WATER FOR THE FUTUREBuilding a subterranean savings account to weather future droughts

Our Golden State works

hard for us. We depend on

California’s land, air, and water

for so much – our nourishment,

our shelter, our inspiration.

California’s water in particular

has been working overtime. The

ongoing drought has depleted

our most precious resource as we

struggle to fill the thirsty gaps left

in the wake of five parched years.

We can’t live without water to

hydrate us and grow our food, but

how can we balance these needs

when shortages loom large?

In 2015, you helped advance

Sustainable Conservation’s

innovative answer to that tough

question: focus on building an

underground “savings account”

to help California meet future

droughts with less fear and

a bigger nest egg. Sound

clandestine? While the answer

isn’t above ground, it couldn’t be

more above board.

Long-term groundwater

overdraft – where our precious

subterranean water stores have

been pumped beyond their

means – and years of drought in

the San Joaquin Valley threaten

the reliability of drinking water for

local communities and irrigation

water for crop production.

REPLENISHES GROUNDWATER

ENSURES DRINKING WATER FOR RURAL

COMMUNITIES

SAVES DOWNSTREAM COMMUNITIES

FROM FLOODING

In 2015, we secured over:

20 farmers offering 131 sites on nearly 15,000 acres growing at least 11 different crops willing to demonstrate on-farm groundwater recharge.

Winter runoff flows onto a Modesto, Calif. almond orchard to replenish groundwater for future irrigation needs. Growing in popularity thanks to Sustainable Conservation and our partners, this practice can help build California’s underground “savings account” for meeting dry times on the horizon.

SUSTAINABLE CONSERVATION2015 IMPACT REPORT STORY

bit.ly/2015impactreport

This special part of our state needs our attention.

Not only does this fertile agricultural swath help

feed the nation; it also contains an abundance of

groundwater basins. Throughout California, these

basins currently have three times greater water

storage capacity than all of the developed reservoirs

scattered across our Golden State. A ha!

While some wells have run dry, Sustainable

Conservation’s solutions spring eternal. We and our

partners – including the Almond Board of California,

UC Davis, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory,

and a growing number of irrigation districts – are

putting to work an affordable, practical way to

store more water in those groundwater basins:

flood flows that come racing down rivers during

wet seasons can be safely diverted onto cropland

to percolate down slowly and replenish depleted

aquifers beneath the earth’s surface.

With your support in 2015, our focus on this

underground crisis united a host of above-ground

partners – farmers – interested in trying out

this unique solution to our state’s water woes.

Sustainable Conservation staff logged thousands

of miles interviewing folks one-on-one, holding

community workshops, and spreading the good

news about the hopeful strategy with major

potential to balance groundwater pumping and

replenishment.

We’re happy to report a flood of interest poured

in. Over 20 farmers with 131 sites on nearly 15,000

acres growing at least 11 different crops want to join

us in building our state’s water “savings account.”

On-farm recharge offers the most economical way

to replenish up to 1/3 of the annual overdraft in

critical areas of the San Joaquin Valley.

It may be tough to picture now, but rainy days will

return to California. Due to climate change, future

storm events will be stronger than ever. Thanks to

you, we will be poised to meet and store away the

deluge for dry times on the horizon.

Sustainable Conservation helps California thrive by uniting people to solve the toughest challenges facing our land, air, and water.

98 Battery Street, Suite 302, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94111, 415-977-0380 • 201 Needham Street, MODESTO, CA 95354, 209-579-7729 • suscon.org

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Sustainable Conservation Senior Project Manager Joe Choperena checks a data logger on a Madera almond orchard.

Decision Support Tool

In partnership with Earth Genome, Sustainable Conservation continues to develop a geospatial scenario testing software tool.

This tool will help Groundwater Sustainability Agencies (GSAs) identify the best bang for the

buck recharge options from a mix of different methods: via active cropland, fallow land, and/or dedicated recharge basins.

Starting in spring 2017, the Madera and Tulare irrigation districts will field-test and refine the tool prototype to encourage wide-spread adoption in the future.