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Groundwater Taps and Tabs

All new above-ground reservoirs have been blocked for two decades by environmentalists and other political interests, prompting calls by state leaders for studies of an underground, geographically defined reservoir. The idea, also called `conjunctive use' or water mining, could cost $80-$113 per acre-foot of water according to new studies of two potential underground reservoirs in Sutter and Yolo counties. Once built, the cost of extracting the underground water would fall to less than $20 per acre-foot. The state paid $125 per acre-foot for water during the 1991 drought.

The latest research, released last month and called the American Basin Conjunctive Use Project Feasibility Study, concludes that an underground reservoir is technically and economically feasible at a site spanning both Sutter and Placer counties and located 50 feet below farmlands. The reservoir, which would cost about $14.2 million to build, would be filled to about 5 feet above the usual groundwater level and drained to about 5 feet below that level over a 150 square-mile area. Throw in the proposed Yolo reservoir, and 75,000 new acre-feet of water becomes available to be tapped only during drought years and then recharged during normal and wet years.

In other news, many counties and water districts are moving to keep better tabs on private and state taps on groundwater. The Sacramento Metropolitan Water Agency, the South Sutter Water District, and Butte and Yuba counties are among those in various stages of forming new groundwater management and regulation entities, according to Water Resources' Toccoy Dudley. Dudley says the state hopes these new initiatives may lead to better understanding of the resource and how it may be used as a source of water for export.

Contact: Toccoy Dudley (916)227-7590

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