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Page added on April 11, 2015
LA: Groundwater Levels Plummet
New laws intended to safeguard California’s dwindling groundwater largely exclude crucial basins in Los Angeles and Orange counties, on the grounds that local monitoring systems for them are already in place.
But that is not keeping their water levels from descending to historically low levels, NBC4 has learned.
“The system has worked until now,” said Anthony Zampiello, executive director for the watermaster overseeing the main San Gabriel basin, historically replenished by runoff from the mountains.
What has changed things is this third year of drought.
“Now it’s stressing all the safeguards put into place,” Zampiello said.
The court order that established the San Gabriel watermaster four decades ago also specified an “operating range” for groundwater levels.
Water as measured at the key well in Baldwin Park fell below the operating range in February and has continued to drop to the point it is now 18 feet below. “It’s never been this low,” Zampiello said.
Groundwater levels are also plummeting in the central groundwater basin which underlies much of the southern end of Los Angeles County.
At one test well checked Wednesday in Pico Rivera, the water level had dropped to 102 feet, 17 feet lower than recorded just half a year ago. Similar drops have been recorded across the basin.
“One more foot, and it will be at the lowest level in 57 years,” said Ted Johnson, chief hydrogeologist for the Water Replenishment District.
The state legislature created the WRD in the 1950s after the post World War II population boom led to rapid drawdown of groundwater, both in the Central Basin and to the west in the coast basin beneath the South Bay. With both the San Gabriel Watermaster and the Replenishment District, the goal was to apportion allocations in order to stablize the basins so they could meet ongoing demand.
Dealing with prolonged drought was not part of the original vision for either entity.
The original source of replenishment for both the San Gabriel and Central basins was runoff from the mountains, captured in giant spreading basins so the water could percolate through the soil and into the basins. Later, after the completion of the California Aqueduct in the 1970s, the entitites purchased water sent south by the California Water Project.
Both those sources have been severely curtailed by the drought. During the drought, recycled and treated waste water has proven to be the most reliable replenishment source for the WRD, and it is moving to expand its recycling capability with the goal of achieving independence from imported water. But a major increase in recycling capacity may not go online before 2018.
How much accessible groundwater remains in the Central Basin is not known with cetainty, Johnson said. What the historical record shows is that prior to WRD replenishment, the basin had dropped hit a low 30 feet below where it is today. At current drawdown rates, it would be a year at soonest before the aquifer would hit that level, said Johnson.
The Orange County Water District has been a longtime proponent of water recycling. Its groundwater basin has dropped to the lower one-third of its operating range, according to the district. Groundwater rights in some other basins have also been “adjudicated,” but much of the state has lacked grounwater monitoring, and the absence of statewide regulation had made California unique among the western states.
The package of groundwater bills signed Tuesday by Gov. Jerry Brown creates a framework for reporting groundwater pumping and replenishment, and ultimately calls for development of local sustainability plans. Apart from reporting requirements, the existing overseers of basins such as San Gabriel, Central, and Orange County are specifically exempted from the other provisions of the bills. The overseers have not attempted to order cuts in pumping from wells.
“We can’t dictate,” said WRD Board Director Sergio Calderon.
Whether the watermaster could do so is yet to be explored. For now, the watermaster hopes to the drawdown can be slowed by its member water districts taking more from the Colorado River, which has been less affected by the drought.
When Gov. Brown proclaimed a drought emergency in January, he called on Californians to reduce water consumption by 20 percent. In fact, most areas have fallen far short of that goal. As recently as May, Los Angeles and other cities were using more water than the previous year.
Perhaps as soon as a month, Calderon said the WRD board will consider proclaiming a Drought Emergency for the Central Basin. Like the Watermaster for the San Gabriel Basin, Calderon does not see the need for mandatory curtailment of deliveries in the months ahead, but that could change if another dry winter propels California into a fourth year of drought.
12 Comments on "LA: Groundwater Levels Plummet"
Plantagenet on Sun, 12th Apr 2015 11:18 am
Amazing to read that the LA water district never considered having to deal with prolonged drought. Also amazing to read that the dopes in LA are using MORE water then a year ago, inspite of the multi-year drought.
My guess is they’ll start seriously trying to conserve water about the time it runs out.
trickydick on Sun, 12th Apr 2015 11:34 am
Looking out at the road rushing under my wheels
I don’t know how to tell you all just how crazy this life feels
Look around for the friends that I used to turn to to pull me through
Looking into their eyes I see them running too
Running on, running on empty
Running on, running blind
Running on, running into the sun
But I’m running behind
– Jackson Browne
Apneaman on Sun, 12th Apr 2015 12:32 pm
Plant, what’s amazing is that one is hard pressed to find any government at any level who is taking any steps to protect their people. California is in the News because it is the farthest down the road. The entire US Southwest is going to end up the same, but it is going to get much worse.
Southwest US: Ground Zero for Climate Change
https://www.beaconreader.com/flux/southwest-us-ground-zero-for-climate-change
Go Speed Racer on Sun, 12th Apr 2015 5:24 pm
Ya. What he said. The gubbamint is the biggest joke. They don’t have any plan. They will just let everybody run out of water. And we pay tax money for such a pack of overpaid losers. I think they are called ‘senators’.
They could be starting up the desalination projects, but that would be to actually do something, so they won’t.
Carly Fiorina says the liberals caused the drought and she would build reservoirs. The liberals rebutted her, reservoirs don’t fill with water by themselves. There’s no snow left to fill any reservoir. So looks like Fiorina is a skull in search of a brain.
It would be more reasonable to say the conservatives caused the drought, by burning garbage in their yards and commuting daily in empty monster trucks.
Apneaman on Sun, 12th Apr 2015 7:24 pm
All of us who are a part of industrial civilization, especially N Americans, share in the responsibility. Some have a much bigger share than others. I have not seen any numbers that show less consumption based on political leanings. In fact, that largely left leaning Hollywood elite have some of the biggest eco footprints on the planet. The rich liberals/democrats will abandon the state and the people just as fast as the rich conservatives. Real conservatives might be ones to try and hang on the longest as they are less prone to change. But who cares?…Game Of Thrones is playing tonight.
The Endocene
“This brings us to the absurdly ignorant, painfully ironic campaign to save nature AND humanity, concocted by the group known as Conservation International which debuted at the beginning of the week. M. Sanjayan, an executive vice president and senior scientist at CI, describes the project as an attempt to “rebrand” environmentalism to be less about preserving wildlife and more about preserving humans, by emphasizing that people are dependent upon nature. Like the World Wildlife Fund, also founded by royalty and other elites, the leadership is so steeped in privilege that they have no clue at all what a bitter taste emanates from their efforts.”
http://witsendnj.blogspot.ca/2014/10/the-endocene.html
Makati1 on Sun, 12th Apr 2015 8:51 pm
And the beat goes on…
http://www.drought.gov/drought/content/products-current-drought-and-monitoring-drought-indicators/us-drought-monitor
http://www.agweb.com/article/more_crops_affected_as_drought_spreads/
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-04-11/californias-record-breaking-heat-drought-only-beginning
Future news: “Potable water at $10.23/gallon as the drought continues. Down from a high of $10.41 yesterday.” …
maplepeg on Sun, 12th Apr 2015 10:01 pm
For all of its problems, only collective, coercive action (i.e.: government) can solve a problem like climate change and drought (and even then a solution is not guaranteed). Libertarians who think these problems can be solved with individual “liberty” and individual actions are insane. What does it mean to be “wealthy” or “free” without water?
Makati1 on Mon, 13th Apr 2015 2:12 am
maplepeg, we have gone beyond redemption as a species. There is no way on this dying earth that anything will be done to even slow the coming bottleneck. The cancer of Capitalism is in control and it is approaching lethal size. All we can do is try to prepare to alleviate the pain of transition/extinction as much as possible. At least that is how I see it.
Charlie Bucket on Mon, 13th Apr 2015 7:54 am
@Makati1, I second that motion. There is NO way we are turning this ship around when there isn’t anyone on board willing to make that turn.
Don on Mon, 13th Apr 2015 8:47 am
I think it is about time that the US govt starts seriously considering assisting the Mexican govt with the repatriation of the state of California. With it they get some booming industries, movie studios, Apple, silicon valley, and 37 million new citizens. The US would then have solved its problem with the drought in the southwestern US.
drwater on Mon, 13th Apr 2015 11:11 am
This article is misleading on several fronts:
The reason these basins are not governed by the new California groundwater legislation is that they were adjudicated many decades ago, which actually provides much stronger control over groundwater use. Contrary to what was implied, the watermaster of adjudicated basins does have the power to control usage.
I am normally not a defender of Los Angeles, but they actually were better prepared for this drought than a lot of areas in the state. The reason water usage has not gone down is that it has been really hot and dry (duh!) and people are trying to keep their expensive landscaping from dying as they gradually convert some of it over to lower water use landscaping.
The real water dilemma is going to be in the San Joaquin Valley, where farmers have been pumping groundwater far in excess of natural recharge for decades. The excess pumping combined with climate change are going to make for some dire times in the years ahead.
“Amazing to read that the LA water district never considered having to deal with prolonged drought. Also amazing to read that the dopes in LA are using MORE water then a year ago, inspite of the multi-year drought.”
Plant,
All is not as
ghung on Mon, 13th Apr 2015 12:02 pm
“Calderon does not see the need for mandatory curtailment of deliveries in the months ahead, but that could change if another dry winter propels California into a fourth year of drought.”
This article is from last September, so, yes, they’ve had another dry winter and this drought is in its forth year. Sort of changes the gist of the article.