North County water districts unhappy with direction of Paso basin plan
“Officials from North County’s two water districts vented frustrations about the latest draft of a Paso Robles Groundwater Basin sustainability plan at a joint meeting held at J. Lohr Vineyards & Wines on March 19, calling its target for a 29 percent reduction in basin pumping unreasonable and economically dangerous.
The districts—Shandon-San Juan Water District and Estrella-El Pomar-Creston Water District—represent some of the biggest agricultural players in the North County and more than 150,000 acres of land. … ”
Read more from New Times San Luis Obispo here: North County water districts unhappy with direction of Paso basin plan
Report says Napa County’s 2018 groundwater levels stable
“Napa Valley’s annual groundwater checkup concluded that water levels in a majority of monitoring wells were stable in spring 2018, despite a drop in overall groundwater storage following a subpar rainy season.
The valley’s vast underground reservoir that farmers tap to irrigate the region’s world-famous vineyards held an estimated 210,000 acre-feet of water. That’s about seven times as much water contained in a full Lake Hennessey. … ”
Read more from the Napa Register here: Report says Napa County’s 2018 groundwater levels stable
Livermore: Wet winter helps replenish groundwater supplies
“With our streams and rivers running fast and high and all the snow piling up in the High Sierra, it certainly looks like California is well out of the drought, but what about beneath the surface?
“Right now our basin, fortunately, is at 98 percent full,” said Carol Mahoney, Manager of Integrated Water Services for Zone 7, the water supply and flood control agency that serves Livermore and the Amador Valley. … ”
Read more from KGO here: Wet winter helps replenish groundwater supplies
Owens Valley Groundwater Authority mulls budget
“After skipping its February meeting to figure out staffing, the Owens Valley Groundwater Authority had a chance to mull over its draft budget for this fiscal year. This budget takes into consideration some unknowns when the initial budget was developed prior to the official formation of the Authority.
The biggest unknown was the grant application to cover the consultant’s cost to come up with a Groundwater Sustainability Plan. The OVGA got the grant and will now use member contributions to cover staff and other miscellaneous costs. … ”
Read more from Sierra Wave here: Owens Valley Groundwater Authority mulls budget
Bill Patzert says not so fast with declaring drought over; groundwater recovery could take years
“We’re having one of the best rainfall seasons in years, with drought conditions easing for much of the state. But one of the nation’s leading oceanographers says there’s much more involved before the impacts of the drought are completely gone, and that it could take years to replenish groundwater supplies.
Former NASA oceanographer Dr. Bill Patzert says while we had the possibility of El Nino conditions going into the rainfall season, which could have magnified rain amounts, it didn’t happen. Patzert says El Nino was “El No-Show”. … ”
Read more from KCLU here: Patzert says not so fast with declaring drought over; groundwater recovery could take years
ASU scientists using latest space technology to assess the health of a large aquifer system in California’s San Joaquin Valley
“A team of Arizona State University scientists has been using the latest space technology, combined with ground measurements, to assess the health of one of the nation’s most important sources of underground water, a large aquifer system located in California’s San Joaquin Valley.
The team, comprised of School of Earth and Space Exploration researchers Chandrakanta Ojha, Susanna Werth and Manoochehr Shirzaei, focused on the San Joaquin Valley’s most recent drought period, from 2012 to 2015, measuring both groundwater loss and aquifer storage loss. The results of their findings have been recently published in the Journal of Geophysical Research. … ”
Read more from Arizona State University here: ASU scientists using latest space technology to assess the health of a large aquifer system in California’s San Joaquin Valley
Community participation in Groundwater Sustainability: Ventura County
“Candice Meneghin serves on the board of the Fillmore and Piru Basins (FPB) Groundwater Sustainability Agency as an environmental representative for the Santa Clara River Environmental Groundwater Committee. She also serves on the board of a local nonprofit, Friends of the Santa Clara River, which both fills the Groundwater Sustainability Agency (GSA) seat as the environmental lead for the committee on the Fillmore and Piru Basins GSA, and fills the environmental representative seat on the Mound Basin GSA on the low Santa Clara River.
She spoke to Clean Water Action’s communications manager about her work representing environmental interests in the Groundwater Sustainability Plan (GSP) process. … ”
Read more from the We All Live Downstream blog here: Community participation in Groundwater Sustainability: Ventura County
Is U.S. Groundwater Quality Getting Better or Worse? It’s Hard to Say
“After nearly three decades of groundwater monitoring, the federal government’s foremost Earth science agency has collected enough data to begin identifying long-term pollution trends in the country’s largest aquifers. A few trends, that is, but not many.
Two clear patterns that the U.S. Geological Survey’s National Water Quality Assessment found are that concentrations of chloride and sodium are climbing nationally, while in farm regions in California and southern Georgia, nitrate levels have increased. … ”
Read more from Circle of Blue here: Is U.S. Groundwater Quality Getting Better or Worse? It’s Hard to Say
Friant Water Authority: FWA: Strathmore flooding not the result of canal subsidence or overflow
“The Friant Water Authority Tuesday morning issued the following statement regarding the flooding in Strathmore last weekend with the hope of clearing up some possible misunderstandings as to the cause of the flooding:
“The flooding experienced in a residential neighborhood in Strathmore near the Friant-Kern Canal over the weekend is not due to overtopping of the Friant-Kern Canal’s banks — which did not occur — and is also not related to subsidence problems or conveyance restrictions on the Friant-Kern Canal, but rather to drainage from Frazier Creek. The Friant-Kern Canal’s integrity has not been compromised. … ”
Read more from the Porterville Recorder here: Friant Water Authority: FWA: Strathmore flooding not the result of canal subsidence or overflow
Paso Robles groundwater committee seeks public input on supply projects, pumping fees
“North County political leaders responsible for the health of the Paso Robles Groundwater Basin are launching discussions about which multi-million-dollar water projects could help solve the aquifer’s woes—and how basin pumpers will pay for them.
In the future, the basin, which serves much of Paso Robles wine country, could start receiving water from the State Water Project, Lake Nacimiento, and/or the Salinas Dam. … ”
Read more from New Times SLO here: Paso Robles groundwater committee seeks public input on supply projects, pumping fees