California drought disappearing
With the great amounts of rainfall and flooding this year, it’s hard to believe that just last year California was five years into a severe drought.
San Joaquin Valley’s water supply has improved drastically in just a few short months, with an above average snowpack in the Sierras and very full surface water reservoirs along several rivers, according to the USGS California Water Science Center. Groundwater aquifers have been a bit slower to recover, however.
“It takes longer for groundwater to recharge. The water levels have recovered somewhat,” said Claudia Faunt, hydrologist for the U.S. Geological Survey.
As of Feb. 28, approximately 75 percent of the state was no longer listed as having drought conditions, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor. Areas that remain in drought are primarily located in Southern California, near the coast and southern border.
By these measures, San Joaquin County is out of the drought.
However, San Joaquin County is keeping its drought proclamation in place until more information is collected, according to Virginia Rich, emergency planner with the San Joaquin County Office of Emergency Services.
“We’re waiting for the final snowpack readings in April before we make a recommendation to the board,” she said. Rich anticipates that they will get a good reading, which would be ideal to help carry the region through the dry months of summer.
Maintaining a drought proclamation allows the county to access more resources to help with drought-related issues. Programs funded in this way have included providing migrant workers who were out of work due to drought conditions with relief and creating water conservation and efficiency projects.
The state is also still operating under a drought declaration, which was made on May 9, 2016, and called for longer-term water conservation measures, including monthly water use reporting and improving agricultural water management and drought plans.
The years of drought have had significant effects on the Valley. Since surface water wasn’t readily available, more water was needed from the underground aquifer, putting a strain on that limited resource. Not much has been recharged, since the water has to drain down slowly through the soil, Faunt said.
“We’ve been taking out more than what nature’s been putting back in. It’s going to take a while to recover from that,” she said.
In parts of the Valley further south, the land has actually sunk in a process called subsidence, with the ground compacting in on the draining aquifer where the ground is more composed of clay. Areas in Madera have sunk by a foot a year over the past couple of years, Faunt said.
Faunt expressed the importance of recharge projects in times of excess water in between periods of drought. Some projects have already been put in place in the state with recharge ponds and with farmers using farmland to do groundwater recharge.
“The more we can do that, the better our underground aquifer will be. It’s our biggest reservoir,” she said.