Contemporary Groundwater Issues Council Identifies Strategies for Safeguarding Water Quality in our Drive to Enhance Groundwater Recharge in California BY SARAH MASS Sarah Mass is an Environmental Engineer at Haley & Aldrich with a passion for PFAS and analytical chemistry.
The problems with over-drafted groundwater basins are familiar to many in California. The 2014 Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA) recognizes groundwater as a significant and critical source of local water supply and required local agencies to bring SGMA-designated groundwater basins into balanced levels of pumping and recharge by the early 2040s. Increasing recharge of local and imported surface water, recycled water, and stormwater is a major component of sustainable groundwater management. For example, according to a Public Policy Institute of California report, agencies in San Joaquin Valley proposed to increase groundwater recharge by a combined total of just under one million acre-feet per year. In addition to requiring sustainable management of groundwater levels, SGMA requires protection against water quality degradation from recharge activities. However, some sources of recharge 36 HYDROVISIONS
2020 Winter Issue