California Blueprint for Ag Growth, Rooted in Sustainable Groundwater Management Act

The atmospheric rivers that flowed over California in January dumped about a foot of rain — equal to an entire year’s average — in many parts of the state’s parched Central Valley, which encompasses only 1% of U.S. farmland but produces 40% of the nation’s table fruits, vegetables, and nuts. With February, ordinarily the second wettest month, still to be counted, talks of all the land that will have to fallowed as a result of the drought have quieted for now. But most Golden State growers have come to realize that droughts will simply be a part of farming going forward, and the safety net is gone.

That safety net was groundwater pumping. For more than a half-century, farmers in the Central Valley, the multi-faceted state’s chief production area, have been pumping more water from aquifers than can be replenished, causing wells to be drilled deeper and deeper. Don Cameron, Vice President/General Manager of Terranova Ranch in Helm, CA, notes that when he started farming in 1981, the attitude at that time was growers just pumped what their crops needed.

“Back then, we used 75- and 100-horsepower wells to get the volume of water we needed,” he says. “Today, we run 200- to 250-horsepower motors to get the same amount of water out of the ground. And we’ve had wells go dry over the last 10 to 15 years.”

—Don Cameron

Over drafting the aquifers is a problem, and not just because it means the loss of a source of water that can be applied during a drought, but it can lead to subsidence. With no water below, there’s nothing there to hold the land in place. There are parts of Fresno County that have dropped 30 feet or more through years of unfettered pumping.

The situation got so bad during a drought last decade — the one before the current drought, which hopefully will end with winter rains — that in 2014 the state passed the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA), which Californians refer to as “sigma.” SGMA requires local agencies to form groundwater sustainability agencies (GSAs) for the high- and medium-priority basins. GSAs develop and implement […]

Full article: California’s Blueprint for Ag Growth Rooted in the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act

Also see: The Science Behind Atmospheric Rivers