We totally need this everywhere in the state. We can't guarantee that we'll have a year like this for a long time, so recharging the aquifers is the way to go.
25+ years in the water industry here. Groundwater recharge is not a new concept . In fact, it's been strongly recommended to do this a large scale in California in order to bank water to use during drought conditions. The problem the state has is decades of water mismanagement. State bureaucrats refusing to go forward with common sense solutions that could sustain this state with plenty of water into the future. Instead, the state has less water storage now than 20 years ago. That's why all water storage in California is quickly filling up. What the media and state bureaucrats don't tell you is most of the runoff will go into the ocean with no way to collect and store it.
This is the good story that people need to hear. This isn't all going into the ocean. A lot has already been done and a lot more is being done to catch the excess water that can be stored.
Water Banking has been around for many years using either raw water or treated recycled water years. We need to expand these programs as much as possible. Couple that with building few more surface reservoirs and more storm water capture to help with our water issues here in California.
Meanwhile, Orange County, California has been doing ground water recharge since at least the 1970’s and pumping freshwater into the ground at the coastline to protect the aquifer from salt water intrusion. This isn’t a new idea.
Are there crops on the coastline? I think they're saying it's new because they are flooding land with crops on them hoping to capture the water while.not harming the crops
@@danielcarroll3358 Completey Predictable BOONDOGGLE with the Train to Nowhere. Still NO idea how to get close to LA... Where the People ARE AT ! Nobody is in a Big Hurry to go from Fresno to Madera. Anyways you could drive there in 30 minutes!
Yup, thousands of farmers have called for more reservoirs but Newsom always ignored. Now all of a sudden Newsom wants to collect the rain water when it is convenient for him. He needs to go. He is a waste of space and water
@@abrahamvazquez4704 California manages 1,200 reservoirs now. Most of the good sites have been long taken. The Sites reservoir is an off flow site. Water will have to be sent to it either by building canals to get it there or by pumping. This isn't a dam on a large river.
We must end our ceaseless conflicts because we cannot afford to destroy our peoples and our cities now. We will need all the resources of the world- all the resources that we have, to contend with the Great Waves of Change that are coming. New Message from God >> The Will of Heaven
Am I the only one who sees that the man-made canals have been diverting water from the underground aquifers as nature intended? Now it is a genuious concept to divert water from the mistakes of the canals to what nature was doing anyway 😅 and while believing all this is needed due to climate change.
True for the areas that in the valley where water is being siphoned off but how about areas like Sonoma and Napa? I'm implementing berms and swales on my tiny four acres in Sebastopol to recharge the aquifer. Hopefully, my neighbors who are all on wells will follow.
You need to drill drain wells 1 ft to 2ft diameter 100 feet deep fill them with 1 inch base gravel they will pass natural gravel stratus below and replenish the underground aquifer...survey a geological map of the topography to map out your gravel drains....
@@tomgreene7942 I sure hope so. I’m in the Bay Area in California and I remember when I first moved up here from Los Angeles in 94, it would be raining on Halloween every year and then it just stopped. The hills in Dublin, (Dublin Ca) were green every winter, and they really haven’t been in a couple of years. Our trees 🌲 don’t stand as tall and green as they used too and in summer, our yards look like the desert so people decorate their yards with pretty rocks and stuff. I’ve seen a lot of things change drastically over the last ten years. It’s sad. I really hope you’re right.
Constantly till the fields and then flood them. Deep tilling is required to help send all this excess water to the aquifer, send it before it evaporates into the air.
In the lower San Joaquin valley subsidence so bad that the upper crust fell upon the lower crust thus ruining the aquifers there! YUP...Valley floor sunk over 120 feet in some places totally Ruining the aquifers.... Read for yourself.... Don't take my word for it
@@ronaldmcdonald3965 let me go to through some boxes of books...I have an excellent article to recommend i just have to find the book... The article points out that the subsidence in the lower San Joaquin is the greatest disaster on the earth due to man... it's that big of an impact... I'll look and get back to you... it shows pictures in the early 1900s where the valley floor was compared to modern day...it took eons to fill ...now it's collapsed... Hopefully I'll find the book and let you know ✌️🙋
Meanwhile, the state is tearing down 4 dams along the Russian River, because they can't be bothered to make chutes for the salmon to go over the dam. Too expensive they say, so they are spending millions to destroy the dams. Poor planning.
This is the kind progressive policies and research that can lead to preserving much of the record precipitation the state has received in record months. If it is implemented widespread it can really become a vital measure to use in regaining some control of water resources in the state. Preserving our ground water is one of the most important elements to a stable society going forward.
That only applies to water south of the San Joaquin delta. This isn't the delta on the bay but the one in the San Joaquin Valley that divides the Sierra Nevada snow melt's destination, assuming it isn't used for irrigation. South of it it goes to Tulare Lake. This is the Kern, Tule, Kaweah and Kings rivers.
It's all talk until they do it. They are rebuilding a large aqueduct in the south valley because the land has subsided from over pumping. They should have been pumping it into the ground years ago already, then they wouldn't need to be rebuilding an aqueduct just so it will flow correctly amongst other infrastructure roads bridged etc ....
"a vast invisible underground network of reservoirs" yeah we know what those are those are said aquifers, they're no secret, and in the central valley where the land has dropped 20+ feet due to over pumped aquifers is because farmers over pumped them. It is awfully nice of this guy to start a "pilot program" to water his fields in order to try and refill aquifers... I mean you could look to other places who have been finding ways to recharge aquifers with excess water run off for years... but sure lets all pretend this is new stuff we need to experiment with.
And where the ground dropped it's over. That reserve is gone forever. Agribusinesses use 80% of our water and contribute only 1.5% of California GDP. The only way to solve the problem is get rid of private "water rights."
There are recharge basins all over the state, but with little runoff to fill them on a regular basis they don't do as much good as they could. The compression of aquifers is a problem, we'll see how they respond.
@@thornil2231 I don't think the average person understands the relationship between areal subsidence in the Valley and compressible aquifers or formations in general.
The subtle fact that this will get a LOT of funding and it will build next to nothing and have this as an excuse as to why they build nothing, not a scam at all. We dump water onto the dirt when it floods for a week IF we get rapid snow melt with enough funds to construct pipelines and reservoirs up and down the state.
That lady in charge is oblivious. The Kings River, Kern River, and several others, is being diverted into the Tulare Lake basin. Millions of acre feet are on the way there with the snow melt coming. It will cover 200 -300 square miles of farm land. The water mismanagement by her and others has been epic.
They are not being diverted to Tulare Lake. There is so much water it's overwhelming the current infrastructure and following the natural paths. The flooded field project is several miles north of Tulare Lake. BTW, Tulare Lake diversion in the 1890s is where Los Angeles got their idea for draining Owens Lake.
This is a good start. Why not also have something in place year round on top of overflows that pumps some of the water that would normally flow out to the ocean upstream. Yes, water downstream might not be the best quality to cycle up but at least it is in a way retaining it. Like anything else that is good or a benefit, I can also see this becoming political and money driven like anything else.
You mean like *Sites Reservoir* in Sacramento Valley? _94 meters deep_ with a water volume of _2.2 cubic kilometers_ Large-scale pumped storage integrated into the power grid Scheduled completion: *2030*
Gov Arnold wanted to spend $4 Billion on adding water storage & conservation projects... The Dem Perma- Majority in the Legislature... Said that " It was not needed and a waste of money".
It would make more sense to build a 5 ft dam on the inlet near Crockett, since the entire Central valley drains into the San Francisco bay. Then they would need to bore a tunnel or two from the delta that runs perfectly level all the way to los angeles. All the farmers and lakes along this path would be able to pump water without any restrictions. The lakes would be full year round, farmers could flood their fields again, and developers could build new reservoirs and lakefront communities, homeowners could irrigate their yards without worry, there could be year round streams wherever we wanted, it's a win win for everyone, the only downside would be ships and boats would need to pass through a lock to get past the dam but who cares.
Here is an idea that may be stupid but I will throw it out there: instead of releasing water into the ocean, encourage farmers and regular people to water their farms and gardens as much as possible for free over the next 3 months. That should help replenish the aquifers.
Because it mostly evaporates. Farmers need to stop plowing to stop destroying their soils by releasing carbon into the air which depletes the soil's moisture holding capability. I'm implementing berms and swales on my small farm to recharge the aquifer.
It depends on the sediment under ground if that is the best choice. As described in this video one farmer is doing just that because the underlying rock layer is porous enough to allow water to percolate down through it to the water table. This may not be an option available to all farmers in other words.
@@michaeldeierhoi4096 Correct. The west side of the valley has a clay layer that prevents water from percolating down to the deep aquifer that is fed from the east side of the valley. This is why Tulare Lake takes so long to dry up. It has to be by evaporation. And that is also why, unless a way is found to get water to the sea, that the lake bed will continue to salt up.
How about the tree nut farmer cutting his crop back by 1/2 or MORE!!?? Pistachios and Almonds are MAJOR water users!! It wouldn't hurt to stop all the NEW planting and cut back on existing trees under cultivation.. Remember 80% of California water is used for Agricultural purposes.... To be perfectly honest we CAN get by without the tons upon tons of Almonds and Pistachios and many other water sucking crops. Just cut back , not stop..
Climate change ha ha 😂 what caused the medieval warm period and the little ice age 😂 more chance the earth's magnetic field flips before we get 2° warmer 😂 environmentalists have been screaming since 1960 😂
Really? California currently invests significant resources into water management. It's literally an ongoing multi-billion dollar operation. A couple big reservoir improvement projects just finished and a major new reservoir is about to start construction. But don't let facts stop you from pushing your misguided narrative.
@@raclark2730 that's a good time to do it... What about the fish ...they belong in the river not a farmers field... For 50 years migrating Salmon and Steelhead have been sucked up into them Delta Pumps and Farmers who've grossed billions won't lift a finger to help... Instead they sell their water rights to Los Angeles and blame droughts on the Delta Smelt....🤷
@@jamescoleakaericunderwood2503 hmmm well they and other should certainly be doing that. I am sure it could not be that hard to engineer the intakes to exclude fish. I thought you were talking about flows, my apologies.
@@raclark2730 👍 I'm advocating as we speak with some Mosaic Artwork I'm going to make 3 more BADASS Native American Salmon Mosaic 4 foot Oval surrounded by broken Red Imperial Granite pieces the Salmon itself has 80 individual panels handcrafted made out of Terrazzo! One for Governor Newsome One for La Malfa and one for Congressman Garamendi! If we don't fix it...then who! I'm going to suggest building two loches into the existing aquaduct canal behind the pumps... mechanical fish sweeper moves fish into one locke separate Fish from water then return them via canal back into the Delta where they belong...and if we've decimated the Delta Smelt too much then we must introduce another small minnow to fill that gap in the food chain...so important! ✌️ Plus suggest bounty on American Pike Minnows ( aka squaw fish/ and remove size restrictions on Striped Bass... Im just waiting for materials... already made one I donated it to a local tribe here in Oroville! If not us....who...✌️🤷🙋
