User:MackennaS/sandbox

Contaminated groundwater in the Central Valley

Contaminated groundwater in the Central Valley is a growing problem in many of the agriculture-based communities based in the area. Combined with the overdraft of the underground aquifers, groundwater contamination is becoming increasingly worrisome as the amount of clean groundwater dwindles down. Near-term solutions to this growing problem are often costly and hard to implement in a timely manner while also clearing the water as safe to use. Currently nitrates are the most abundant of these pollutants in the Central Valley due to the copious amounts of agricultural runoff that comes from the numerous farms in the valley.

Background

The pumping of groundwater has been happening in the valley since 1850, when residents began to construct pumps to help make up for the lack of surface water in the area. From 1906 to 1920 alone, the number of wells jumped from 600 to nearly 11,000 and continued increasing dramatically with the invention of a deep-well turbine pump that allowed farmers to dig even deeper into the aquifer. The Central Valley contains an estimated 7 million of the state’s total 9 million acres² of cropland, many of which depend on groundwater to sustain its crops. Furthermore, over 80% of California’s dairies are located within the Central Valley with an estimated 1.8 million mature cows calling the area home. This makes these aquifers extremely important because groundwater supplies much of the water needed for agriculture to be grown and serves as the only source of water for several communities throughout the valley. However, there is not a reciprocal amount of water being used to recharge the aquifers and recent years have seen an increase in wells drying up. This overdraft of groundwater is causing numerous problems for farmers throughout the valley and is only made worse with the effects of climate change. The first bill that was passed regulating groundwater access, the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act, was the first of its kind to specify how to manage the groundwater in a way that would not harm or endanger the future generation's access to clean, groundwater. Before this act, there was no regulations surrounding groundwater management other than the Safe Drinking Water Act and the Clean Water Act. Even these acts, however, do not totally protect Central Valley residents. For example, if aquifers are thought to already be contaminated, under the Safe Drinking Water Act, that aquifer can now accept wastewater from drilling projects because no residents should be receiving water from these wells. However, this results in low income communities potentially losing the majority of their water source