March 19, 2024 #1 Local News, Forum, Information and Event Source for Venice Beach, California.

Column: Groundwater Law Has Not Stopped Subsidence

By Tom Elias

Drive almost any road in the vast San Joaquin Valley and you’ll see irrigation pipes standing up several feet tall in the middle of fields and orchards, pipes that once were underground.

These metallic artifacts are emblematic of the utter failure of a 2014 law once billed by then-Gov. Jerry Brown as a landmark achievement. The omnipresent pipes, often unnoticed by speeding motorists, are symptoms of subsidence, the result of decades of overpumping groundwater in all the frequent episodes when California endured drought conditions, right up to this moment.

Pumping their ever-deeper wells has been about the only way the state’s huge and nationally vital agribusiness community could maintain production of everything from peaches to peas, broccoli to pistachios, tomatoes to citrus, cotton to cauliflower, when snowpack has been thin atop the high Sierra Nevada Mountains and the state’s two large aqueducts cut back their deliveries to mere drops – as they’ve had to do this summer.

The 2014 law was actually a rather ho-hum, non-crisis approach to something that was already a big problem many years before the law passed. The timetable of the law has increased metering on wells tapping into groundwater, but leaves no limit on what anyone can pump until 2030, when it may be too late.

For, as a new Stanford University study shows, not only are the state’s groundwater reserves disappearing, but it’s decreasingly likely they can ever be restored to historic previous levels, or that the land subsidence which leaves irrigation pipes standing high above the land they water can ever be completely reversed.

The comforting thought behind making water wells ever deeper as farms chase new groundwater supplies has always been that recharging the natural storage basins below ground level will eventually replace whatever is used.

The study, from Stanford’s School of Earth, Energy and Environmental Sciences. suggests this isn’t so. In fact, the research suggests ground can continue to sink even if groundwater levels are stable or rising. That’s because when water is taken from the ground, the sheer weight of the land above the storage basin causes a partial collapse of sub-surface rocks around the storage spaces, known as aquifers.

Even refilling those spaces above capacity – not a realistic possibility in the near future – cannot fully reverse this effect. The Stanford research indicated it’s unrealistic to expect ground levels ever to re-rise more than about one-third of the distance they have dropped.

Subsidence levels vary a bit, but so far, they typically total about 20 feet over the last 65 years, gradual but now very visible. That only becomes disastrous when it affects things on the surface, like cracking roads and bridges and moving foundations of homes and other buildings.

The 2014 law, called the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act, forced local water districts to make plans for avoiding “significant and unreasonable” new subsidence. It did not require those agencies to figure out how to prevent disputes between farmers or cities when one well-owner drills deeper and siphons off supplies from others.

This very phenomenon has caused at least two episodes where portions of Central Valley cities suddenly saw their faucets run dry, forcing them to import supplies from unaffected nearby areas. This can be both expensive and unfair, but there’s often little the owners of suddenly dry wells can do about it. For one thing, farmers and cities whose wells dry up can’t always tell where their water went or who took it. They can only be sure it flowed downhill and away from them.

All of which makes it very obvious that the 2014 law was far too meek when it passed and that more serious action to regulate and reduce groundwater use is needed.

But that is not a priority for the current Legislature, dominated by coastal, urban politicians whose constituents are untouched by what’s happening under the ground where their food supplies are grown. Nor have Central Valley lawmakers done much, not wishing to offend corporate farms that often donate big campaign dollars.

Which means more fields will be fallowed in the next few years, more wells will run dry, more cities will take emergency steps to find water supplies and the ground will likely sink ever lower.

Email Thomas Elias at tdelias@aol.com. His book, “The Burzynski Breakthrough, The Most Promising Cancer Treatment and the Government’s Campaign to Squelch It,” is now available in a soft cover fourth edition. For more Elias columns, visit www.californiafocus.net

in Opinion
Related Posts

New Program Can Help Protect Southern California Homes in the Event of an Earthquake

May 13, 2023

May 13, 2023

Residents Have Until May 31 To Apply For Seismic Retrofit Grants By Janiele Maffei, Chief Mitigation Officer for the California...

Venice Shorts: Tree Trimming Underway Thanks to the Vsa!

April 28, 2023

April 28, 2023

VSA Has Taken up the Task of Trimming Italian Stone Pine Trees. By Nick Antonicello Following the recent toppling of...

Venice Stakeholders Association’s Comments on Traci Park’s Broken Bridge Housing Promise

April 24, 2023

April 24, 2023

By Marc Ryavec I have been struggling with how to address the phenomenon that someone I and many others in...

Column: Tired OF Declinists? Some Enduring New California Positives

April 18, 2023

April 18, 2023

By Thomas D. Elias California has taken a beating lately, with (mostly Republican) governors of other states blasting many aspects...

Venice Shorts: The South Venice Blvd Encampment, Is It a Candidate for a City Cleanup?

April 14, 2023

April 14, 2023

One of the last of the large encampments closest to the beach, Venetians are hopeful help is on the way!...

Venice Shorts: Averill Defeats Tyminski 63%-37% to Become President of Venice Neighborhood Council

April 3, 2023

April 3, 2023

In second bid for top spot, surfer/photographer Brian Averill coasts to an easy win against Venice attorney and outgoing Vice-President...

Column: Install at LAX Tiny Homes From The State Grant

March 31, 2023

March 31, 2023

By Clark Brown On March 16  Governor Newsom announced in Sacramento, his first stop on his State of the State of...

Venice Shorts: Night & Day – Flower & Lincoln Transformed, Back in Business

March 28, 2023

March 28, 2023

By Nick Antonicello In what was a Venice eyesore just a few months ago has been transformed into a place...

Opinion: Please Vote for Daffodil Tyminski

March 25, 2023

March 25, 2023

This is Tom Williams, your neighbor at 1011 Main Street.  With the upcoming VNC election this Sunday, I wanted to reach...

Venice Shorts: Popular Local Jim Robb Seeks Vp Slot, Endorses Brian Averill for President of the VNC!

March 23, 2023

March 23, 2023

By Nick Antonicello  VENICE – In a twist of events longtime Community Officer Jim Robb will now be seeking the...

Venice Shorts: Tabor Family Legacy Amara Hordt Seeks Seat on VNC This Sunday!

March 22, 2023

March 22, 2023

Local realtor looks to follow a family legacy of engaged community involvement here in Venice By Nick Antonicello VENICE –...

Venice Shorts: Erica Moore, A Cheerleader For Venice In Her Run For Community Officer!

March 22, 2023

March 22, 2023

By Nick Antonicello VENICE – Local caterer Erica Moore is making a second run for the Venice Neighborhood Council, but...

Venice Shorts: Running Unopposed, Nico Ruderman’s Deep Dive Into Politics and Government Continues!

March 22, 2023

March 22, 2023

By Nick Antonicello VENICE – It has been an interesting two years of political action, involvement and advocacy for Nico...

Venice Shorts: “V” for Venice Volunteer

March 20, 2023

March 20, 2023

Media professional, local business owner and Dad, Eric Alan Donaldson is defined by his volunteerism and love of Venice. By...

Deborah Keaton, a Consensus Building Candidate for VNC Community Officer!

March 20, 2023

March 20, 2023

Creative director, global brander and private business owner seeks a general consensus on what’s best for Venice moving forward.  By...