• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

The Valley Citizen

Nature, Environment, History & Politics

The Valley Citizen

  • Arts
  • Education
  • Environment
  • History
  • Nature
  • Politics
  • Wit
  • About
  • RSS Icon

Critical Care for Groundwater?

December 2, 2014 By Eric Caine 1 Comment

Valley Citizen Sal Salerno
Valley Citizen Sal Salerno

“Sustainability is the 21st century IQ test,” said Brad Barker, “and you can’t keep postponing your way to sustainability.”

Barker, Conservation Chair for Yokuts Sierra Club, was speaking at last Tuesday’s meeting of the Stanislaus County Board of Supervisors. The agenda item concerned approval of a newly-revised groundwater ordinance.

Barker was one among many who thought the supervisors had waited too long to regulate pumping groundwater on the county’s east side where tens of thousands of acres of almond orchards have covered former rangeland with no access to surface water.

One of the more controversial elements of the ordinance requires anyone outside an irrigation district who wants to drill a large well to “prove” sustainability.

“There’s no way we can calculate what the sustainability is,” said Sean Roddy, a well-driller who operates Hennings Bros. Drilling Company in Modesto. “The strata we’re pumping are hydrologically and geologically different.”

Roddy and others believe there’s not yet enough reliable data to justify regulations for pumping groundwater. He’s also among a dwindling minority who think the groundwater crisis has been over-hyped.

“The sky is not falling,” he said. “There’s a cyclical constant. Some areas do show sustainability.”

The sky may not be falling, but the water table is, and not just in Stanislaus County. Satellite data show severely overdrafted basins from the Ogallala Aquifer, to the Colorado River Basin, through most of the San Joaquin Valley. And even though it has rivers on three sides and one of the Valley’s last thick and saturated aquifers on its east side, Stanislaus County is poised to join others who’ve managed to deplete what once were thought of as inexhaustible water supplies.

Stanislaus Audubon Society President Sal Salerno joined a growing number of citizens concerned not only about overdrafting groundwater but also about the loss of rangeland.

“Someone recently characterized the overdrafting of groundwater by corporate almond growers as akin to agricultural strip mining, and we fear that is an accurate analogy,” he said. “The diminishing groundwater belongs to all of the people, not only for large corporations that have the wealth to drill the deepest and largest wells.”

“The conversion of rangelands by permanent crops is not only a critical issue for people, but also for wildlife. Our grasslands support California’s most abundant populations of wintering hawks, falcons and eagles from the Arctic tundra, as well as such year-round species as Tricolored Blackbirds and Burrowing Owls. People are not the only inhabitants of the planet. Wildlife has an intrinsic right to exist, but people need to speak up for and protect that right.”

Before approving the ordinance, every Stanislaus County Supervisor acknowledged the severity of the situation. Supervisor Terry Withrow likened the groundwater crisis to critical care:

“I look at the first version of the ordinance as stabilizing the patient,” he said. “The ultimate goal is to cure the patient.”

Curing “the patient” will take more resolve than has been shown in other regions when authorities were faced with the responsibility of shutting down pumps. The one inescapable fact about groundwater that virtually no one wants to face was expressed by Supervisor Jim DeMartini just before all five supervisors voted in favor of the new ordinance:

“You can’t have thirty thousand acres of rangeland converted to permanent crops and not have an impact on groundwater,” he said. “It’s a finite supply.”

Today, one of the most water-rich counties in the San Joaquin Valley is faced with the growing prospect of becoming as water-poor as counties farther south, mostly because the “finite supply” is being exhausted at a pace no amount of rain or snowfall can replace.As long as the new ordinance does nothing to limit pumping for wells already in production, the “patient” isn’t really stabilized—hemorrhaging is ongoing and critical.

 

 

 

Filed Under: Environment, Featured Tagged With: Almond Orchards eastern Stanislaus County, eastern Stanislaus County orchards, Stanislaus County groundwater

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Anita Young says

    December 3, 2014 at 6:26 am

    And HOW many new drilling permits have been submitted before last week’s deadline? What kind of situation will we be facing if all those permits are OKed and orchard owners are allowed to install wells, especially the large bore wells that pump such an ungodly amount of groundwater?

    The public needs to insist on pumping data from all wells, and not anonymous data, either. If it is OK to use this much water, the orchard owners need to stop hiding their use. You only hide if you have something to hide, and you know that telling the truth will make many people unhappy.

    My gratitude to Brad Barker, Sal Salerno and others who continue to speak up about water use in Stanislaus County. Remember when we used to rally around farmland preservation? This issue – unlimited pumping of our aquafer – is even more important. Let’s all work to keep Stanislaus County, and the entire San Joaquin Valley, from becoming a dust bowl and flat-lining our economy.

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Note: Some comments may be held for moderation.

Primary Sidebar

Off The Wire

Californians: Here's why your housing costs are so high
Californians: Here’s why your housing costs are so high
Half the state’s households struggle to afford the roof over their heads. Here’s what you need to know about one of California’s most vexing issues.
calmatters.org
Las Vegas Pushes to Become First City to Ban Ornamental Grass
Las Vegas Pushes to Become First City to Ban Ornamental Grass
A desert city built on a reputation for excess and indulgence wants to become a model for restraint and conservation with a first-in-the-nation policy banning grass that nobody walks on. Las Vegas-area water officials have spent two decades trying to get people to replace thirsty greenery with desert plants, and now they’re asking the Nevada Legislature to outlaw roughly 40% of the turf that’s left. The Southern Nevada Water Authority estimates there are almost 8 square miles (21 square kilometers) of “nonfunctional turf” in the metro area, grass that no one ever walks on or otherwise uses in
www.voanews.com
Half of Republicans believe false accounts of deadly U.S. Capitol riot-Reuters/Ipsos poll
Half of Republicans believe false accounts of deadly U.S. Capitol riot-Reuters/Ipsos poll
Since the deadly Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, former President Donald Trump and his Republican allies have pushed false and misleading accounts to downplay the event that left five dead and scores of others wounded. His supporters appear to have listened.
www.reuters.com
Inside the Koch-Backed Effort to Block the Largest Election-Reform Bill in Half a Century
Inside the Koch-Backed Effort to Block the Largest Election-Reform Bill in Half a Century
On a leaked conference call, leaders of dark-money groups and an aide to Mitch McConnell expressed frustration with the popularity of the legislation, even among Republican voters.
www.newyorker.com
New Zealand raises minimum wage to $20 an hour
New Zealand raises minimum wage to $20 an hour
Taxes on the richest New Zealanders are being raised
www.independent.co.uk
The Invisible Asylum | City Journal
The Invisible Asylum | City Journal
Olympia, Washington, is a microcosm of the problems created by the emptying of mental hospitals.
www.city-journal.org
California needs affordable housing. Could these bills help? | CalMatters
California needs affordable housing. Could these bills help? | CalMatters
Key legislators push duplexes, looser regulations and more money to boost housing supply.
calmatters.org
The rich-poor gap in America is obscene. So let's fix it – here's how | Bernie Sanders
The rich-poor gap in America is obscene. So let’s fix it – here’s how | Bernie Sanders
While working people toil, the richest have never have it so good. It’s time to fight back – our democracy depends on it
www.theguardian.com
Sen. Bernie Sanders' Next Progressive Frontier: Reshaping A 'Rigged' Tax System
Sen. Bernie Sanders’ Next Progressive Frontier: Reshaping A ‘Rigged’ Tax System
Sanders will introduce legislation Thursday to restore the corporate tax rate to 35% and add a new progressive tax on the estates of the wealthiest Americans.
www.npr.org
Perspective | Five myths about poverty
Perspective | Five myths about poverty
No, it’s not just an inner city problem. And it’s not the result of individual failure.
www.washingtonpost.com
Los Angeles police clash with protesters in fight to evict major homeless encampment
Los Angeles police clash with protesters in fight to evict major homeless encampment
Echo Park Lake site has become a battleground in the city’s worsening housing and homelessness crisis during the pandemic
www.theguardian.com
The High Stakes in the Amazon Union Fight in Alabama - The Bulwark
The High Stakes in the Amazon Union Fight in Alabama – The Bulwark
It’s about workplace democracy, and could affect not just the tech giant’s employees but those of other firms.
thebulwark.com

Find us on Facebook

The Valley Citizen
PO Box 156
Downtown Bear Postal
1509 K Street
Modesto, CA 95354

Email us at:
thevalleycitizen@sbcglobal.net

Footer

The Valley Citizen
PO Box 156
Downtown Bear Postal
1509 K Street
Modesto, CA 95354

Email us at:
thevalleycitizen@sbcglobal.net

Subscribe for Free

* indicates required

Search

• Privacy Policy

Copyright © 2021 The Valley Citizen

Dedicated to the memory of John Michael Flint. Contact us at thevalleycitizen@sbcglobal.net

Editor and publisher: Eric Caine

Website customization and maintenance by Susan Henley Design