The State Board of Food and Agriculture today held a public forum on “Managed Groundwater Recharge to Support Sustainable Water Management.” The purpose of the forum was to identify benefits, opportunities and barriers; gather momentum; and expand the implementation of managed groundwater recharge projects at all scales on agricultural lands and working landscapes for flood rick reduction, drought preparedness, and aquifer and ecosystem restoration.
The Northern California Water Association in its presentation for the forum highlighted that “the State of California has strong policies to encourage managed groundwater and aquifer recharge, which is an important part of a statewide water management portfolio that will be necessary for California to serve water for various beneficial uses.” NCWA also offered several thoughts on how state and local agencies can work together to effectively implement these policies by aligning them with local efforts to improve groundwater recharge and the conjunctive management of surface and groundwater resources. A full copy of Managed Groundwater Recharge to Support Sustainable Water Management: A Sacramento Valley Perspective is available HERE.
The presentation articulated ideas on how state and local agencies can work together to pursue additional opportunities for managed groundwater and aquifer recharge, with a focus on three themes that are important to the Sacramento Valley:
• Multi-benefit approaches (i.e., water for farms, fish, birds, flood protection) that benefit groundwater recharge;
• Envisioning a new regulatory approach to encourage recharge opportunities; and
• Local SGMA implementation opportunities in the Sacramento Valley for groundwater recharge.
