- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
New California groundwater legislation will require metering of water pumped from the underground aquifer, a change that is being met with resistance by some landowners, reported Heesun Wee of CNBC.
Wee sought comment from UC Agriculture and Natural Resources groundwater hydrologist Thomas Harter, a Cooperative Extension specialist based at UC Davis.
"The mentality among landowners is, 'This is really my water,'" Harter said. "'It's part of my property and I don't want anybody to look over my shoulder.'"
Farmers typically use groundwater as a water savings account to draw upon when surface...
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
The huge reservoir of water under the soil surface is typically the place where California farmers turn during droughts, when surface water becomes scarce. After three years of drought and persistent groundwater use for water-intensive crops, the water table is dropping steadily, reported Todd Frankel in the Washington Post.
The aquifer accumulated over thousands of years, but is now dropping as much as two feet per year in some parts of the Central Valley. As the water is pumped, the ground sinks down too, said Thomas Harter, UC Agriculture and Natural...
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
Thomas Harter, a groundwater hydrologist with UC Agriculture and Natural Resources (UC ANR) has called for a change in California law that will make information about the state's dwindling underground stores of water available to the public.
Harter, a UC ANR specialist based at UC Davis, and co-author Laurel Firestone, shared their thoughts in an op-ed penned for The Guardian. Firestone is co-executive director of the Community Water Center in California, which helps disadvantaged communities...
- 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...
