Intensifying groundwater pumping is warping the earth’s surface and wreaking havoc with built infrastructure – including the canals that bring irrigation water. Continue readingIn search of water, farmers undermined the San Joaquin Valley. Can collective effort raise their fields, canals – and prospects?
Tag: SGMA
Professor Luthy’s work focuses on ways to ensure that water overflows in both urban and rural California can be captured and stored underground. He spoke with & the West about the measures the state needs to consider to protect its water supplies into an uncertain future. Continue reading‘We need to plan for a more water-resilient future:’ Q&A with Richard G. Luthy, urban water expert
Architects of the 2014 Sustainable Groundwater Management Act tried to forestall conflict between state regulators and local groundwater users. But judging plans “inadequate” creates hard-to-reconcile differences.Continue readingEfforts to preserve California’s groundwater enter a new phase: a season of judgement
While expensive solutions like new reservoirs and seawater desalination grab attention, California communities are quietly building up their capacity to clean stormwater and wastewater for reuse for irrigation, industry and, yes, drinking water too. Continue readingIn times of scarcity, California’s best new source of water? Reuse.
New agencies find making sustainability plans is hard, but easier than persuading growers to accept them.Continue readingA simmering revolt against groundwater cutbacks in California
Three months after the first market trades of California water futures, a conversation about economic forces and an essential material for life.Continue readingCalifornia Water on the Market: Q&A with Barton “Buzz” Thompson
Farmers, large and small, are beginning to grapple with what the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act means for them. Many expect to see cutbacks on pumping once the program is fully implemented in 2040.Continue readingSmall Farmers Wait for California’s Groundwater Hammer to Fall
With new rules coming into effect, farmers and municipalities using groundwater must either find more water to support the aquifers or take cropland out of use. To ease the pain, engineers are looking to harness an unconventional and unwieldy source of water: the torrential storms that sometimes blast across the Pacific Ocean and soak California. Continue readingPutting a Tempest into a Teapot: Can California Better Use Winter Storms to Refill its Aquifers?
New rules and new technology are giving farmers and managers a better look at groundwater supplies.Continue readingAs California’s Groundwater Free-for-All Ends, Gauging What’s Left
Like the topsoil, structures built 40 years ago to contain floodwaters are cracking, too.Continue readingTo Save Crops, Farmers Took Groundwater. Then the Land Sank