Posts Tagged: Thomas Harter

Many landowners believe they own underlying groundwater

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 water is unavailable for irrigation. However, after four years of drought and dramatic cuts in surface water allocations, those with more money are drilling deeper wells, often leaving shallower wells high and dry. Removal of the undergound water is also causing land subsidence.

"There are large parts of the southern Central Valley that last year alone have sunk between six inches and a foot," Harter said.

The CNBC report said a recent update on California's drought had gaps in groundwater monitoring. Among the reasons for the data gap: Reluctance of private well owners to grant permission to monitoring entities. Other well owners were hesitant to release well construction details.

Harter said he believes compliance with new groundwater regulations will be challenging.

"People are used to turning on their faucets without thinking about how much they're using," Harter said. "It's a painful process."

California showing signs of groundwater exhaustion

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 Resources Cooperative Extension hydrologist based at UC Davis. When the soil compresses, groundwater can never be fully recharged again.

Harter said the state's groundwater reserve reached historic lows last year.

“With little recharge, many areas are currently at the lowest recorded levels ever,” Harter said. “It's worrisome.”

Last year, state lawmakers passed California's first extensive groundwater regulation, allowing for the creation of local boards to oversee how the water is used. But it will take up to two decades before the new law takes full effect.

Groundwater records should be public, says UC ANR expert

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 gain access to clean, affordable water. 

The authors wrote that state records with information needed to characterize groundwater aquifers are kept confidential under a 64-year-old law that considers them proprietary to well drillers. The well logs contain data that is public in every other state in the West and include details such as where wells are located, their depth, potential pumping rates, diameter and descriptions of the sediments and rocks the wells go through.

"The lack of information is a major impediment to stewardship of the resource," the op-ed says.

California State Senator Fran Pavley introduced Senate Bill 20 in December, which if passed will make well log data publicly available in California.

"Perhaps as more community and farm wells dry up this summer, the legislature will extend its enthusiasm for transparency to the critical information needed for more equitable and sustainable management of our groundwater," Garter and Firestone conclude.

Farmers of the future will be happy about 2014 groundwater regulations

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 regulations.

"In the long run, my view is that the next generation and two generations down of farmers will find this a lifesaver," Harter said.

The bills waiting for the governor's signature won't provide an instant fix, the story said. The law will take years to implement and it could take decades for the most depleted groundwater basins recover.

In most years, groundwater amounts to 30 to 45 percent of the state's water supply, but in dry periods, it increases to 60 percent. The new law will direct local public agencies to develop sustainable groundwater management plans. If they fail, the State Water Resources Control Board steps in. The legislation gives local basin managers the ability to:

• Collect fees from groundwater users
• Monitor withdrawals
• Limit pumping
• Buy water or water rights to replenish aquifers

The Association of California Water Agencies supports the new regulations; agricultural interests are opposed, the article says.

"We thought these bills were too far-reaching," said Paul Wenger, president of the California Farm Bureau Federation.

Current groundwater management is not sustainable

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 been reliance on groundwater to meet fully two-thirds of the state's urban and agricultural water needs.

"It's a significant concern because it's not a rate at which we can continue to use this resource," Harter said. "It's not sustainable."

Here & Now host Jeremy Hobson pointed out that California is the last Western state to regulate groundwater. Last week the California legislature sent three bills to Gov. Brown that would end a commonly held view in California that property owners have the right to draw as much groundwater as they want from wells on their property.

The lack of regulation and a continuing drought have resulted in severe overdraft of the state's aquifer. By studying the state's geology and measuring groundwater levels over decades, scientists know how much water is there, Harter said. Californians should not expect any new hidden reservoirs to be found.

"The best way I think we can address this is make information about the resource more available and let people know what happens to the resource, where (water) comes in and where it goes out, and involve the public on the decision-making on how we want to manage that resource," Harter said.

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