California Coastkeeper v. County of Sonoma

Superior Court of California, County of Sonoma | June 21st, 2021

California's Central Valley Groundwater Wells Run Dry During Recent Drought

American Geophysical Union (AGU) | February 27th, 2020

Declining water tables are causing wells to run dry in California, but the prevalence and spatial distribution of wells that have run dry are not known beyond anecdotal a

Declining water tables are causing wells to run dry in California, but the prevalence and spatial distribution of wells that have run dry are not known beyond anecdotal and voluntary reports. Here, we apply a new, simple, and measurement‐driven method to calculate a localized water table; we show, for the first time using observations, that up to one‐in‐five wells now runs dry in California's Central Valley. The spatial distribution of wells identified as having dried up replicates hot spots of wells identified as having run dry in a voluntary reporting system, while also capturing impacts on groundwater wells that have not reportedly run dry. We assess the rates of drilling throughout the Central Valley and find, surprisingly, that domestic wells are being drilled deeper at a rate that exceeds agricultural wells across much of the central Central Valley. Because new groundwater wells are costly (i.e., $10,000 to $100,000), we suggest explicitly considering dry wells in groundwater sustainability planning to protect homes and farms from the loss of access to reliable water supplies in the future.

California's Groundwater Conditions: Semi-Annual Update May 2025

California Department of Water Resources (DWR) | June 24th, 2025

This semi-annual report presents data received by DWR as of April 2025 and reflects the impacts of a few wet years after a drought period. However, it should be noted tha

This semi-annual report presents data received by DWR as of April 2025 and reflects the impacts of a few wet years after a drought period. However, it should be noted that groundwater response is a slow process and may take months to years to fully respond to changes in surface water conditions. This report is the latest in a series of Semi-Annual Groundwater Conditions Updates, last published in October 2024. These updates are part of the informational resources associated with DWR’s California’s Groundwater (Bulletin 118). The most recent groundwater data is available on the California’s Groundwater Live website, which is updated daily as data is received by DWR. Additional data and information are available in the CNRA Open Data and Water Data Library websites.

California’s groundwater overdraft: An environmental Ponzi scheme?

Journal of Hydrology (Elsevier) | January 23rd, 2023

Groundwater levels have been decreasing in most agricultural areas, motivating research to find optimal solutions to balance socio-economical and environmental demands. T

Groundwater levels have been decreasing in most agricultural areas, motivating research to find optimal solutions to balance socio-economical and environmental demands. Traditionally, groundwater optimization aims at long-term profit maximization, while accounting for the extraction costs. Following this approach, we find exploitation protocols characterized by pumping rates that slowly decrease in time toward a long-term sustainable value. However, the comparison of the model prediction with water extraction data for the period 1985–2021 from Kern County in California points out the inconsistencies between real management and long-term optimal behavior. Rather, the observed trajectory resembles those obtained by finite-time optimization horizons, which provide short-term high profits by over-drafting, while leading to long-term dilapidation of the capital and the exhaustion of the aquifer. Such myopic planning results in a Ponzi scheme for groundwater extraction. Like the infamous fraudulent scheme, ‘more-than-optimal’ profits are achievable by excessive short-term consumption by the early investors (the past and current aquifer exploiters), leaving the later comers (the future generations) with an impossible cost to sustain. Including the environmental costs of aquifer over-exploitation, the myopic nature of human planning can be corrected and reconciled with a more sustainable use of groundwater.

California’s Severe Drought Has Only Marginal Impacts on Food Prices

University of California Giannini Foundation of Agricultural Economics | May 14th, 2015

The extreme drought that has gripped California over the past several years is causing onerous adjustments in the natural and human environments. Agriculture, which uses

The extreme drought that has gripped California over the past several years is causing onerous adjustments in the natural and human environments. Agriculture, which uses much of the state’s water, is at the center of many of these arduous responses. The 2015 impacts of the continuing drought are still underway, but in this special Agriculture and Resource Economics Update issue, we project responses and consequences within agriculture and more broadly. In this issue, Hanak and Mount put this drought in the context of California’s history and put agriculture in the context of water institutions, management, and distribution throughout the state. Next, Medellin-Azuara and co-authors develop detailed, and albeit preliminary, assessments of 2015 irrigation water distribution. They estimate a cut to agriculture of about 8.8 million acre-feet, or about 30% of what might be available in a normal year. (This number may be an underestimate given recent events.) During droughts, farms increase groundwater pumping. The authors estimate that farmers and ranchers will replace about 6.2 million acre-feet of lost surface water deliveries with costly increases in groundwater pumping, where possible in 2015. Another painful response to drought is to leave land idle. The authors estimate about 564,000 more acres, mostly field crop land in the Central Valley (including irrigated pastures), will be idled in 2015. This too may be an underestimate. USDA reported on June 30, that 2015 California acreage of “principal crops,” (defined as field crops such as hay, grains, oilseeds, cotton and potatoes) is about 900,000 acres below the 2013 total of about four million acres. Over this period, tree nut and tomato acreage increased by about 180,000 acres. So, even accounting for the steady shift to tree nuts and some other higher revenue per acre (and per acre-foot) crops, there is a strong indication of severely accelerated reductions in field crop acreage in California. The economic toll of the drought is fewer jobs and smaller value of output and economic contribution that would have otherwise occurred. Based on 564,000 idled acres, Howitt et al. estimates farm revenue losses of $1.8 billion, economy-wide revenue losses of $2.7 billion, and 18,600 fewer jobs due to the agricultural drought. That these economic impacts are not even larger is a testament to the extraordinary efforts and innovations by farmers, and others in California agriculture. Idling land, shifting water across crops, and using each acre-foot more economically all have led to smaller losses of revenue and jobs, and only very small price increases for consumers.

California’s Sustainable Groundwater Management Act and the Half-Exemption of Owens Valley Groundwater Basin

University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) | May 1st, 2024

This Comment first uses historical accounts and secondary sources to describe the history of Owens Valley groundwater. It next describes the Governing Documents that curr

This Comment first uses historical accounts and secondary sources to describe the history of Owens Valley groundwater. It next describes the Governing Documents that currently manage this groundwater. It ends its history by relying on the content of OVGA meetings to tell the recent story of SGMA’s implementation in Owens Valley.

Case History No. 9.14. Santa Clara Valley, California, U.S.A.

United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) | June 30th, 1984

Center for Biological Diversity vs. Lincoln County Water District

Nevada Appellate Courts | January 25th, 2024

This case examines whether the State Engineer has the authority to redesignate multiple existing hydrographic basins as one "superbasin" based on a shared source of water

This case examines whether the State Engineer has the authority to redesignate multiple existing hydrographic basins as one "superbasin" based on a shared source of water for purposes of the water's administration and management. We also look at whether the State Engineer complied with due process in creating the superbasin at issue here.

Central and West Basin Water Replenishment District, etc. v. Charles E. Adams, et al

Superior Court of California, County of Los Angeles | December 23rd, 2013

Note from “An Evaluation of California’s Adjudicated Groundwater Basins” by Langridge et al: "Third Amendment Judgment to the Central Basin adjudication ... allo

Note from “An Evaluation of California’s Adjudicated Groundwater Basins” by Langridge et al: "Third Amendment Judgment to the Central Basin adjudication ... allowed parties holding water rights to store water in the Central Basin for later recovery; DWR was replaced with a new Watermaster consisting of three separate arms with different functions: Administrative Body, Water Rights Panel, and a Storage Panel."

Central Kings Groundwater Sustainability Agency Groundwater Sustainability Plan

Central Kings Groundwater Sustainability Agency (CKGSA) | December 11th, 2019