Earlier this week, the Department of Water Resources (DWR) conducted a webinar briefing on the recently-released California’s Groundwater Update 2013: A Compilation of Enhanced Content for California Water Plan Update 2013 (Groundwater Update).
According to DWR, the goal for the Groundwater Update is “to provide foundational information to improve the statewide and regional understanding of groundwater conditions and management programs” and “help set the stage for future Bulletin 118 [California’s Groundwater report] and California Water Plan updates, and help local and regional agencies plan for sustainable groundwater management by providing an on-going reporting of essential groundwater data, information, and analyses.”
Included in the report is a thorough evaluation of groundwater resources in the Sacramento River Hydrologic Region. This chapter includes information on groundwater use, aquifer conditions and groundwater quality as well as a description of groundwater monitoring and management efforts in the region.
The report highlights the importance of groundwater use in the region, determining that approximately 30 percent of water use in the Sacramento Valley is supplied by groundwater.
Also noted in the report is that due to the considerable groundwater recharge from rivers, streams and unlined agricultural water distribution systems, most of the Sacramento Valley has groundwater located within 50 feet of ground surface.
For additional regional groundwater information, the Sacramento River Hydrologic Region chapter of the Groundwater Update is available here.
The complete Groundwater Update is available here.
