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.”
In a fast-paced trip through the evolution of California’s water rights, attorney Valerie Kincaid explained how the system has gone from the “wild, wild west” to one pervaded by ever greater government creep.
By expanding its authorities under what had been thought of as several limited court decisions, state government is now essentially dictating operations on several watersheds, has ignored priority rights and is on the verge of amassing even more control under the guise of “modernization,” Kincaid told a packed room during a Water Association of Kern County luncheon on Tuesday the Water Board.
https://wnn.brainshine.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/WNN-Horizontal-White-Blue2.png00Gayle Falkenthalhttps://wnn.brainshine.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/WNN-Horizontal-White-Blue2.pngGayle Falkenthal2022-09-28 09:39:282022-09-28 10:13:09Opinion: Speaker: Government Control Creeping Ever Further Into Water Rights
Most Californians are feeling the effects of the drought. But in areas of the state where people rely on groundwater, such as the San Joaquin Valley, the pain of this drought is especially severe. Wells are going dry and there’s intense competition to find and pull more water from underground.
https://wnn.brainshine.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/WNN-Horizontal-White-Blue2.png00Chelsea Camposhttps://wnn.brainshine.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/WNN-Horizontal-White-Blue2.pngChelsea Campos2022-09-15 10:26:442022-09-15 10:50:59The Mad Rush for Groundwater in the Central Valley
A new video illustrating the role and the value of groundwater has been released by the Vallecitos Water District.
“The Value of Water: Groundwater” was produced for World Water Week 2022 through a collaboration with the Vallecitos Water District, the California Department of Water Resources, and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency WaterSense.
https://wnn.brainshine.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/WNN-Horizontal-White-Blue2.png00Mike Leehttps://wnn.brainshine.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/WNN-Horizontal-White-Blue2.pngMike Lee2022-08-24 10:07:272022-08-24 10:09:24World Water Week 2022: Partnership Video Illustrates Value of Groundwater
A new video illustrating the role and the value of groundwater has been released by the Vallecitos Water District.
“The Value of Water: Groundwater” was produced for World Water Week 2022 through a collaboration with the Vallecitos Water District, the California Department of Water Resources, and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency WaterSense.
World Water Week is from August 23 through September 1. World Water Week is an annual event focusing on water issues hosted by the Stockholm International Water Institute. It focuses on exploring new ways of managing water and addressing challenges facing agriculture, technology, biodiversity, and climate change. This year’s theme is “seeing the unseen, and the value of water.”
Vallecitos Public Information Representative Alicia Yerman, who produced the video, said the goal was to depict the 2022 World Water Week theme. DWR provided photography, and both DWR and EPA WaterSense experts advised on the video and reviewed it for accuracy.
Groundwater is a vital resource
“California’s groundwater basins are a critical part of the state’s water supply, especially during a severe drought like the one we’re currently experiencing,” said Paul Gosselin, Deputy Director of the Sustainable Groundwater Management office at the California DWR. “However, since groundwater is out of sight, it tends to be out of mind for most people. We appreciate Vallecitos Water District’s efforts to educate the public about this vital resource during World Water Week.”
Use water wisely
“It’s so important for people to understand where their water comes from because it helps motivate them to value and use it wisely,” said Veronica Blette, EPA WaterSense program manager. “This new Vallecitos Water District video highlighting the hidden treasure of groundwater and other videos they have produced do a great job of showing why water is important and how people can preserve and protect it.”
World Water Week 2022 video
Groundwater helps sustain California’s ecosystems, supports agriculture, fuels the economy, and reduces the impacts of drought and changing climate. Groundwater accounts for 40% of the state’s total annual water supply in normal years and almost 60% in drought years. DWR developed California’s Groundwater Live featuring the latest groundwater information, live statistics, and a series of interactive dashboards accessed through its website.
In 2019, VWD began using video to document the district’s workforce and infrastructure improvements on its social media platforms. The water district has also engaged the public with discussions of critically important water management issues. It has won multiple awards for its work. The Vallecitos Water District also offers live video of its board meetings and other public discussions on its YouTube channel.
(Editor’s note: The Vallecitos Water District is one of the San Diego County Water Authority’s 24 member agencies that deliver water across the metropolitan San Diego region.)
https://wnn.brainshine.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/World-Water-Week-Graphic-845X450.jpg450845Gayle Falkenthalhttps://wnn.brainshine.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/WNN-Horizontal-White-Blue2.pngGayle Falkenthal2022-08-23 16:20:102022-08-23 16:20:10World Water Week 2022: Partnership Video Illustrates Value of Groundwater
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.
https://wnn.brainshine.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/WNN-Horizontal-White-Blue2.png00Gayle Falkenthalhttps://wnn.brainshine.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/WNN-Horizontal-White-Blue2.pngGayle Falkenthal2022-08-15 11:08:542022-08-15 12:43:47California County Sees 11 New Dry Wells Reported in Past Month
California Gov. Gavin Newsom today unveiled a broad strategy for bolstering the state’s water supply that includes targets to recycle more water, expand reservoir storage and collect more data on the amounts farmers use.
Newsom warned that new strategies are essential because California’s water supply will shrink by 10% as climate change brings warmer, drier conditions throughout the state.
https://wnn.brainshine.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/WNN-Horizontal-White-Blue2.png00Mike Leehttps://wnn.brainshine.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/WNN-Horizontal-White-Blue2.pngMike Lee2022-08-12 10:14:572022-08-12 12:14:15Newsom Unveils Long-Term Strategy to Bolster California Water Supply
The San Joaquin Valley is California’s largest agricultural region, but it’s facing an uncertain future. A combination of persistent drought and the rollout of California’s Sustainable Groundwater Management Act will increase regional water scarcity in the coming decades. Water scarcity will have a major effect on land use: At least half a million acres are projected to come out of irrigated production in the San Joaquin Valley by 2040.
California water prices are at all-time high as a severe drought chokes off supplies to cities and farms across the Golden State.
The price of water on the Nasdaq Veles California Water Index touched $1,144.14 an acre-foot on June 27 — up 56% since the start of the year. The index tracks the average price of water-rights transactions in five markets in the state.
https://wnn.brainshine.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/WNN-Horizontal-White-Blue2.png00Mike Leehttps://wnn.brainshine.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/WNN-Horizontal-White-Blue2.pngMike Lee2022-08-02 09:40:292022-08-02 09:51:42Worsening Drought Drives California Water Prices to All-Time High
As I drive across my family’s farm in the San Joaquin Valley, it feels as if I’m traveling on a chessboard. I cross one square with crops and then another without crops — our fields that must lay fallow. Our farm’s crops have been decimated by the drought.
Last year, reduced water deliveries in the state led to 395,000 acres of cropland being idled, according to UC Merced researchers, and about 8,750 agricultural workers lost their jobs.
https://wnn.brainshine.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/WNN-Horizontal-White-Blue2.png00Mike Leehttps://wnn.brainshine.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/WNN-Horizontal-White-Blue2.pngMike Lee2022-07-26 10:10:372022-07-26 10:25:39Opinion: The Drought is Decimating My Farm and Many Others. What California Should Do to Help Us
