The guidelines provide some basic, but pointed, advice on how San Joaquin Valley groundwater managers can best stop, slow or even reverse subsidence, which a 2014 report shows had cost billions of dollars up to that time in history.
Managers should put more water, lots more, into withered aquifers to bring land elevations back up, according to the new guidelines. They should better understand the substrata of their regions in order to predict how over pumping will impact the land. And they should act regionally.
One groundwater agency or water district can’t fix the problem without help from surrounding districts, the new guidelines state.
Yup, was essentially the reaction from Eric R. Quinley, general manager of Delano-Earlimart Irrigation District and Groundwater Sustainability Agency who has been preaching about the need to address subsidence impacts to neighboring districts for years…