Economic tradeoff between domestic well impact and reduced agricultural production with groundwater drought management: Tulare County, California (USA), case study

Hydrogeology Journal (Springer) | November 8th, 2021

Formal policy analysis can aid resource management where groundwater is used intensively. Approaches for developing equitable and effective pumping allocations for drough

Formal policy analysis can aid resource management where groundwater is used intensively. Approaches for developing equitable and effective pumping allocations for drought are evaluated in the context of the 2012–2016 drought in Tulare County, California, USA. Potential economic impacts of policy alternatives on two user groups with conflicting interests are considered. Tradeoffs between losses of agricultural profit and response costs for domestic wells that run dry are estimated for various maximum groundwater depth policies. A welfare maximizing approach for identifying policies that limit depth to groundwater is evaluated and found to be ineffective because agricultural opportunity costs are much larger than domestic well costs. Adding a fee for additional drought groundwater pumping is proposed as a more impactful and balanced management policy approach. For the case study presented, a fee range of $300 to $600/acre-foot ($300–$600/1,233 m3) yielded an effective groundwater management policy for reducing domestic well impacts from drought and balancing agricultural impacts of drought with the need to replenish additional drought pumping in wetter years. Recent management policies enacted in the study area agree with this finding. These results may provide a useful perspective for analytically examining and developing groundwater management policies near the study area and elsewhere.

Effectiveness and Impacts of Dust Control Measures for Owens Lake

National Academy of Sciences (NAS) | March 3rd, 2020

During the 20th century, the city of Los Angeles diverted surface water flowing into Owens Lake for water supply, transforming the large, closed-basin, saline lake into

During the 20th century, the city of Los Angeles diverted surface water flowing into Owens Lake for water supply, transforming the large, closed-basin, saline lake into a small brine pool surrounded by dry playa. Under high winds, the exposed lakebed produced large amounts of airborne dust, resulting in the highest concentrations of airborne particulate matter with an aerodynamic diameter of 10 micrometers or less (PM10) in the United States. Since 2000, the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP), at the direction of the Great Basin Unified Air Pollution Control District (District), has been constructing and implementing dust control measures (DCMs) on the dry lakebed, with the objective of meeting the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) for PM10 and the PM10 standards set by the state of California. LADWP reported that it has spent $2.1 billion on dust control efforts as of May 2019 and that many of the DCMs require large amounts of water, energy, and maintenance to sustain their performance.1 Shallow flooding is, by far, the most widespread DCM, by surface area, that is applied at Owens Lake. Other DCMs, such as managed vegetation and gravel, are also applied over several areas on the lakebed, and a few small areas ordered for PM10 management are currently uncontrolled. On average since 2007, water use for dust control required 31 percent of LADWP’s fresh water supplies available at Owens Lake, 2 with a range of 17 to 51 percent. In 2014, a Stipulated Judgment agreed to by LADWP and the District3 ended litigation concerning dust control requirements and acknowledged the need “for additional effective DCMs that do not rely on water that can be substituted in areas currently under control or applied in areas ordered to be controlled.” The Judgment also acknowledged “the need to balance the requirements to control dust emissions and conserve water with the requirements to minimize impacts to cultural and biological resources.” As part of the Judgment, LADWP and the District agreed to contract with the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine to establish the Owens Lake Scientific Advisory Panel (OLSAP, or the panel) to provide ongoing advice on the reduction of PM10 in the Owens Valley. In addition, the Judgment intends the panel to foster communication and collaboration between the LADWP and the District within this context. The panel’s first task is to evaluate the effectiveness of alternative DCMs for their dust control and water use. The task includes consideration of the associated energy, environmental, and economic impacts and assessing the durability and reliability of such DCMs. In interpreting its task, the panel was informed by the definition of environment provided in the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), which encompasses impacts on land, air, water, minerals, flora, fauna, ambient noise, and objects of historical or aesthetic significance. The panel discussed key factors within the broad context of that definition with implications for dust management. The panel assessed 15 DCMs (see Box S-2) that represent a range of mitigation approaches that are either being applied at Owens Lake or at various stages of development. The panel’s evaluation criteria included reported PM10 control efficiency, water use, capital and operating costs, habitat value, protection of cultural resources, durability, reliability, and other factors. OVERALL CONCLUSIONS DCMs applied at Owens Lake during the past 20 years have significantly reduced PM10 concentrations in the Owens Valley, although further progress in controlling dust is needed to meet air quality standards. The panel evaluated 15 DCMs based on their potential effectiveness in reducing PM10 emissions, water use, and environmental impacts. Based on available data, none of the control measures has been documented to achieve mandated levels of dust control while substantially reducing water use (compared to shallow flooding) and consistently providing quality habitat, although some measures show promise with the need for additional research and testing. Progress toward these multiple goals, including protection of environmentally sensitive areas by reducing land disturbance from DCMs, can be more effectively achieved through a systems approach that considers outcomes over a large spatial scale and interactions among control measures. To inform these decisions, additional research is needed on individual and hybrid DCMs and on the landscape-scale effects of dust control configurations. Evaluation of operational performance of DCMs should be based on airborne PM10 measurements rather than surrogate measures, such as the percentage of a control area that must be covered by vegetation or surface water. Using a systems approach and evaluating DCM performance with PM10 measurements would promote innovative and hybrid strategies for dust control.

Effects of Groundwater Pumping on Agricultural Drains in the Tule Lake Subbasin, Oregon and California

U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) | July 24th, 2015

Since 2001, irrigators in the upper Klamath Basin have increasingly turned to groundwater to compensate for reductions in surface-water allocation caused by shifts from

Since 2001, irrigators in the upper Klamath Basin have increasingly turned to groundwater to compensate for reductions in surface-water allocation caused by shifts from irrigation use to instream flows for Endangered Species Act listed fishes. The largest increase in groundwater pumping has been in and around the Bureau of Reclamation’s Klamath Irrigation Project, which includes the Tule Lake subbasin in the southern part of the upper Klamath Basin. Agricultural drains on the Klamath Project are an important source of water for downstream irrigators and for the Tule Lake and Lower Klamath Lake National Wildlife Refuges. U.S. Geological Survey regional groundwater-flow model simulations and records of irrigation-return flow pumped from the Tule Lake subbasin into the adjacent Lower Klamath Lake subbasin have indicated that water-level declines from pumping may be causing decreased flow of shallow groundwater to agricultural drains. To better define the effect of increased pumping on drain flow and on the water balance of the groundwater system, the annual water volume pumped from drains in three subareas of the Tule Lake subbasin was estimated and a fine-grid, local groundwater model of the Tule Lake subbasin was constructed. Results of the agricultural-drain flow analysis indicate that groundwater discharge to drains has decreased such that flows in 2012 were approximately 32,400 acre-ft less than the 1997–2000 average flow. This decrease was concentrated in the northern and southeastern parts of the subbasin, which corresponds with the areas of greatest groundwater pumping. Model simulation results of the Tule Lake subbasin groundwater model indicate that increased supplemental pumping is the dominant stress to the groundwater system in the subbasin. Simulated supplemental pumping and decreased recharge from irrigation between 2000 and 2010 totaled 323,573 acre-ft, 234,800 acre-ft (73 percent) of which was from supplemental pumping. The response of the groundwater system to this change in stress included about 180,500 acre-ft (56 percent) of decreased groundwater discharge to drains and a 126,000 acre-ft (39 percent) reduction in aquifer storage. The remaining 5 percent came from reduced groundwater flow to other model boundaries, including the Lost River, the Tule Lake sumps, and interbasin flow.

Ending groundwater overdraft without affecting food security

Nature Portfolio (Springer Nature) | June 14th, 2024

Environmental flow limits to global groundwater pumping

Nature Portfolio (Springer Nature) | October 2nd, 2019

Groundwater is the world’s largest freshwater resource and is critically important for irrigation, and hence for global food security. Already, unsustainable groundwa

Groundwater is the world’s largest freshwater resource and is critically important for irrigation, and hence for global food security. Already, unsustainable groundwater pumping exceeds recharge from precipitation and rivers, leading to substantial drops in the levels of groundwater and losses of groundwater from its storage, especially in intensively irrigated regions. When groundwater levels drop, discharges from groundwater to streams decline, reverse in direction or even stop completely, thereby decreasing streamflow, with potentially devastating effects on aquatic ecosystems. Here we link declines in the levels of groundwater that result from groundwater pumping to decreases in streamflow globally, and estimate where and when environmentally critical streamflows—which are required to maintain healthy ecosystems—will no longer be sustained. We estimate that, by 2050, environmental flow limits will be reached for approximately 42 to 79 per cent of the watersheds in which there is groundwater pumping worldwide, and that this will generally occur before substantial losses in groundwater storage are experienced. Only a small decline in groundwater level is needed to affect streamflow, making our  estimates uncertain for streams near a transition to reversed groundwater discharge. However, for many areas, groundwater pumping rates are high and environmental flow limits are known to be severely exceeded. Compared to surface-water use, the effects of groundwater pumping are markedly delayed. Our results thus reveal the current and future environmental legacy of groundwater use.

Environmental Impact Report/Environmental Impact Statement (EIR/EIS) for the Cadiz Groundwater Storage Dry-Year Supply Program

Bureau of Land Management (BLM) | September 13th, 2001

In February 1999, Metropolitan issued a Notice of Preparation of an EIR for the Cadiz Project which would be constructed and operated by Metropolitan in the Cadiz and Fe

In February 1999, Metropolitan issued a Notice of Preparation of an EIR for the Cadiz Project which would be constructed and operated by Metropolitan in the Cadiz and Fenner Valleys of the eastern Mojave Desert, San Bernardino County, California. The BLM determined that an EIS would be required as the proposed action includes an amendment of the CDCA Plan for an exception to the utility corridor requirements and grant(s) of right-of-way across federal lands. The BLM issued a Notice of Intent to Prepare an EIS for the proposed action in March 1999. In May 1999, the BLM issued a Notice of Public Meeting and extension of the scoping comment period. The Draft EIR/EIS was published in November 1999 with a 104-day public review period that ended in March 2000. Because numerous comments raised questions regarding groundwater management issues, a Supplement to the Draft EIR/EIS was prepared to provide additional information and to present the Groundwater Monitoring and Management Plan (Management Plan) that has been incorporated into the proposed project. The Management Plan will govern the water storage and extraction operations in the affected groundwater basins to ensure that project operations will not result in any unacceptable adverse impacts to groundwater resources or air quality. The Supplement to the Draft EIR/EIS was circulated for an 80-day public review period that ended in January 2001. The Cadiz Project is proposed by Metropolitan who is acting in partnership with the private company Cadiz Inc. The project will involve construction and operation of a 35-mile pipeline for conveying water between the Iron Mountain Pumping Plant on the Colorado River Aqueduct and the Cadiz/Fenner area, a Cadiz Pumping Plant at Metropolitan.s existing Iron Mountain Pumping Plant facility, 390 acres of spreading basins for percolation of Colorado River water into the groundwater basin in the Cadiz/Fenner area, a wellfield for extracting stored Colorado River water and indigenous groundwater, and associated power poles and line along the conveyance pipeline and in the wellfield. This Final EIR/EIS contains comments received on the Draft EIR/EIS and the Supplement to the Draft EIR/EIS, detailed responses to those comments, and integrates the information contained in the Draft EIR/EIS and Supplement to the Draft EIR/EIS with revisions as appropriate in response to comments.

Environmental Law Foundation, et al. Plaintiffs and Respondents, v. State Water Resources Control Board, et al. Defendant, Cross-defendant and Respondent; County of Siskiyou, Defendant, Cross-complainant and Appellant

State of California | August 29th, 2018

Click here to read Brian Gray, Senior Fellow at the Public Policy Institute of California Water Policy Center and a Professor Emeritus at UC Hastings, on this ruling

Click here to read Brian Gray, Senior Fellow at the Public Policy Institute of California Water Policy Center and a Professor Emeritus at UC Hastings, on this ruling and the potential ramifications under the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act.

Estimated Ground-Water Discharge by Evapotranspiration from Death Valley, California, 1997–2001

U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) | July 1st, 2003

Estimated Ground-Water Withdrawals from the Death Valley Regional Flow System

U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) | July 1st, 2003

Estimation of groundwater residence time with deeply-derived carbon mixture considered in California

Science of the Total Environment (Elsevier) | December 16th, 2022

Groundwater has experienced long-term overdraft due to drought and human activities in California, resulting in issues of land subsidence and groundwater anthropogenic co

Groundwater has experienced long-term overdraft due to drought and human activities in California, resulting in issues of land subsidence and groundwater anthropogenic contamination. As a useful indicator of groundwater renewal rate and its residence time, groundwater age has been conventionally investigated based on 14C content and 3H concentration. However, the influence of deeply-derived (endogenic) CO2 mixture is not fully and quantitatively considered, although endogenic carbon contributes a large part of the dissolved inorganic carbon in groundwater. Combined with 3H concentration, both conventional and modified 14C-dating methods with endogenic CO2 mixture considered are employed for groundwater age determination in California. On average, the conventional groundwater 14C apparent age is overestimated by ~4.9 kyr or ~26.2 %, causing groundwater recharge rate underestimation and aquifer recovery time overestimation by ~46.0 % and ~26.2 %, respectively. High 3H concentration indicates modern water mixture in more than one fifth of groundwater samples, including those with high modified 14C apparent age (> 12 kyr, i.e., fossil groundwater) in the Central Valley and southern California, which are generally considered not to be recharged by modern water. Modern water mixture in old groundwater can potentially bring anthropogenic contamination to these groundwater resources, which should be paid attentions by the government and the managers. The results have important implications in evaluation of groundwater replenishment and its susceptibility to modern contamination in California, and in groundwater resources estimation globally.