Alastair Bland. “How Wet Weather Impacted California’s Groundwater Deficit”. News Deeply. Published on 8 May, 2017.
Article summary The chosen article is “How Wet Weather Impacted California’s Groundwater Deficit” written by Alastair Bland. This article has been published on May 8, 2017. The article discusses about the how the water agencies must find efficient ways to refill depleted aquifers. Based on the groundwater expert, Thomas Harter in this article stated that it is not so easy to fix the California’s surface water drought.
According to a hydrologist named Davis from University of California said that water agencies must find efficient ways to refill aquifers even though there are heavy rains and snow over past few months in California because it just only last only a season or two. In a long term, California’s groundwater supply slowly shrinking because the withdrawal water from the ground faster than the water is being replaced by downward percolation.
They need to identify methods for diverting surplus surface water during wet winters into areas where it can sink into the ground and recharge overdrawn aquifers. There are 2 types of aquifers which are unconfined aquifers such as clay that has space between porous materials and confined aquifers that located beneath a rock layer that does not allow water to permeate (Water Education, 2016). In the porous soils, the ground will take in to fill with water. The underground reserves that it has received a significant recharge and which water policy analysts want to replenish through innovative diversion and storage system.
But, according to Harter from his recent post in California WaterBlog, this state has more dry years than wet years and this situation had led to an overall loss of groundwater. This has caused the storage space that cannot be regained since the sunken land cannot be elevated again. While the wet winter has relieved surface drought conditions, dry weather is certain to return and possibly for long interval.
Harter, in this article said that the local agencies establish sustainable groundwater use plans. Many agencies will come up with proposals to accelerate groundwater recharge into California’s enormous subterranean reservoir space. Here, looser soils over millions of acres could mean doubling recharge rates in wet years.
Critical evaluation This article suggested on how wet weather impacted the groundwater deficit. Based on the article, there are no permanent solutions for this issue. This article has only suggested on how they can controlled this problems only for few seasons. This article may benefit in groundwater issue as it provided a few suggestions to overcome this issue so that they can regained groundwater sources.
But, this problem cannot be easily solved and it can affect the environmental due to the depletion of groundwater sources. The increased use of groundwater gives rise to several problems because the country groundwater is being used for domestic, industrial and irrigation purpose. The groundwater of San Joaquin Valley is under immense pressure as it is being heavily used for drinking as well as for other activities that require water, resulting in a decline of its water level. However, because there is no regular monitoring program, groundwater depletion rate is uncertain in the San Joaquin Valley.
Although U.S. groundwater withdrawals amount to only about 10% of the country's overall groundwater supply, much if this water is drawn from large parts of Southwest and centre smaller area elsewhere. The major groundwater overdraft problem is in part of the California-size Ogallala Aquifer extending across the farming belt from northern Nebraska to north-western Texas.
For recharging aquifer, deep groundwater can be pumped up and spread out over the ground to recharge shallow aquifers, or it can be injected directly into an aquifer through a well. But this can deplete deep aquifers and contaminate shallow aquifers because deep groundwater often has high dissolved-mineral content. Another approach is to recharge aquifers with irrigation water, wastewater, and cooling water from industries and power plants. But much of this water is lost by evaporation, and in many cases it is better and cheaper to reuse cooling water in the industries and power plants themselves. The most effective solution is to reduce the amount of groundwater withdrawn by wasting less irrigation water and by abandoning irrigation in arid and semiarid areas.
Groundwater overdrafts can also cause the land overlying aquifer to sink, or subside. Groundwater in an unconfined aquifer fills the pores in the soil above and thus helps support it. When groundwater is withdrawn faster than it is replenished, the soil becomes compacted and subsides. Such subsidence has been a major problem in parts of the southwest and southern California. Widespread subsidence in the San Joaquin Valley of California has damaged homes, factories, pipeline, highways, and railroad beds. Some cities are sinking at a disastrous rate because of a combination of groundwater over drafting, petroleum mining, rising sea levels, and the weight of tall buildings.
In conclusion, this article have published a good information that could have a huge influence on the issue on groundwater’s deficit in California as it had provided on how weather impacted in this issue . Further research should be done to explore more about this issue and find a solution to overcome this problem.
References Alastair Bland (2017). How Wet Weather Impacted California’s Groundwater Deficit. News Deeply. Retrieved from https://www.newsdeeply.com/water/articles/2017/05/08/how- wet-weather-impacted-californias-groundwater-deficit
Ram Charitra Sah (2001). Groundwater Depletion and Its Impact on Environment. Pro Public. Nepal.