- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
The new groundwater laws that Gov. Brown is expected to sign may not be popular with today's farmers, but tomorrow's farmers likely will look back with gratitude, reported Bettina Boxall in the Los Angeles Times.
"Some farmers are going to be having to cut back at least in the short run," said Doug Parker, director of the UC California Institute for Water Resources.
Thomas Harter, UC Cooperative Extension specialist in the Department of Land, Air and Water Resources at UC Davis, predicted the farmers' successors will appreciate the coming...
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
Groundwater management in California can be likened to the economic theory "tragedy of the commons," according to Thomas Harter, UC Cooperative Extension specialist in the Department of Land, Air and Water Resources at UC Davis. Harter made the comment on the National Public Radio program Here & Now, which is broadcast nationally.
According to the theory, individuals, acting independently and rationally according to each one's self-interest, behave contrary to the whole group's long-term best interests by depleting some common resource. The result for California groundwater in this drought year has...
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
Pumping up water contaminated with nitrate and using it to fertilize crops is one way the agriculture industry can deal with the groundwater contamination detailed in a UC Davis report released last week, reported Mark Grossi in the Fresno Bee.
By itself, pump-and-fertilize won't be enough, said Thomas Harter, the lead author of the report, Addressing Nitrate in California's Drinking Water. It won't work in areas where there is too much salt in the groundwater, for example. Also, more fresh water must be allowed to seep into the underground...
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
The results of Harter's research were outlined in a UC Davis press release distributed last week and picked up by the Sacramento Bee, an LA Times blog and...
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
A town hall meeting yesterday, hosted by the North San Joaquin Water Conservation District, included comments from UC Davis Cooperative Extension groundwater hydrology specialist Thomas Harter, according to an account in the Lodi-News Sentinel.
The discussion centered on a local ballot initiative to fund the development of infrastructure for groundwater recharge. The story said authorities are working to solve "the region's groundwater crisis."
"The ground isn't sinking like in Bakersfield," said the general manager of the Stockton East Water District. "But if we don't act...