Wednesday March 19, 2025
Silicon Valley Voice —
After abundant rain and moderate snowfall this year in the northern half of the state, California’s largest reservoirs are holding more than 120% of their historical average. But underground, the state’s supply of water for drinking and irrigating crops remains depleted.
Even after multiple wet winters, and despite a state law that’s supposed to protect and restore the state’s precious groundwater, thousands of wells — mostly in rural, low-income communities in the San Joaquin Valley — have gone dry because of over-pumping by growers.
So why hasn’t the recent bounty of rain and snow replenished the state’s underground supplies?
The Newsom administration has been pushing for more groundwater storage and investing hundreds of millions of dollars in solutions, but most stormwater flows into the ocean. Some of this is intentional — the water has to be routed quickly away from communities to prevent flooding, while some supports aquatic ecosystems, including endangered salmon.
But millions of acre feet escape every year because there is no statewide system of pumps, pipelines and ponds to capture it and let it sink into the ground.