protect America’s Water Is Falling Short

/in , , /by /The New York Times by Dionne Searcey and Delger Erdenesanaa

America’s stewardship of one of its most precious resources, groundwater, relies on a patchwork of state and local rules so lax and outdated that in many places oversight is all but nonexistent, a New York Times analysis has found.

The majority of states don’t know how many wells they have, the analysis revealed. Many have incomplete records of older wells, including some that pump large volumes of water, and many states don’t register the millions of household wells that dot the country.

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California Wells Run Dry as Drought Depletes Groundwater

/in , , /by /The San Diego Union-Tribuneby Terry Chea

As California’s drought deepens, Elaine Moore’s family is running out of an increasingly precious resource: water.

The Central Valley almond growers had two wells go dry this summer. Two of her adult children are now getting water from a new well the family drilled after the old one went dry last year. She’s even supplying water to a neighbor whose well dried up.

“It’s been so dry this last year. We didn’t get much rain. We didn’t get much snowpack,” Moore said, standing next to a dry well on her property in Chowchilla, California. “Everybody’s very careful with what water they’re using. In fact, my granddaughter is emptying the kids’ little pool to flush the toilets.”

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Boulevard Residents are Running Out of Water, It’s Not Because of the Drought

/in , /by /CBS 8by Shannon Handy

Residents living in Boulevard say they’re running out of water, and it’s not because of the drought.

They blame the lack of water on one of their neighbors, who they say is building a lake on his property.

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California County Sees 11 New Dry Wells Reported in Past Month

/in , , /by /The Mercury Newsby Jake Hutchison

As summer begins to wind down, the dry weather that has plagued California this year continues, leading to a number of new drought-related issues.

Over the course of the past 30 days, 11 new dry well reports in Butte County have been sent to the California Department of Water Resources. That comes out to 39 in the past year and 98 total.

Additionally, Glenn County has seen 105 total dry well reports and Tehama County has reported 229, according to data from DWR.

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A Frenzy of Well Drilling by California Farmers Leaves Taps Running Dry

/in , , /by /Los Angeles Timesby Maria L. La Ganga, Gabrielle LaMarr LeMee and Ian James/Photography by Irfan Khan

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.

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California Enacted a Groundwater Law 7 Years Ago. But Wells Are Still Drying Up — and the Threat is Spreading

/in , , /by /CalMattersby Rachel Becker

Kelly O’Brien’s drinking water well had been in its death throes for days before its pump finally gave out over Memorial Day weekend.

It wasn’t a quiet death at O’Brien’s home in Glenn County, about 100 miles north of Sacramento.

Spigots rattled. Faucets sputtered. The drinking water turned rusty with sediment. In the end, two houses, three adults, three children, two horses, four dogs and a couple of cats on her five acres of land were all left with no water for their sinks, showers, laundry, troughs and water bowls.

As extreme drought spread across the state, O’Brien feared that the water underneath her property had sunk so low that it was out of the reach of her well.

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California Wells Will Go Dry this Summer. ‘Alarm Bells are Sounding’ in the Valley

/in , /by /The Fresno Beeby Monica Vaughan

Thousands of wells that bring water to San Joaquin Valley homes are at risk of drying up this summer, leaving families without running water for drinking, cleaning and bathing. While no one knows the extent of the threat from this second year of drought conditions, Jonathan Nelson with the Community Water Center says “the alarm bells are sounding.”

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How Over-Pumping of Underground Aquifers Can Cause Land to Sink

/in , , /by /Interesting Engineerinngby Trevor English

If you’re reading this, chances are you don’t really have to think about where your drinking water is coming from, how your food was grown, or what effects such processes have had on the environment. Specifically, in reference to our drinking water, around half of the US population gets their drinking water from either public or private wells.

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Central Valley Town Fought for Clean Water for Years. Is the Battle Finally Over?

/in , /by /The Fresno Beeby Cresencio Rodriguez-Delgado

During summertime, many households in Seville have seen their wells go completely dry. For years — too many, residents say — households teetered with unpredictable conditions. Using too much water in the day meant having none at night. One flush too many, and everyone relying on a single well in town was thrown into a dry spell.

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City Enters Agreement with Water District for PFAS Treatment

/in , , /by /Fullerton Observerby Jesse Latour

Council voted 5-0 to approve a 30-year agreement with Orange County Water District (OCWD) which will provide funding for construction of PFAS (groundwater contaminant) treatment plants and a portion of ongoing operational and maintenance costs for impacted Fullerton water wells, at their April 21 meeting.

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