Grassland Groundwater Sustainability Agency Revised Groundwater Sustainability Plan

Grassland Groundwater Sustainability Agency (GGSA) | July 8th, 2022

This GSP, including the Common Chapter, has been revised (changes are shown in Appendix G) to address items of concern raised by DWR in its initial “Incomplete” Deter

This GSP, including the Common Chapter, has been revised (changes are shown in Appendix G) to address items of concern raised by DWR in its initial “Incomplete” Determination Letter dated January 21, 2022. Every effort was made to ensure that this revised GSP and the revised Common Chapter are consistent. In the event of an inconsistency, the revised Common Chapter controls. The Grassland Plan Area will continue to be sustainable by maintaining the historically balanced groundwater system in order to avoid causing significant and unreasonable undesirable impacts to beneficial users of groundwater as they relate to the six sustainability indicators. The Plan Area participants are committed to continued coordination with neighboring GSP areas and neighboring subbasins in order to aid in the localized and statewide groundwater sustainability goals as defined by each GSP and Subbasin. Due to size, this file has been divided. Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7

Gravelley Ford Water District Groundwater Sustainability Plan

Gravelly Ford Water District (GFWD) | August 12th, 2019

Gravelly Ford Water District Groundwater Sustainability Plan

Gravelly Ford Water District (GFWD) | March 19th, 2023

In 2022, the Technical representatives for the four GSPs representing the seven GSAs in the Madera Basin started meeting to revise the four GSP Plans to resolve deficienc

In 2022, the Technical representatives for the four GSPs representing the seven GSAs in the Madera Basin started meeting to revise the four GSP Plans to resolve deficiencies identified by the DWR in their review of the four GSP plans as stated in the September 2022 Incomplete determination letter. During the period from September 2022 through March 2023 the group also had meetings with DWR staff to establish direction on the recommendations in the DWR Incomplete letter. This Incomplete letter established a 180-day period to provide a revised GSP to address the deficiencies. The Technical group developed a corrective action plan to address the items identified by DWR staff in the Incomplete letter to address the noted deficiencies. During the last quarter of 2022 and the first quarter of 2023 the four GSPs revised their individual plans to coordinate approaches and methodologies that would provide similar language and approach across the Madera Subbasin, those items being: • Resolve the potential deficiencies identified by DWR in their September 2022 incomplete determination letter, and discussed during five DWR consultation meetings between November 2022 and January 2023; • Summarize the progressive implementation actions taken by the GSAs since submission of the GSP in January 2020; • Recognize the Madera Subbasin GSAs’ clear and formal commitment to fund and implement a Domestic Well Mitigation Program beginning no later than January 1, 2024, including the execution of a memorandum of understanding (MOU); and • Reaffirm their commitment to implementing the GSP and achieving sustainable groundwater conditions by 2040.

Gravelly Ford Water District Groundwater Sustainability Plan

Gravelly Ford Water District (GFWD) | June 28th, 2022

This Plan is for the Gravelly Ford Groundwater Sustainability Area, one of seven components of the Madera Subbasin. It encompasses approximately 8,500 acres; its boundari

This Plan is for the Gravelly Ford Groundwater Sustainability Area, one of seven components of the Madera Subbasin. It encompasses approximately 8,500 acres; its boundaries are coterminous with those of the Gravelly Ford Water District (District). Grape vineyards, nut tree groves, and on-farm rural residences are the only land uses in the Area. The District has from the beginning bee’n a conjunctive use operation with the import of surface water for both recharge and irrigation. The management of this operation has been to utilize the maximum amount of available surface waters prior to using groundwater for the production of crops.

Greater Kaweah Groundwater Sustainability Agency 2022 First Amended Groundwater Susteainability Plan

Greater Kaweah Groundwater Sustainability Agency (GKGSA) | July 20th, 2022

Due to size, this file has been divided. Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7, Part 8, Part 9, Part 10

Due to size, this file has been divided. Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7, Part 8, Part 9, Part 10

Greenhouse gas emissions from US irrigation pumping and implications for climate-smart irrigation policy

Nature Portfolio (Springer Nature) | January 23rd, 2024

Ground water and climate change

Nature Portfolio (Springer Nature) | November 25th, 2012

As the world's largest distributed store of fresh water, ground water plays a central part in sustaining ecosystems and enabling human adaptation to climate variability a

As the world's largest distributed store of fresh water, ground water plays a central part in sustaining ecosystems and enabling human adaptation to climate variability and change. The strategic importance of ground water for global water and food security will probably intensify under climate change as more frequent and intense climate extremes (droughts and floods) increase variability in precipitation, soil moisture and surface water. Here we critically review recent research assessing the impacts of climate on ground water through natural and human-induced processes as well as through groundwater-driven feedbacks on the climate system. Furthermore, we examine the possible opportunities and challenges of using and sustaining groundwater resources in climate adaptation strategies, and highlight the lack of groundwater observations, which, at present, limits our understanding of the dynamic relationship between ground water and climate.

Ground Water Flow in a Desert Basin: Challenges of Simulating Transport of Dissolved Chromium

National Groundwater Association (NGWA) | December 13th, 2005

A large chromium plume that evolved from chromium releases in a valley near the Mojave River was studied to understand the processes controlling fate and migration of chr

A large chromium plume that evolved from chromium releases in a valley near the Mojave River was studied to understand the processes controlling fate and migration of chromium in ground water and used as a tracer to study the dynamics of a basin and range ground water system. The valley that was studied is naturally arid with high evapotranspiration such that essentially no precipitation infiltrates to the water table. The dominant natural hydrogeologic processes are recharge to the ground water system from the Mojave River during the infrequent episodes when there is flow in the river, and ground water flow toward a playa lake where the ground water evaporates. Agricultural pumping in the valley from the mid‐1930s to the 1970s significantly altered ground water flow conditions by decreasing water levels in the valley by more than 20 m. This pumping declined significantly as a result of dewatering of the aquifer, and water levels have since recovered modestly. The ground water system was modeled using MODFLOW, and chromium transport was simulated using MT3D. Several innovative modifications were made to these modeling programs to simulate important processes in this ground water system. Modifications to MODFLOW include developing a new well package that estimates pumping rates from irrigation wells at each time step based on available drawdown. MT3D was modified to account for mass trapped above the water table when the water table declines beneath nonirrigated areas and to redistribute mass to the system when water levels rise.

Ground water in Pahrump, Mesquite, and Ivanpah Valleys, Nevada and California

U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) | July 1st, 1921

Ground Water in the Central Valley, California - A Summary Report

U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) | June 1st, 1991

The agricultural productivity of the Central Valley depends on irrigation. Half of the 22 million acre-feet of irrigation water applied annually is ground water. The va

The agricultural productivity of the Central Valley depends on irrigation. Half of the 22 million acre-feet of irrigation water applied annually is ground water. The valley is a long, narrow structural trough filled with about 32,000 feet of sediment in the south and as much as 50,000 feet in the north. Nearly all the fresh ground water is contained in the continental rocks and deposits younger than Eocene age. Streamflow, an important factor in recharging the aquifer system, is influenced by precipitation in the mountains surrounding the valley. The majority of recharge from infiltration of streamflow occurs on the east side of the valley. Ground-water pumpage, which greatly exceeds the natural recharge rate, has dramatically altered the ground-water flow in the Central Valley. During the 1960's and 1970's, the recharge rate was more than five times that of the predevelopment period and was largely derived from percolation of imported surface water or recirculated pumped ground water rather than precipitation and recharge from streams. Prior to development, most ground water was discharged as evapotranspiration; however, in recent years, most discharge has been well pumpage. Computer simulation of the Central Valley aquifer system suggests that the total flow through the system has increased from about 2 million acre-feet per year to nearly 12 million acre-feet per year. The vertical movement of ground water has been artificially enhanced by many of the 100,000 irrigation wells that contain long intervals of perforated casing. When unpumped, these wells permit vertical flow between permeable layers within the aquifer system. The total fresh ground water presently (1986) in storage in the upper 1,000 feet of the aquifer system is about 800 million acre-feet. During the 1960's and 1970's, ground water in storage was depleted at an average rate of 800,000 acre-feet annually. In the San Joaquin Valley from the 1940's to the late 1960's, substantial withdrawals of ground water were accompanied by hundreds of feet of head decline. This head decline caused inelastic compaction of fine-grained beds, resulting in land subsidence that is unequaled anywhere else in the world. More than one-half of the San Joaquin Valley (or about 5,200 square miles) underwent subsidence of more than 1 foot. In one location, subsidence exceeded 29 feet. Within the areas of heavy withdrawals, subsidence is greatest where the aquifer system contains thick sections of montmorillonite clay. Land subsidence created engineering and economic problems, including damage to canals and drainage systems, and loss of irrigation wells caused by casing failure. More recently (since the drought of 1976-77), surface-water imports have increased, ground-water pumpage has decreased, and in places, ground-water levels have recovered. Land subsidence has virtually ceased; however, it could resume with increased pumpage, if water levels decline below previous lows. Ground-water quality in the Central Valley is generally influenced by the water from streams that are a major source of recharge. In general, water on the east side of the valley and from east-side streams contains low concentrations of dissolved solids compared to water on the west side and from west-side streams. Concentrations of dissolved solids in ground water generally are lower in the northern part of the valley than in the southern part. There are, however, localized exceptions in many places through the valley. Local concentrations of boron, chloride, and nitrate in the ground water of the Central Valley are large enough to be a problem either to crops or humans. Human activities have some influence on the concentration and location of water-quality problems in the valley. Significant increases in concentrations of dissolved solids and, specifically, dissolved nitrate indicate that ground-water quality is degrading as a result of increasing application of fertilizer in agricultural areas and the growth of urban population. Pesticides such as dibromochloropropane (DBCP) as well as selenium and other trace elements in agricultural drainage water cause ecological and health problems in the San Joaquin Valley.