November 6, 2015
CapitalPress.com
11
California
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Study: Flood farms to recharge aquifers
By TIM HEARDEN
Capital Press
SACRAMENTO — Another
study is suggesting that rainwater
from this year’s anticipated wet
winter be captured and used to flood
farmland to replenish aquifers.
Research commissioned by the
California Water Foundation con-
cludes that flushing water through
the most porous soils could curb
groundwater overdraft on the San
Joaquin Valley’s east side by be-
tween 12 percent and 20 percent
each year.
State water experts blame the
overdraft for causing land in the val-
ley to sink at historic rates. A recent
National Aeronautics and Space
Administration study showed land
in the valley is sinking by nearly 2
inches per month in some places.
“Our study area focused in on a
three-county area — Merced, Made-
ra and Fresno counties,” said Andrew
Fahlund, the water foundation’s dep-
uty director. “We really found we
could make a significant contribution
to groundwater recharge through this
method of spreading water on irri-
gated farmland.”
Courtesy of Calif. Department. of Water Resources
A bridge over the Delta-Mendota Canal in Firebaugh, Calif., in the western San Joaquin Valley nearly touches the water
because of subsidence of land caused by groundwater pumping. A California Water Foundation study asserts flooding
farmland to recharge aquifers could curb subsidence by as much as 20 percent.
The research, conducted by RMC
Engineering, was separate from the
work being done by scientists An-
thonty O’Geen and Helen Dahlke
of the University of California’s
Division of Agriculture and Natural
Resources.
This summer, the two researchers
proposed using some of the state’s
3.6 million acres of farms and
ranches with suitable topography
and soil conditions to recharge aqui-
fers during winter months. Dahlke is
still conducting field experiments to
evaluate how much water can be re-
charged in a couple of weeks.
The water foundation study sug-
gests diverting excess river flows
from winter storms to active farm-
land. While excess flows aren’t
available every year, an average of
80,000 to 130,000 acre-feet per year
could be diverted to farmland suit-
able for recharge, the foundation
asserts.
While additional research is be-
ing done to make sure such a project
wouldn’t affect the productivity of
land or crops, some farm groups are
showing interest in the techniques.
“Almond growers are committed
to finding innovation solutions that
contribute to environmental sustain-
ability,” Almond Board of California
president and chief executive officer
Richard Waycott said in a statement.
The foundation — a nonprofit
group aimed at achieving a sustain-
able water supply in California — is
urging President Barack Obama’s
administration and Congress to en-
sure that money from federal pro-
grams can be used for such ground-
water-recharge projects, a news
release explained.
“I think there is an increased in-
terest in seeing how to accelerate
this in practice, but it requires ...
the cooperation of landowners and a
level of comfort and trust that hope-
fully studies like this can provide,”
Fahlund said. “I think we’ll see
increasing numbers of additional
studies, tests and pilot projects that
could really give producers a level of
comfort that this isn’t going to harm
their operations and could really en-
hance them through greater water
security.”
New UC endowments to fund ongoing pistachio research
By TIM HEARDEN
Capital Press
University of California
leaders have joined a pista-
chio group in setting up the
first of what officials hope
will be many endowments to
provide ongoing funding for
agricultural research.
The UC and the Califor-
nia Pistachio Research Board
have established two endowed
chairs of $1 million each, the
accrued interest from which
will be used over the next
five years for studies on tree
nut genetics, soil science and
plant-water relations.
Glenda Humiston, the
UC’s vice president for agri-
culture and natural resources,
said she’s having discussions
with several other groups to
set up similar funding streams
for other areas of agriculture.
In each case, a private group
would provide half the fund-
ing.
“This is a form of funding
that is crucial as we move for-
ward,” Humiston told a gath-
ering Oct. 29 at the UC’s Ke-
arney Agricultural Research
and Extension Center in Parli-
er, Calif. The announcement
was streamed online.
“We’ve seen the volatility
of funding in past years” as
state and federal budgets fluc-
tuate, she said. “This brings a
little stability to funding.”
Endowed chairs are fix-
tures at Harvard University
and other top institutions as a
way to fund specific types of
medical and other research.
UC President Janet Napoli-
tano announced last year that
she would seek endowment
partners for all of the univer-
sity’s campuses and for Coop-
erative Extension.
The pistachio research
board was established in 2007
and has used grower assess-
ments to donate about $4.5
million for research so far,
said Tom Coleman, a Fres-
no County grower and the
board’s chairman.
“The pistachio industry be-
ing new has been very unique
in my involvement in that oth-
er growers want to help every
other grower out there,” Cole-
man told the gathering. “I’ve
had a couple of issues in my
career when I couldn’t figure
out what the problem was,
and I had people just show
up at my ranch ... to help me
Courtesy of UCANR
Glenda Humiston, the University of California’s vice president for
agriculture and natural resources, announces a pair of research
endowments Oct. 29 at the UC’s Kearney Agricultural Research
and Extension Center in Parlier, Calif.
out.”
Pistachios were introduced
in California in the 1930s as
part of a U.S. Department of
Agriculture crop program,
and the region’s first commer-
cial growers started producing
pistachios in the late 1960s
and early 1970s, research
board manager Bob Klein ex-
plained.
There are now more than
225,000 bearing acres and
more than 300,000 total acres
of pistachios in California,
mostly growing in the San
Joaquin Valley, Klein said.
The endowments come as
this year’s pistachio yields
were lighter than expected as
some growers encountered
more empty shells than nor-
mal because of the drought
and a lack of chilling hours
last winter.
Growers expect the yields
to total about half of last
year’s, when 520 million
pounds of pistachios were
produced.
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