The Hidden Opportunity for Water Storage in California

The Dike 4 Groundwater Recharge Facility is shown Monday, Dec. 17, 2007, in Coachella, Calif. The facility is one of the major groundwater replenishment projects.

“California’s recent wet year was an important reminder that the state needs to plan for not just drought, but years of abundance as well,” says Maurice Hall of the Environmental Defense Fund.

California has great capacity for underground water storage in aquifers that the state has yet to fully take advantage of. California’s historic winter ended the drought in many parts of the state and piled up record levels of snowpack in the Sierra Nevada mountains. With so much precipitation, surface water infrastructure – our network of dams, reservoirs and levees – has been called into action like never before, and in some cases has struggled to handle the influx of flows.

With spring temperatures on the rise, snowmelt and runoff have accelerated, adding another wave of stress to the system. And with statewide snowpack still at 190 percent of average at the beginning of June, there is even more runoff on the way. So where will all this water go?

With many reservoirs near capacity already, water managers have had to allow […]

Full article: The Hidden Opportunity for Water Storage in California