Despite state-mandated regulation, vast stores of groundwater have disappeared from the Colorado River Basin and the Ogallala Aquifer. The water is gone for a simple reason: More has been taken out than has come in. The simple notion of overdrafting—taking more from an account than has been put in— is something people learn early on when it comes to checking accounts. “Money in minus money out” is the basis for […]
Environment
Coming Soon to a Well Near You
Until last year, California was the only state without regulations for pumping groundwater. Many thought new rules would remedy problems brought about by overdrafting. They overlooked the fact that even in states with groundwater regulation, major aquifers have been depleted beyond recovery in any reasonable time frame. The great Ogallala Aquifer, which covers parts of eight Midwestern states, has been severely depleted. In Kansas, one study estimated that in order […]
Limit Drone Use in the Valley
Internet giant Amazon is proposing package delivery using drones. As envisioned, the drones would fly day and night. Unfortunately, the more drones are used, the more evident the hazards. In the Valley, he potential for life-threatening accidents is greater than in many other parts of the country. Stanislaus County is a typical Valley county. It has several small airports, including ones in Modesto, Oakdale, Turlock, and Crows Landing. There are […]
Water, History, and the Environment: Part III
Fact? Fiction? What’s the diff? Even though the state has mandated sustainable use of groundwater resources, there’s still a lot of misinformation about groundwater, rivers, and aquifers. Sometimes the misinformation appears in mainstream media and adds to public confusion about the harm caused by overdrafting groundwater. That’s what happened in a recent Modesto Bee opinion piece by Janie Gatzman. Gatzman is an appraiser with American AgCredit. In “Orchards on the […]
Water, History, and the Environment: Part II
History? Not around here… “Like most environmentalists, they want it all,” said Oakdale Irrigation District (OID) General Manager Steve Knell recently when discussing water rights along the Stanislaus River. Though absurd on the face of it, Knell’s claim represents a widespread belief throughout the San Joaquin Valley, where environmental illiteracy and historical amnesia have enabled private appropriation of public resources since the days of the gold rush. The simple fact […]
Water, History, and the Environment: Part I
When local residents met in Knights Ferry last month to discuss the effects of the almond boom on their quality of life, the emphasis was on domestic wells running dry, but there were many other concerns. One that received little media attention was the effects of almond orchards on wildlife. “Your people are shooting the deer,” said one man who lives near orchards owned by Trinitas Partners. “We used to […]
Pawns in the Water Game
Dr. Vance Kennedy was visiting Modesto Reservoir in eastern Stanislaus County last week when someone asked him what the likelihood is that almond orchards around the reservoir are pumping water from the reservoir via seepage into nearby aquifers. “One-hundred percent,” replied Kennedy. Kennedy retired from the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) after winning its highest possible award. His special expertise is in tracing sediments in water, but he’s well versed in […]
Why Water Needs CEQA
The pipes extend in all directions from their exoskeleton pumping arrays, each one entering the ground like the alien proboscis of an off-world insect. Some of the arrays have as many as seven or eight 300 horsepower pumps, each one capable of lifting thousands of gallons of water a minute. These powerful pumping systems are the signature apparatus of the industrial almond orchard, a favored investment of speculators looking for, […]
The Water Sale Mirage
Among the most sacred shibboleths of the water world’s power elite, none is more revered than the one that proclaims, “Water sales are wise and beneficial.” Of course, no member in good standing of water’s movers and shakers would ever refer to “water sales,” a vulgar and much too accurate description. The proper terminology is “water transfers.” As is often the case with euphemisms, the purpose is to conceal an […]
Fresno County’s Water Follies
The latest production of the San Joaquin Valley water follies issues from the Fresno County Board of Supervisors, who’ve taken it upon themselves to ask Governor Brown, “to take even more stringent actions to be directed at reducing the state’s water consumption by imposing curtailments [of?] water supplies currently dedicated to the environment and fishery habitat that are comparable to those now being mandated and burdening urban and agricultural contractors […]