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Welcome to the archives of Water Deeply. While we paused regular publication of the site on November 1, 2018, we are happy to serve as an ongoing public resource on water resilience. We hope you’ll enjoy the reporting and analysis that was produced by our dedicated community of editors and contributors.
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California water managers vary in their willingness and ability to take climate risks into account, according to a recent study from U.C. Davis. Improved relationships between scientists and decision-makers may help.
In a part of Los Angeles County, a community exchange pool has been established that allows entities to store and purchase groundwater. It’s an adaptive strategy that could be more common as California works to implement its Sustainable Groundwater Management Act.
The state’s 2014 Sustainable Groundwater Management Act takes a big step in protecting ecosystems that depend on groundwater, but now the hard work of incorporating that mandate into sustainability plans begins.
The state’s Sustainable Groundwater Management Act is likely to result in fallowing thousands of acres of farmland. Local governments are just waking up to the big opportunities, and risks, in how that land gets reused.
Four groundwater basins in Napa and Sonoma counties may be in worse shape than previously thought. The state of California recently signaled they should be subject to new groundwater sustainability rules.
The pilot program is kicking off in Ventura County, but experts say that it may be replicated in other parts of the state as California works to comply with the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act and curb overpumping of aquifers.
Alvar Escriva-Bou Research Fellow, PPIC Water Policy Center
Recent studies have calculated how much water is available for recharge, but the hurdle now is how to get it underground, writes researcher Alvar Escriva-Bou of the PPIC Water Policy Center.
Sean Hood Water Lawyer Specializing in Water Adjudications and Other Complex Water Rights Litigation
As California works to implement its Sustainable Groundwater Management Act, water rights attorney Sean Hood explains why it’s important to engage actively in the process.
Kirsten James Oversees the California Policy Program, Ceres
Driscoll’s Berries and its farmers in Ventura County are working to save water and tackle sustainable management of the local groundwater, writes Kirsten James of Ceres.
California’s groundwater agencies need to create sustainability plans, says Michael Kiparsky of the University of California Berkeley School of Law, noting that, unless those plans also take surface water into account, they might not work.
Near Bakersfield, the Rosedale-Rio Bravo Water Storage District plans to set up procedures for land retirement and water trading with the goal of putting property owners in the driver’s seat on groundwater management.
A new report examines groundwater management innovations in six states to help inform similar efforts in California. Report coauthor Christina Babbitt of Environmental Defense Fund explains the key findings.
A handful of storms each year could provide enough water to offset annual groundwater overdraft in California’s Central Valley. But Tiffany Kocis of U.C. Davis explains that work is needed to capture and distribute that water.
The Semitropic Water Storage District proposes building a new reservoir on part of an ancient lakebed, then using it to capture flood flows to recharge groundwater. But others in the region fear it will deprive them of water.
Mark Ziman Water Resource Analyst, Ponderosa Advisors
California faces challenges produced by inaccuracies and nonstandardization of water data. Recent legislation will help fix some of the problems, but more can be done, writes Mark Ziman of Ponderosa Advisors.
June 30 is the state’s deadline for the creation of groundwater sustainability agencies, the first significant step required to implement California’s 2014 Sustainable Groundwater Management Act.
Farmers, regulators and an economist teamed up to launch a first-of-its kind groundwater market in California. Matthew Fienup, who was involved in the effort, explains how it works and the plans for its expansion.
It will be a while before California’s 2014 groundwater law is fully enacted, but a key part of the process is already underway. We talk to Stanford researcher Esther Conrad about how the process is going.
Graham Fogg Professor of Hydrogeology and Hydrogeologist, University of California
California can stave off a water crisis if it learns to manage both surface water and groundwater, which hasn’t happened yet. A better understanding is also needed of what’s at stake if overdrafts in groundwater are ignored.
Researchers from Stanford surveyed groundwater professionals to better understand the biggest data challenges to implementing California’s groundwater law. We talk with the report’s lead author, Tara Moran, about the findings.
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