California Drought And Groundwater Crisis Spurs Dirt Bucket Challenge
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California Drought And Groundwater Crisis Spurs
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Updated: Sept. 3, 2014
East Porterville Water Wells Are Drying Up
East Porterville, Ca – One of the pernicious effects of drought is the lack of ample potable water for the residents in the area. Now, this has become commonplace in California, which is now in the midst of a multi year drought. Amongst the hardest hit is the town of East Porterville, which is located north of Bakersfield in Tulare County.
In a report made by the Porterville Recorded, the town paper, about 182 of its 1,400 homes have no water at all or is suffering from lack of water supply. This is a major issue as most of the homes in the town have their own individual wells for drinking water and other uses. The percentage of homes without water is alarming, as this indicates the water supply is running out.
To augment its supply, there has been a 5,000 gallon water tank put in place to alleviate the water shortage. For those residents who still have supply, they are being urged to conserve water usage as there are fears the aquifiers of the town would dry up.
In another move, Tulare County employees and other volunteers had delivered 15,500 gallons of potable water to the residents of the drought stricken town. Each individual resident was allotted 12 gallons of water. According to Tulare County Office of Emergency Services Manager Andrew Lockman, the handing out of the water supplies was done at the Tulare County firehouse. They targeted the 182 homes that did not have any water coming from their wells.
Lockman said of the current water shortage, “They’ve never had outages like this. With those wells, it’s always been sufficient just because the water table has always been so high in this area. Right now we’re trying to provide immediate relief. This is conceived as an emergency plan right now.”
Many water officials believe that the problem may be due to the shallow depth of some of the wells in the area. These wells are replenished by the Tule River groundwater. Because of the drought, the river does not provide the sufficient levels of water to properly replenish the wells, be it shallow or deep ones.
This isn’t only the problem created by the drought. Many of the residents have become tight-lipped about their water situation, fearing that social workers may take their children because of the situation. Others fear that they may be evicted by their landlords for the lack of water.
To allay these fears, Lockman stressed, “We want to make it abundantly clear we are not going to make this harder for anyone. These lists aren’t going anywhere. (Child Welfare Services) isn’t getting a list. They (CWS) made it abundantly clear they are not going to remove children because of no water. We just want to help the people.”
Since the norm in East Porterville is having a well, homeowners are liable for the cost of fixing and drilling a new hole should water problems surface. This has become a problem for what has been termed as “Welfare Capital”, Tulare County where East Porterville is located. Many of the resident are retirees living off their pensions. They won’t be able to afford to drill a new well which can cost up to USD15,000.
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A bill pending in the Legislature would require that groundwater be managed sustainably at major aquifers throughout the state, such as by authorizing local agencies to impose pumping limits and conduct inspections.
"We can't continue to pump groundwater at the rates we are and expect it to continue in the future," said Mary Scruggs, supervising engineering geologist with the Department of Water Resources. The Legislature has until Sunday to take action before it adjourns for the year.
"What's scary is we're not fixing anything," said Ms. Luft, 57, a retired environmental engineer who leads a homeowners' group that recently teamed with the vintners to support the water district bill. "It's a race to the bottom."
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But with the water falling another 12 feet since, Ms. Seals said the couple might have to dig a new $30,000 well as soon as next year.
"And how long that will last nobody knows," said Ms. Seals, 61 years old, a retired graphic designer.
The Seals's four-bedroom home is one of hundreds in northern San Luis Obispo County facing declining reserves of underground water amid one of California's worst droughts on record. With groundwater levels falling across the Golden State—causing dried-up wells, sinking roadbeds and crumbling infrastructure—the state legislature is considering regulating underground water for the first time.
"Groundwater was kind of out of sight, out of mind," said Lester Snow, executive director of the California Water Foundation, a nonprofit policy group in Sacramento, and former director of the state Department of Water Resources.
Other states were forced to act earlier. Arizona, for example, began regulating its major groundwater basins in 1980 after experiencing subsidence, or sinking soils from lack of water, and other problems from agriculture pumping, said Michael Lacey, director of the Arizona Department of Water Resources. "Had we done nothing, many of the areas would have no supplies left," Mr. Lacey said.
California is grappling with its three-year drought on a number of fronts. On Aug. 13, Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown signed bipartisan legislation putting a $7.5 billion bond measure for water projects on the November ballot. In July, the state ordered the first mandatory statewide water restrictions on urban water use, such as lawn watering, with fines up to $500.
Groundwater remains there for the taking—except in places such as Orange County with special management districts. The Department of Water Resources said earlier this year that groundwater tables in some parts of California have dropped 100 feet or more below historic averages. That has resulted in an estimated $1.3 billion in damage to infrastructure, such as cracked highways due to subsidence, Mr. Snow said.
A bill pending in the Legislature would require that groundwater be managed sustainably at major aquifers throughout the state, such as by authorizing local agencies to impose pumping limits and conduct inspections.
"We can't continue to pump groundwater at the rates we are and expect it to continue in the future," said Mary Scruggs, supervising engineering geologist with the Department of Water Resources. The Legislature has until Sunday to take action before it adjourns for the year.
But opponents of the bill, including many farmers, say it is being rushed through. "There is no good time for hurried legislation, but during a critical drought year…is absolutely the wrong time," Danny Merkley, director of water resources for the California Farm Bureau Federation, wrote in a recent column for a trade publication.
At the urging of rural water users in the region, the Legislature on Aug. 19 passed a measure to allow formation of a water district to manage the county's Paso Robles Groundwater Basin.
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Some vintners said the newer homes—many on multi-acre lots—were constructed with little planning for water availability, and that they, too, have had to drill more wells.
"Everybody was pumping to their heart's content, until they realized the basin isn't that big," said Jerry Reaugh, 68, a local grape grower.
County Supervisor Frank Mecham said the near-doubling of the county's population to 275,000 since 1980 has put pressure on groundwater, particularly in rural areas where more vineyards also have sprung up.
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As a result, many rural homeowners have reported dramatic drops in their well water levels. Sue Luft, for instance, said she and her husband last year had to drill a second well to 540 feet after one 355 feet deep went dry.
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California's Underground Water War
California has been the only western state without groundwater regulation—but now that looks set to change.
Now a new crash threatens, as groundwater levels beneath the vineyards plummet. California produces nearly half of U.S.-grown fruits, nuts, and vegetables, according to the state’s Department of Food and Agriculture. It is in the midst of one of the worst droughts ever recorded, with more than 80 percent of the state in extreme or exceptional drought. But so far, the Steinbeck Vineyards’ 520 acres of grapes are growing well under the hot August sun, thanks to the family’s access to all the groundwater they need: up to two acre-feet per acre per season. An acre-foot is the amount of water required to flood an acre of land one foot deep—about 326,000 gallons. The Steinbecks’ sole source of irrigation is groundwater.
However, groundwater and surface water—rivers, lakes, streams—are part of the same hydrological system. Excessive groundwater pumping can overdraft aquifers, emptying them faster than natural systems can replenish them; dry up nearby wells; allow saltwater intrusion; and draw down surface water supplies. Taking so much water out of the soil can cause the dirt to compact and the land to sink, an action called subsidence. Because land can subside as much as a foot a year in the face of aggressive pumping, it can destroy infrastructure such as irrigation canals, building foundations, roads, bridges, and pipelines.
The Steinbecks have been able to tap this subterranean resource at will because they own the land above it—and because California is the only western state that lacks groundwater regulation. But that boon to farmers is also a looming disaster, as groundwater levels free fall. Groundwater is a huge piece of California’s water supply, making up approximately 40 percent of the state's water demands in an average year and up to 60 percent or more during droughts, according to the Department of Water Resources.
“In the absence of governance, it’s become a pumping arms race,” said Felicia Marcus, chair of the State Water Resources Control Board. “He with the biggest pump or deepest straw wins.”
But now a bill on the floor of the California legislature could turn that around. Although water rights holders in California have been resistant to change, this week the state is considering one big step forward: Senate Bill 1168 and Assembly Bill 1739, which would provide state-wide groundwater regulation for the first time. These bills “embrace the concept that groundwater is best managed locally,” said Senate bill author Fran Pavley, a Democratic representative from Agoura Hills, as she brought the vote on the assembly bill August 27. “Manage your groundwater basins, and the state will not have any reason to interfere with your right to have your own governance board and to set your own rules and regulations,” she said.
The assembly bill passed the senate and will now return to the assembly for a final “concurrence” vote. The senate bill must still pass the assembly and, once again, the senate, before the session ends August 31. Then California Governor Jerry Brown will have 30 days to sign or veto it. He has been supporting the bill throughout the process.
However, even if the bill becomes law, it’s unclear whether it will help the folks in Paso Robles avoid the current spate of neighbors suing neighbors. Groundwater basins would have two years to form a local management agency, five years to adopt a sustainable management plan, and 20 years to achieve a sustainable supply of groundwater.
The Paso Robles groundwater basin has been declining for years, said San Luis Obispo County board of supervisors chair Bruce Gibson, but “the drought has magnified the effect.” When wells began to dry up last summer, the board passed a moratorium on new water use in the basin that prohibits both new buildings outside of city limits and planting new crops without fallowing others.
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Historically, landowners in California have considered water beneath their land to be part of their property rights.
That’s how Steinbeck and her neighbors see it. Any limitation to their right to pump and use the water under their land, such as the moratorium, is “taking over our rights,” said Steinbeck.
Gibson said the county is “exercising its land use authority. Property rights are not absolute: One can do a range of activities on their property as long as it doesn't infringe on others' similar enjoyment of their property.”
The landowners filed suit last fall against San Luis Obispo County and four municipal water companies. This summer, this and a related lawsuit have recently been transferred to San Jose, a city to the north—because everyone agrees that no one local can be impartial.
Suing has become standard practice in California when groundwater basins are overdrafted because the state lacks regulation and pumping is largely unmeasured. In these cases, a court decides who may extract how much and who will manage the basin to ensure everyone is using water according to the court’s decree, a process called adjudication.
There are currently 22 adjudicated groundwater basins in California, according to the California Department of Water Resources (DWR). Adjudication can be time-consuming and expensive for all concerned. In San Luis Obispo County, the Santa Maria Groundwater Basin adjudication “is now going on its 12th year and is still in court appeals. Total costs for all parties are over $11 million,” said the San Luis Obispo County website, and could go significantly higher.
The property rights narrative for groundwater rights “is called into question if your neighbor pumps out so much water that your well runs dry,” said California Assembly member Roger Dickinson, a Democrat from Sacramento and author of the assembly bill. When this happens, farmers begin to recognize that if they don’t act collectively, their personal property rights could become “hollow and without much meaning,” he said.That’s how Steinbeck and her neighbors see it. Any limitation to their right to pump and use the water under their land, such as the moratorium, is “taking over our rights,” said Steinbeck.
Gibson said the county is “exercising its land use authority. Property rights are not absolute: One can do a range of activities on their property as long as it doesn't infringe on others' similar enjoyment of their property.”
The landowners filed suit last fall against San Luis Obispo County and four municipal water companies. This summer, this and a related lawsuit have recently been transferred to San Jose, a city to the north—because everyone agrees that no one local can be impartial.
Suing has become standard practice in California when groundwater basins are overdrafted because the state lacks regulation and pumping is largely unmeasured. In these cases, a court decides who may extract how much and who will manage the basin to ensure everyone is using water according to the court’s decree, a process called adjudication.
There are currently 22 adjudicated groundwater basins in California, according to the California Department of Water Resources (DWR). Adjudication can be time-consuming and expensive for all concerned. In San Luis Obispo County, the Santa Maria Groundwater Basin adjudication “is now going on its 12th year and is still in court appeals. Total costs for all parties are over $11 million,” said the San Luis Obispo County website, and could go significantly higher.
Groundwater legal reform was on the table 40 years ago, during Governor Brown’s first tenure. But the current drought has heightened water anxiety to the point where the current groundwater free-for-all might be brought under a legal framework at last. If successful, the law could help avoid future conflicts.
“We should never let a good crisis go to waste,” said Dickinson.
California has lagged other states in this area because a strong political lobby of groundwater users resisted state regulation—and many still do, said Brian Gray, a law professor at the University of California Hastings, who has argued water resources cases before the California Supreme Court. But now, both the Association of California Water Agencies, a water utilities trade group, and the California Water Foundation, a nonprofit focused on balancing California’s water needs, support the new bill.
Lester Snow, executive director of the California Water Foundation, said, “The basic model is that we empower local agencies, give them tools and authority, and then set up the state as a backstop” in case local regulation doesn’t happen.
Monty Henry, Owner
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