10 CapitalPress.com
August 28, 2015
California
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Pumping causing Calif. land to
sink at historic rate, state says
By TIM HEARDEN
Online
Capital Press
SACRAMENTO — State
water experts say all the
drought-related groundwater
pumping in California’s Central
Valley is causing land to sink at
historic rates, and they’re taking
steps to alleviate the problem.
The state Department of Wa-
ter Resources is setting aside
$10 million from the $7.5 billion
water bond voters approved last
fall to help communities with
depleted aquifers enact pump-
ing ordinances and conservation
plans.
Further, Gov. Jerry Brown’s
Drought Task Force plans to
work with affected communi-
ties to develop near-term and
long-term recommendations to
reduce the rate of sinkage and
address risks to structures such
as bridges, state officials said.
The moves come as a new
National Aeronautics and Space
Administration study showed
land in the valley is sinking by
nearly 2 inches per month in
some places. A “great majori-
ty” of the subsidence is being
caused by agriculture, DWR di-
rector Mark Cowin told report-
ers in a conference call Aug. 19.
“Generally speaking, it’s an
effect that occurs when pump-
ing takes place that de-waters
the fine grain layers in an aqui-
fer, causing them to compact,”
NASA subsidence findings:
http://water.ca.gov/watercondi-
tions/index.cfm
Cowin explained. “The effect
is often imperceptible because
it occurs over large segments of
land, but it can cause damage (to
infrastructure).
“Subsidence isn’t new,” he
said. “It has occurred in the Cen-
tral Valley for many, many de-
cades, but it tends to occur more
frequently during periods of
drought” to make up for short-
ages in surface water, he added.
Some counties are already
taking steps to curb pumping
from stressed groundwater ba-
sins. Merced County placed
strict regulations on new wells
and groundwater transfers earli-
er this year, and Glenn County
supervisors voted 4-0 on Aug.
18 to place a six-month mora-
torium on approving new wells.
With tighter state regulations
coming, “I do think it’s time
that we sort of take a step back
and come up with better ways
to release well permits,” Glenn
County Supervisor Leigh Mc-
Daniel told his colleagues. “I’m
not saying the moratorium is to
completely shut down working
on wells for eternity, but what I
am saying is we need to make a
quick pause ... to make sure the
same resource and the same life-
style are here for the generations
to come.”
Though subsidence isn’t
new, land is sinking faster in
some areas than ever before as
the drought lingers for a fourth
year, according to the NASA
study. The space agency gath-
ered data by comparing aerial
photos and satellite images of
the Earth’s surface over time.
In Corcoran, Calif., for in-
stance, land sank 13 inches
in eight months, or about 1.6
inches per month, the study
found. An area of the Sacramen-
to Valley was sinking about a
half-inch per month, faster than
before, according to NASA’s
measurements.
The sinking land has already
destroyed many well casings
in the San Joaquin Valley and
could cause breakages in aque-
ducts, bridges, roads and flood
control structures while perma-
nently reducing the aquifer’s
water storage capacity, officials
said.
The study lends a sense of
urgency as California lawmak-
ers last year passed a package of
laws requiring local water agen-
cies to formulate groundwater
management plans by 2020 or
2022, depending on the region.
Possible actions outlined in a
strategic plan put out for review
earlier this year include devel-
oping comprehensive water
budgets for groundwater basins,
prioritizing basins, developing
best-management practices for
groundwater use, developing a
groundwater information sys-
tem and establishing well stan-
dards.
Cowin said the state won’t
seek to implement the new laws
more quickly because of the
study.
“As you’re aware, a lot of
negotiations and thought went
into developing the terms of the
Sustainable Groundwater Man-
agement Act, and the fact of the
matter is that it will take time for
local governments to develop
the relationships and programs
needed to implement the act,”
he told reporters. “That’s just a
fact of life ... I do think there are
near-term measures we can take
to limit pumping subsidence.”
Both the DWR and NASA
pledge to keep studying the
subsidence issue. The DWR
will evaluate subsidence along
the California Aqueduct and the
condition of State Water Project
facilities and develop a capital
improvement program to repair
damage from subsidence, ac-
cording to a news release.
NASA will continue its mon-
itoring using data from the Eu-
ropean Space Agency’s recently
launched Sentinel-1 mission to
cover a broader area and iden-
tify more vulnerable locations,
the release explained.
Tim Hearden/Capital Press
Shasta County Assessor-Recorder Leslie Morgan, left, and
deputy assessor-recorder David Baker point out county records of
water rights during a University of California Cooperative Exten-
sion-sponsored workshop Aug. 20 at the Shasta Livestock Auction
Yard in Cottonwood, Calif.
Attorneys urge Calif.
landowners to document
their water rights
By TIM HEARDEN
Capital Press
COTTONWOOD, Calif.
— Water attorneys and experts
implored landowners to keep
detailed records of their wa-
ter rights handy in case they’re
challenged or curtailed by state
officials.
They told about 150 ranch-
ers and other landowners at-
tending a workshop Aug. 20 to
be prepared to go up the chain
of command of the State Wa-
ter Resources Control Board to
present their case.
“The water board has taken it
on itself to do the math and find
out how much water is available
in each stream,” said Jack Rice,
a California Farm Bureau Fed-
eration attorney specializing in
water issues.
“The key message is you’d
better know your water rights,”
Rice said. “There’s going to be
a lot more pressure. … We can’t
defend ourselves if we’re unin-
formed.”
Area ranchers packed the
sale arena at the Shasta Live-
stock Auction Yard in Cotton-
wood, where experts during
the University of California
Cooperative Extension-spon-
sored workshop explained the
different types of water rights
and how landowners could doc-
ument them.
Despite ruling, Farm Bureau still seeking to challenge permit requirements
By TIM HEARDEN
Capital Press
COTTONWOOD, Calif.
— A local Farm Bureau office
chose not to appeal a court de-
cision requiring permits for
simple water diversions because
a broader decision by the state
Supreme Court would further
hamper growers, an organiza-
tion official says.
But the California Farm Bu-
reau Federation is still looking
for opportunities to challenge
the state Department of Fish and
Wildlife’s new policy of requir-
ing streambed alteration permits
on streams that are habitat for
imperiled fish, attorney Jack
Rice said.
“We really need to think stra-
tegically about what we want to
do,” Rice said, adding that a leg-
islative approach is also possible
next year.
The policy “is an issue we’re
going to be facing for a long
time,” he told ranchers who
packed the sale arena at the
Shasta Livestock Auction Yard
for a water rights workshop on
Aug. 20.
The case arose after Fish
and Wildlife began requiring
special permits for irrigation
with water from the Shasta and
Scott rivers in Siskiyou Coun-
ty, which are key spawning
grounds for endangered coho
salmon.
The Siskiyou County Farm
Bureau filed suit in 2012 to
block the DFW from enforc-
ing what ranchers have called
its “new” interpretation of Fish
and Game Code Section 1602,
which deals with water diver-
sions from rivers and streams.
The suit asserted that farmers
holding diversion rights on the
Shasta and Scott rivers needed
declaratory relief or they could
face misdemeanor charges and
civil and criminal penalties of
more than $25,000 per violation.
Siskiyou County Superior
Court Judge Karen Dixon ruled
in late 2012 that the state over-
stepped its authority, but the
Third District Court of Appeals
overturned that decision in June,
ruling that diversions are subject
to streambed alteration permit
provisions in the Fish and Game
Code.
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