Sea water has already invaded or is an immediate or potential danger in at least 80 major and minor ground‐water basins in California. Of this total, there is definite evidence of intrusion into 13 basins and immediate danger exists in seven additional basins. Where the normal seaward hydraulic gradient has been reversed for protracted periods of time, sea‐water intrusion has occurred. Possible methods of control to restrain encroachment or reduce the area already affected include: (1) raising of ground‐water levels to or above sea level by reduction or rearrangement of pattern of pumping draft, or both; (2) direct recharge of overdrawn aquifers to maintain ground‐water levels at or above sea level; (3) maintenance of a freshwater ridge above sea level along the coast; (4) construction of artificial subsurface dikes; and (5) development of a pumping trough adjacent to the coast. The California Legislature has appropriated $750,000 for an experimental program to determine design criteria for the prevention and control of sea‐water intrusion.

D ESPITE ITS recent drenching, Southern California is experiencing its eighteenth year of drought. The effects of low rainfall have been accentuated by increased per capita use of water and aggravated by a booming population resulting from the western migration. The result is a serious demand on California's water resouces, as well as on her scientific, engineering, management, legal, and political resourcefulness in meeting the challenge.The problem can be met in two ways: increase the supply or limit the demand. Both are necessary. Methods of increasing the supply range from experiments in saline water conversion, rain making and bizarre flirtations with juvenile water,' to bold and expensive projects to transport water great distances over the mountains from watersheds with surplus to areas of deficiency. Great aqueducts are not new in California, but the 1,750,-000,000 dollar California Water Resources Development Bond Act to conserve and transport water from Northern California to Southern California is the most ambitious project of its kind in America. 2 In limiting the demand for water California has been less imaginative. Americans are less prone to curb their appetites than they are to invent new ways to satisfy them; hence, there have been few attempts to stretch the available water supply. Conservation and reclamation are viewed as a last resort. While this philosophy is responsible in part for the people of California voting a multi-billion dollar project to import water into thirsty areas, it is equally accountable for squandering the local supply.One means of checking this waste lies in fully realizing the potential of the ground water resources of the state, followed by the inauguration and enforcement of a basin management program of ample scope to maximize the use of the state's ground water basins. I ESSENTIALS OF BASIN MANAGEMENTThe basic objective of ground water basin management is to achieve the

This paper discusses a few of the many serious and complex water quality problems confronting water users in California. For ease of presentation and discussion, these water quality problems are broadly grouped under conditions of pollution caused by sewage and industrial waste disposal, and degradation caused by man's development and use of the water itself. Minor quality of water problems resulting from natural causes are also recognized and discussed.

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