Summary appraisals of the nation's ground-water resources – California region

Abstract

Most people in the California Region live in a semiarid or arid climate, with precipitation less than the potential evapotranspiration-environments of perennial water deficiency. The deficiency becomes most onerous during the characteristically rainless summers and during recurrent droughts that may continue for 10--20 years. However, water from winter rain and snow can be stored for use during the dry summer months, and water stored during a wet climatic period can be used in a succeeding dry period; moreover, perennial deficiency can be overcome by bringing water from areas of perennial surplus. Ground-water reservoirs have especial significance in arid and semiarid regions as repositories where water is stored or can be stored with minimum loss by evaporation.Nearly all the ground-water reservoirs of the California Region are in alluvial sediments of valleys and plains that flank the mountain ranges. The largest, underlying the vast Central Valley, occupies 10 El E2 SUMMARY APPRAISALS OF THE NATION'S GROUND-WATER RESOURCES water with complacency. But complacency can lead to neglect and carelessness and consequent deterioration of the ground-water resource by pollution.Claiming heritage from the English Common Law, the existing California law grants to the landowner (riparian) and private enterprise (appropriator) rights to the water stored in ground-water reservoirs or discharged from them, including the base flow of streams. Ground-water development has been by private and local enterprise, and the California legislature has protected and encouraged local responsibility, control, and management of ground water. As to surface water, a constitutional amendment in 1928 limited riparian rights to the quantities of water that were "reasonably required for the beneficial use to be served." The surpluses have become public waters which are collected, stored, transported, and delivered under various contracts by Federal, State, and other agencies. The agencies have not stored water underground because of uncertainty as to their rights, but some local agencies have been encouraged with favorable pricing schedules to undertake the artificial recharge and management of ground-water reservoirs. Thus, conjunctive use of surface and ground water has become a matter of interagency negotiation.Of all the constraints on effective use of ground-water reservoirs, the most formidable may be the attitudes of people. Assurance of water supply is vital in areas of water deficiency, and Government has assumed increasing responsibility for the welfare of people in these areas. Unfortunately, when Government provides this assurance, most beneficiaries demand continued subsidy to the exclusion of perhaps cheaper private development. Indeed, as the water resources are presently segregated-with private rights predominant in ground water and public interest dominant in surface water-ground-water development has suffered for lack of public concern. The region has the scientific and technologic capability for effective use of groundwater re...

Ground-water flow in the Central Valley, California

“…The simulations indicated that vertical leakance greatly increased from the predevelopment values as a result of water flowing through some of the more than 100,000 irrigation well casings which are open to different aquifer layers. (Thomas and Phoenix, 1976). Thus, agricultural development in the valley is dependent on water from sources other than direct precipitation.…”

Hydrogeology and land subsidence, Edwards Air Force Base, Antelope Valley, California, January 1989-December 1991

“…Duell (1987) reviewed the available ground-water-quality data for the Antelope Valley for the purpose of designing a water-quality monitoring network. Land subsidence in the Antelope Valley resulting from ground-water withdrawals for agricultural, municipal, and industrial water use was reported by Lewis andMiller (1968), McMillan (1973), Thomas andPhoenix (1976), Holzer (1984), and Blodgett and Williams (1992). As early as 1947, the California Department of Water Resources (1947), California Department of Public Works (1955) and Snyder (1955) documented that the annual ground-water pumpage in Antelope Valley exceeded the estimated average annual ground-water recharge.…”

Environmental setting of the San Joaquin-Tulare basins, California

“…This practice restricted agriculture to lands in the vicinity of major surface-water supplies (California Department of Water Resources, 1982, p. 25-27). The discovery of gold in the Sierra Nevada in January 1848 accelerated the influx of settlers (Thomas and Phoenix, 1976, p. E10) and, with this influx, the development of water resources. Reservoirs and widespread networks of ditches and flumes were built to divert water from streams at higher elevations and to sluice the goldbearing deposits.…”