Podcasts about sustainable groundwater management act

U.S. farm bankruptcies surged 55% in 2024 after years of decline, with California at the forefront. Lower commodity prices, high input costs, and mounting debt are pushing family farmers to the brink.

California's Sustainable Groundwater Management Act has reshaped groundwater use for many farmers and groundwater users, and Ag Secretary Brooke Rollins announced a second round of payments for producers through the Marketing Assistance for Specialty Crops Program.

On Episode 46 of the TID Water & Power Podcast we're joined by TID's Chief Hydrologist, Olivia Cramer, to discuss the current water year.From water available for irrigation to hydropower generation to flood control, TID is acutely aware of, and extremely dependent on, the hydrology of our watershed and local area. We've also lived through enough of the extremes – from drought to flooding - in just the last ten years even – to know that a normal water year is rarely the norm. Thankfully, TID has a hardworking Hydrology team, constantly modeling the often erratic behavior of our weather system, to help us sort it all out. On this episode we to discuss the current water year, potential outcomes over the next few months, and how those outcomes may affect the irrigation season and TID operations. Let's get social! Facebook: @TurlockIDInstagram: @TurlockIDTwitter: @TurlockIDLinkedIn: /company/turlockid Find out more about TID at https://www.TID.org/podcast.

California's Sustainable Groundwater Management Act is a decade old. The Crocker Art Museum's Lial Jones retires at the end of the year. Finally, a local opera prodigy is now pursuing her Ph.D. and performing overseas. 10 Years of California's SGMA

As California's Sustainable Groundwater Management Act ramps up, farmers who learned late about the far-reaching law have encountered additional challenges, and farmer sentiment jumped in November as the Purdue University-CME Group Ag Economy Barometer climbed 30 points to 145, the highest since 2021.

California's Sustainable Groundwater Management Act has left some San Joaquin Valley farmers in dire financial straits, and the latest USDA Census of Agriculture data shows just under 55 million acres of U.S. cropland was irrigated in 2022, the lowest since 1992.

On this week's MyAgLife in Almonds episode, Department of Water Resources' Paul Gosselin discusses the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act's progress in the ag industry after 10 years.   Supporting the People who Support Agriculture Thank you to this month's sponsors who makes it possible to get you your daily news. Please feel free to visit their website. New Age Ag Services - https://www.newageagservices.com/ 2024 Crop Consultant Conference - https://progressivecrop.com/conference/

Taylor Chalstrom sits down with Hudson Minshew, CCA and state conservation agronomist with USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service, to discuss the complex relationship between cover crops, groundwater and the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act.

On Episode 40 of the TID Water & Power Podcast we're joined by TID Director of Water Resources and Regulatory Affairs, Michael Cooke, to discuss a big SGMA update.Following the third year of a historic drought, the state passed a series of bills that we refer to as SGMA and would become the framework for how groundwater would be managed throughout California. Since then, TID and its partners in the Turlock Subbasin have been developing (and revising) its plan to sustainably manage groundwater in our region.On this episode we discuss the recent milestone we've reached with regard to SGMA, what has changed in the plan over the last two years, and what the next phase of SGMA looks like for TID and our growers.We had an extended conversation about SGMA on Episode 10 of the podcast in February 2022.Let's get social! Facebook: @TurlockIDInstagram: @TurlockIDTwitter: @TurlockIDLinkedIn: /company/turlockid Find out more about TID at https://www.TID.org/podcast.

As California farmers prepare for groundwater cutbacks with implementation of the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act, they are trying to stretch every drop, and U.S. wheat production for 2024-25 is forecast at 2.008 billion bushels, the largest crop since 2016-17.

Get the latest agriculture news in today's AgNet News Hour, hosted by Sabrina Halvorson. On today's show, why more training is needed for specializing in biologicals, and a recent report highlights the value of cover cropping under the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act. Tune in for these news stories, interviews, features, and more.

UC Davis' Daniele Zaccaria explains how the management actions of Groundwater Sustainability Agencies operating under the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act might be having unintended consequences for sustainable agricultural practices, such as the adoption of cover crops.   Link to the full report here.

On Episode 34 of the TID Water & Power Podcast we're joined by TID Supervising Engineering Technician, Wes Miller, to discuss groundwater recharge projects.The 2022-23 Water Year was the third wettest on record and, thanks for quick action and innovative solutions, TID was able to pilot several groundwater recharge projects using that flood water.However, with ever changing hydrological conditions and the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (or SGMA), the District will need to continue innovate and implement new recharge projects. On this episode we discuss the District's relationship with groundwater, projects we were able to successfully pilot last year, and what types of recharge projects are coming down the pipe.Interested in participating in groundwater recharge projects within TID? Take our survey here or email us at GWrecharge@tid.org. Click here to read the On-Farm Recharge Methods Manual.Let's get social! Facebook: @TurlockIDInstagram: @TurlockIDTwitter: @TurlockIDLinkedIn: /company/turlockid Find out more about TID at https://www.TID.org/podcast.

Mitch Partovi, a water broker from The Water Agency, joins Darcy and Darcy in the studio and discusses California's Water market, how it works, the regulatory oversight, the benefits, and related value.  Darcy and Darcy ask some tough questions including monetization of water, the growing groundwater market considering the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act, and who benefits.  We Grow California Podcast is paid for by the Exchange Contractors Federal PAC and Exchange Contractors State PAC and is not authorized by any candidate or candidate committee.

Consulting with farmers across 40 crops, Cory Broad and the team at Avid Water help bring agronomic solutions to the field including system automation, moisture monitoring, satellite imaging, water treatment systems and more. With $20/hour minimum wage and the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act, Broad shares how irrigation technologies can help farmers answer these challenges.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

If you want science-backed earth, water, biological, and mapping data about your land, look no further than the United States Geological Survey. Geoffrey Cromwell, Geologists at USGS at the California Water Science Center shares what this nonregulatory agency can do for growers and delves into two studies on California water basins. The USGS's mission is to investigate Earth sciences and make all research data available to the public. Studies cover floods, climate, earthquakes, volcanos, species, and geology.   The Adeladia Area Hydrological Study located in San Luis Obispo County California, aims to understand how water moves in this atypical basin. Researchers are using stream gauges and monitoring wells to better understand how water flow changes seasonally and if there are differences in areas included in the project. In Northern Santa Barbara County California, the San Antonio Creek Study is developing a holistic hydrological model to support the region's Sustainable Groundwater Management Plan (SGMA). Resources: Evaluation of Groundwater Resources in the Adelaida Area of San Luis Obispo County, California Hydrogeologic Characterization of the San Antonio Creek Valley Watershed, Santa Barbara County, California San Antonio Creek Hydrogeology Studies Simulation of Groundwater and Surface-Water Resources of the San Antonio Creek Valley Watershed, Santa Barbara County, California United States Geological Survey Vineyard Team Library | Water References: Vineyard Team Programs: Juan Nevarez Memorial Scholarship - Donate SIP Certified – Show your care for the people and planet   Sustainable Ag Expo – The premiere winegrowing event of the year Sustainable Winegrowing On-Demand (Western SARE) – Learn at your own pace Vineyard Team – Become a Member Get More Subscribe wherever you listen so you never miss an episode on the latest science and research with the Sustainable Winegrowing Podcast. Since 1994, Vineyard Team has been your resource for workshops and field demonstrations, research, and events dedicated to the stewardship of our natural resources. Learn more at www.vineyardteam.org.   Transcript Craig Macmillan  0:00  Our guest today is Geoff Cromwell, he is geologist with the United States Geological Survey at the California Water Science Center. And today we're going to talk about you guessed it, water. Thanks for being on the podcast, Geoff.   Geoffrey Cromwell  0:12  Absolutely happy to be here.   Craig Macmillan  0:14  Before I met you, I thought that the US Geological Survey made maps that you buy on paper. I've had many of them. And turns out, there's a lot more going on with that group. First, what is the United States Geological Survey?   Geoffrey Cromwell  0:23  I also had a very limited view of the USGS even when when I started working, I also have had to do some background on my own. And I've learned quite a lot, having been with the survey of what different people do and really that overlap, then at these different intersections of science. The USGS is one of the bureaus within the Department of Interior. And so this is under the executive branch. And what is unique about the USGS, among other bureaus within Department of Interior, is that the USGS has non regulatory. And so the USGS, really the mission is to investigate earth sciences, collect data, interpret the data, and then make all those data publicly available that then other agencies, the federal or state, or local or any other entity can then make decisions or action decisions. Based on the interpretive science that the USGS puts out. There's a quote that I pulled that USGS does Science in the Public Interest, the mission is to supply timely, relevant and useful information about the Earth and its processes. And so the earth and it's processing things very, you know, brought up to go. So not only do we do mapping, so topographic maps, geologic maps, there's just a whole swath of data collection and just digital map information available, but for water, floods, climate two, there's a whole breadth there, there are currently five science missionaries for the USGS. There's the mapping group, there's the biological arm focusing on Ecosystem Science. So there's a group in San Diego that studies a lot of frogs, the reptiles down there, energy and minerals. And so where are the mineral resources for the country? What are the economic and then natural environment impacts of identifying and extracting minerals? In my mind when I think of the USGS, even as I'm in the water world, is earthquakes and volcanoes. So there's the monitoring of natural hazards? And what are the effects of life and property that could occur from these natural and natural hazards? Lastly, is the Water Resources area and that's what I'm involved with. And what the California Water Science Center is a part of in this is to evaluate and monitor and interpret water resources of the nation so that we do monitor and collect data on streamflow, groundwater, water quality, water use and availability. So just how much is there? Where is it? And can you drink it? Can you irrigate?   Craig Macmillan  0:31  It sounds like this would be the kind of thing where you mentioned working with different entities that sounds like you would be working with all kinds of different institutions and scientific groups you work with, with universities, you go up to grant funding, how is this funded? And what are some of the other scientists that are involved in this stuff?   Geoffrey Cromwell  3:21  The USGS doesn't, you know, operate independently necessarily. So we do collaborate and coordinate with other universities, definitely other science branches of the government to find the intersection of what needs to be learned. And in a particular area, it could be a biologic, or water or geologic and so my, my training and expertise is in geology, and, you know, identifying and mapping the subsurface in three dimensions and those a direct intersection of that earthquakes and hazards. And then what I do in my job is intersect the geology with the groundwater system. So you know, the rocks, there's the water on the surface of the water in the ground, and it all kind of flows above and through the materials in the subsurface, you know, I work a lot to with my colleagues to understand the dynamics of the subsurface, and that allows for better understanding of, of the groundwater and then other surface water and how human dynamics are affected by that. Normally, local water districts, we work with universities, we work with companies, all to find the answer for what we're what we're trying to learn.   Craig Macmillan  4:27  So how exactly do you do that? I mean, you can put flow monitors and streams and things on the surface. Obviously, groundwater is underground, we don't see it. What is your job like? What, what do you do? How do you find things?   Geoffrey Cromwell  4:40  You picked on you know, in some ways, the first step of a study is collecting data, or even go back a step. It's still what is the problem? And so we will coordinate in the Water World Water Resources world at the USGS we have, in general a different business model than other parts of the USGS like the natural hazards folks and for earthquakes and volcanoes, a lot of other sciences have funded directly by Congress. And so they are you know, there's a there are a line item in the in the Congressional Budget. But in the water world, we are primarily funded through cooperative programs. So we work with counties, the state, other federal agencies, such as Department of Defense on military bases, we work a lot with the California Department of Water Resources as a state agency. And then for a local study here in San Luis Obispo County, and we're working with the county, and they are a cooperator in that study. So the first part is to talk to the cooperators. And in talking to them, what are their needs? What are they uncertain about? What are their concerns? Are they worried about contamination from pollutants? Are they worried about wells going dry? Are they worried about future management of water resources? So especially in California, where drought is an ongoing issue? Future sustainable management is a big question. So how can we help these other agencies think about their water resources?   Craig Macmillan  6:01  Which reminds me something so we're talking about California, and I met you through sounds bespoke County, but I'm guessing that this this kind of work is happening all over the nation? I would think.   Geoffrey Cromwell  6:10  yes, these types of investigations are happening all over the country. And you can think about just the geography of the nation where it's hot, and where it seems to rain a lot more than other places are going to have different water issues. And so different investigations are occurring via for water chemistry, or groundwater availability or surface water resources. And if you look just in within California, it can be a microcosm of the whole country where Northern California in general surface water resources are more plentiful versus Southern California, where the primary water concerns are groundwater based.   Craig Macmillan  6:43  How does this work proceed? You said you get to identify a problem and you were trying to cooperators then what what kind of tools do you have to investigate a problem?   Geoffrey Cromwell  6:52  I think we use the study in San Luis Obispo County that you and I partner on, we will for service water monitoring, we have stream gauges that are placed on selected streams. And there are instrumentation there that allows for continuous monitoring to the stage or the height of the water. And then that gets translated into a total volume or discharge of water that's moving through streams and you can track seasonal cycles, that's a value for groundwater, we can usually see the groundwater. And so we will take individual tape down measurements of groundwater wells. So groundwater well is basically a hole in the ground with a steel or PVC casing. And you can one can drop down a tape, which will be either steel tape or an electronic tape that will signal what the Depth to groundwater is at that location. At that time. If you do this over a broad enough area and over, especially continuously, you know, with regular readings, you get a sense of how groundwater levels change seasonally and whether they change seasonally, the same amount everywhere. Or if there's different dynamics within that particular study area that are affecting how groundwater flows.   Craig Macmillan  8:03  You also use water chemistry, is that right?   Geoffrey Cromwell  8:05  Yeah, water chemistry, both surface water and groundwater. And this can tell a lot about the aquifer system. So the water level measurements and surface water measurements we just mentioned, those are useful for basically the ups and downs of groundwater and to get a sense of the direction that, especially for groundwater, where groundwater is moving in the subsurface, the water chemistry can inform a lot about not only the direction of groundwater flow, it can inform about any contaminants, or in the cases of, you know, something to think about often that comes up as the presence of nitrates in the subsurface. So that can be related to agricultural fertilizers. That's something that can be observed, but also can tell about which types of rocks the water is flowing through. And so that helps us understand the aquifer system, the different earth materials in the subsurface go stepping way back to my geology training here is we can use this water chemistry to help us identify which geologic units are in different parts of the aquifer. And that is going to help us inform how the groundwater flows through the system.   Craig Macmillan  9:08  Are there other tools I remember a helicopter with like some kind of antenna hanging off the bottom of it. And I never understood what that was. But I think that's part of your project, isn't it?   Geoffrey Cromwell  9:19  Now we're getting into the geophysical work.   Craig Macmillan  9:21  Okay, let's go for it.   Geoffrey Cromwell  9:22  Comon joke in geophysics is, What do you want the answer to be? I love geophysicist. But geophysical tools are a way to sense the different properties of materials in the subsurface. So that helicopter that was flying had a big hoop underneath it, and this was an airborne electromagnetic system. So this helicopter flies over over the terrain, and in the signal that gets bounced back provides information on the resistivity or the electrical properties of the materials in the subsurface and so then different electrical properties can get tied to different geologic materials. So this is another way for us to map and understand this subsurface geology. It also is very sensitive to changes in salinity, saline water versus freshwater will have a different electrical conductance electrical properties, that type of system can also be used to track you know, the presence of saline water in the subsurface. And so that's another another tool there. So, in this Adelaida study, we're really getting on all these different types of data collection that then can eventually be used to interpret and holistically evaluates the hydrogeologic character of the of the aquifer here.   Craig Macmillan  10:30  What you're referring to is the Adelaida Area Hydrological Study, which is a project with San Luis Obispo County Board of Supervisors, I believe they're funding it or funding part of it. And let's just use that as an example. Obviously, we are involved in it, but I think it's a good case study. Overall, the kinds of things that you folks do tell us about that project. How did it start? What is it and what are you doing?   Geoffrey Cromwell  10:54  Yeah, Adelaida hydrological study is in northern San Luis Obispo County. And this was a study partnership or in cooperation with the San Luis Obispo County flood control and Water Conservation District there are a cooperator here, the Adelaida area is the west part of the city of Paso Robles. And this is a, you know, a highland upland kind of rolling hills. It's even some more sort of steeper mountain type terrain. So it is not a classical eluvial Groundwater eluvial Basin aluvium would be unconsolidated sands and gravels and some finer materials that tend to erode off the hillsides that will fill the cemetery depressions. That's often where a lot of agriculture and people live with water is extracted from these groundwater basins because water is historically more readily available. But in the Adelaida area, this is a relatively small population of local residents, there is been a presence of agriculture for some time, many, many decades.   Craig Macmillan  11:55  More than a century.   Geoffrey Cromwell  11:56  The county asked us to do this study to evaluate the groundwater resources and learn what we can do to concerns from from landowners about a potential overuse of water, concerns at some local wells might be going dry. And so the county wants to understand the groundwater system. And so it's a bit just typical of USGS. What are the data? What are the interpretations and make that information publicly available that then the county or any other entity can then make decisions on what actions to take.   Craig Macmillan  12:25  But how did that proceed? We've talked a little bit about the kinds of data that you collect. But what's the actual what was the actual timeline like and what's the future timeline like?   Geoffrey Cromwell  12:33  Projects started, we got funded just before COVID. So it was end of the very early 2020, I believe. And we spent that that first year of with the county, we said that USGS would compile all available data that we could find. And so this particular area because of the small population, you know, relative perceive low impact. There hadn't been any hydrologic or geologic studies in the area, besides some some broad geologic maps and regional geophysical investigations. So this was really an unknown, I should say, publicly unknown, because you'll local farmers and local residents who've been there for decades or centuries, they know what what is in on their land, and you have a sense of of the world there. So we were trying to compile we can from what we would use, and maybe in a report to help us just understand as we're coming in, what's the geology? What are changes in land use? What groundwater information is there that might be available to help us think about, okay, how do we then collect new data? Where do we go? What do we do? So we compiled data for a year and evaluate and learn just what we could have the area. Now we're on our second phase of the study, which is collecting groundwater level data, and surface water data and water quality data for a period of just about two years. And so we're taking groundwater measurements every three months. And we have a series of just about 60, groundwater wells that were that were taking water levels from all around the Adelaida area. And we are being able to see seasonal shifts in in groundwater, as you know, recharge generally occurs in the winter months with with rainfall. And then we also see in some places where water levels might be increasing more versus others. And so that'll be as we're collecting this data will be interesting that as we get to the interpretation phase, what does that mean?   Craig Macmillan  14:25  One thing that I think is interesting, so like you said, there's a kind of the classical groundwater basin idea, which in my mind is kind of a big bathtub. So everybody pokes a straw into the same Slurpee, essentially, and then rain falls and it refills but these mountainous areas and the rolling topography is a little bit different in like, for instance, in in the scope of this area that you're studying is all the water below the ground. Is it all connected, or is it isolated from each other? Or could it be I know you're really in your study.   Geoffrey Cromwell  14:53  What is likely to occur where we have these geologic structures with hills and folds is that you know, although There's groundwater is present everywhere, what will be interesting to see is how the structure of the geology affects where groundwater flows and is present. So it's possible someone coming in one valley, a person in a nearby valley may or may not see the effects of that pumpage in their groundwater wells. And so we have groundwater monitoring wells has dispersed across the areas, we were able to find the hope of identifying then whether or not different areas are connected, what the effects are between the shallow and deeper systems of the of the aquifer, based on the geologic structures. So it's really is this dynamic and complex question that we're looking to to learn more about.   Craig Macmillan  15:44  This is an idea that I just thought of, because it comes up in the local conversation, and that is, when water starts to become scarce. The solution in some people's minds is to drill a deeper well, just very expensive in the kind of geology you're talking about. That doesn't necessarily sound like that would work. Is that accurate statement? Or? Or even in a groundwater basin? Is there a limit to kind of how long that straw can be and still be be affected?   Geoffrey Cromwell  16:13  That's interesting question that would be on a probably a basin by basin or area by area question. In general, though, the deeper you go, the more poor the water quality can be. And that's not to say that 100 feet is great and 200 feet, it's going to be hyper saline everywhere. But groundwater basin dependent area dependence, the fresher, more usable water was going to be closer to land surface. And so that gets into the question of water quality. And so just by digging, drilling a deeper Well, there could be other impacts or concerns that one might have in drilling deeper.   Craig Macmillan  16:50  Water is not necessarily water everywhere. Oh, this is a question that someone asked me does water have an age? Can you tell when it fell from the sky?   Geoffrey Cromwell  17:00  Yes, that is one of the neat things to learn from either water quality samples that we get. So we test for and we'll go into water chemistry, we'll sample for major and minor ions, calcium, magnesium, sodium, we'll measure for nitrates. And those types of constituents are useful for identifying the aquifer system, what rock are we in, and that will collect the stable isotopes, hydrogen and oxygen. Those allow us to tell from what elevation or area to groundwater recharge. So you expect water to be coming in the mountains and flow down and we should be able to see that indicator in those stable isotopes. And then the two age constituents we usually measure would be for tritium. And then we'll also be for carbon 14. So carbon 14 is probably one that most people are aware of, or heard of, right, you take clean organic materials, and you can get a sense of age back to think about 50,000 years old. So we can directly measure can estimate of groundwater age, many groundwater basins in California, oftentimes, the water can be 10,000 years old or so oftentimes, much more. Than tritium is neat, because tritium allows us to tell if water has been recharged since about 1950. So tritium was naturally occurring in the atmosphere. But in the 1950s, during all the nuclear tests, tritium within is released in the atmosphere in great abundance. And so if tritium is present in groundwater, above background levels, we are very confident that that water recharge since 1950, we have these age measurements of groundwater, that you within a study area, we get a sense of where recharge is occurring, and whether it's recent recharge, or old or older recharge, and so that can help understand that aquifer dynamics,   Craig Macmillan  18:39  That's fascinating. Just blows my mind. Future timeline. So you're well levels, stream gauges, chemistry, this radiological kind of stuff, you're in the middle of the data collection, what's going to happen after that?   Geoffrey Cromwell  18:54  We're in the middle of our of our data collection, like you said, we have about one more year of groundwater level measurements that we will take as part of the current the current agreement with the county and then the surface water will also continue for just about another year. And then we're going to have conversations with the county to hopefully take the the next steps. And that could include additional, you know, ongoing groundwater monitoring, surface water monitoring, always value in developing these long term records. And so being able to track seasonal cycles, ideally decades, right? Because then you can really see how things are changing. So there could be value in continuing this monitoring effort. And then the next step would be to put up an interpretive product. And so basically take the data that we've compiled in look at the how the aquifer system changes, look at the age of the groundwater, look at the flow paths and maybe you know, understand if there are structural controls to groundwater flow. The next phase of our project will kick in probably early 2025. In the conversation with the county and possible we could we could start sooner the era Boerne em that we mentioned before the helicopter with a big hoop flying under that, we're using that right now to help construct a geologic framework. And so that's product that we should be able to, we anticipate being able to put out next year or so. So there will be some interim bits in there. But one thing is very important in the USGS does is that all the data we collect is publicly available. So as we go out, and we take our groundwater level measurements, that will be out again in August in the Adelaida. area, within a couple of days, that data is online, it is accessible, it is viewable by the anyone in the world can can go to our website and look at this data. And so the transparency of that is valuable, just just that real time knowledge of the Earth system is I think, hugely important, valuable.   Craig Macmillan  20:48  These wells and the streams and whatnot, they're gonna oftentimes be on private land. So you're gonna have to find participants that will let you come in and take your measurements. How did you go about recruiting participants? And also, I would guess that you would want to have wells in particular spots of interests to help you with your mapping your data collection, how did how did that process work?   Geoffrey Cromwell  21:14  There's a lot of initial interest in the study itself. From the get go, there were there was a pool of several dozen interested landowners who were more than willing to provide access to let us just access their property and, you know, take these groundwater measurements, and allow us to, you know, install stream gaging equipment on there, you know, we spent the first part of of our data collection, part of our agreement there, identifying additional landowners. And so some of this was was word of mouth, we've been holding at least once a year, a community meeting specific to the Adelaida study. And so we've garnered more interest and think as we've explained more what the study is and purpose and the outcomes and the projected outcomes in terms of reports, we've gotten more interest in that sense. And sometimes we're just out knocking on doors and looking for it, like you said, there are some some geographic holes, if you will, of where we either we can identify the landowner or the land owner says no, which is fine. But also, we just haven't had luck contacting or reaching out or finding anybody in those particular spots. So we're especially interested always in deeper wells, so anything you have, if you only have hundreds of feet deep, more than a few, but a well, more than 500 feet deep, we'd love to come back. That'd be definitely a value to it to the study. But we've had very good conversations with landowners across the Adelaida area, and some have granted permissions and some said no, and, you know, we say thank you, we keep moving. So it is ongoing. And I think it's we the next community meeting, hopefully will be this fall before the end of the end of the calendar year. And we'll be able to share some of our next set of studies, you know, outcomes, what we've done, and hopefully talk to folks and continue to identify geographic areas that we can use more data in.   Craig Macmillan  23:00  Cool, that's neat. Individuals within communities recognize the value to themselves, but then they also recognize and feel like they have a responsibility to the rest of the community. And I think it's pretty cool that we're seeing folks step up to be participants. And I encourage people nationwide if they're, if you're listening, and to not be afraid, I can speak for the company that I worked for Niner wine estates were a participant. When I first heard about this, I jumped, I jumped all over it. I was like, This is so cool. But also I had questions about our own property. Our location is such that there's lots of other neighbors, both residential and agricultural, but also we have wells in different different spots. And we could just look around and see, hey, is the geology between these wells? Is it the same? Is it different? What can we learn from what you guys learn? So there was kind of a two fold piece to that. And I think that that's really important for communities to do. We got a couple of minutes left, you're also working on a project in Santa Barbara County in the San Antonio Creek area. Can you tell us just just a little bit about that? Because that's a different kind of project.   Geoffrey Cromwell  23:00  Yes. Let me go back to the last thing you said about about participants. Yes, this is free. We it's paid for by taxpayer dollars. But these are essentially free groundwater level measurements and free water quality if we take water quality. So like you said, there's there's there's value in knowing what's under the ground in your well your spot. And if you're interested, then we might be able to accommodate, obviously, constraints and things from the study public interest.   Craig Macmillan  24:28  That's right USGS is here for you. Well, it's true. I mean,   Geoffrey Cromwell  24:31  Yeah, no, I was gonna say we're, we're with the government. We're here to help word.    Craig Macmillan  24:35  Yeah, exactly.   Geoffrey Cromwell  24:37  We really, we really are.   Craig Macmillan  24:40  And you folks have been great to work with, by the way. I really appreciate it. Yeah. So just a little bit, a little bit about the San Antonio Creek project.   Geoffrey Cromwell  24:48  The San Antonio Creek project. This is San Antonio Creek is the groundwater basin in Northern Santa Barbara County. And so that's a Santa Barbara County is the county directly south of San Luis Obispo. San Antonio Creek is a coastal groundwater basin. So to the west is the Pacific Ocean. And then to the east is the other Highland and upland areas. And this is a project in cooperation with the Santa Barbara County Water Agency and Vandenberg Air Force Base, there was recent legislation. And at this point about almost 10 years ago in the state of California called SIGMA, the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act. Part of SIGMA process was identifying groundwater basins of high and medium priority, those types of basins were required to by the state to develop groundwater sustainability plans to basically manage groundwater resources into the future. And this is one such basin, San Antonio Creek. And so our work USGS work here has been to provide this holistic hydrogeologic characterization of the groundwater basin. So looking at historical groundwater trends, current groundwater trends, identify the groundwater budget, so how much water is coming out how much water is coming in naturally, and then also to develop a miracle groundwater flow model. So that's pretty typical of a lot of our California Water Science Center availability projects is we we look at the geology look, the groundwater, okay, this is what's been happening. And then we feed that we develop a computer model of that. So the computer model is then a simulation of the earth as we can best understand it and model it in, which is neat, because then you can if you've modeled the historical system, then you can project into the future. And you can see like, Okay, what happens if the climate is drier? Okay, what if we're anticipating, you know, a two fold increase in population, we need to pump more for municipal needs? Or what if we're anticipating an increase in agricultural use is a tool to project changes, and then help identify how you can manage your water resources. So we develop those two products in San Antonio Creek, and I'll share both of those published sources with you.   Craig Macmillan  26:48  Yeah, that'd be great.   Geoffrey Cromwell  26:50  But since a creek is an agricultural basin, Vandenburg Airforce Base and the town of Los Alamos for the two municipal users, but primarily, you know, groundwater needs in the basin, this was for agricultural purposes.   Craig Macmillan  27:01  That is really interesting. And I liked this idea of looking ahead to the future, I think we need to be thinking ahead. And the way to do that is to get good quality data on what's happening now. And to get a sense of what may be happened in the past, if we can.   Geoffrey Cromwell  27:16  In San Antonio Creek, in the past, there's a long term record long term partnership there. And so we're very fortunate to be able to look at these decades long trends dating back to the mid 1900s.   Craig Macmillan  27:25  Oh, wow.   Geoffrey Cromwell  27:26  There were some that were very long term monitoring wells. And from that, you can learn a lot about that study. So this, I think that's very neat. If you're interested in learning more, this is a nice, compact little study here of investigation. We have ongoing work, keep updated.   Craig Macmillan  27:42  Cool. Well, we're getting short on time, is there is there one thing related to kind of this water topic in the USGS that one thing that you would tell people one thing you'd like growers to know,   Geoffrey Cromwell  27:53  The one thing for growers to know about the USGS is that the USGS is unbiased, it is nonpartisan, and most importantly, is that the data that we collect is publicly available not only allows people to access the data that's there, but it means that everyone can access it and then make decisions and see what the interpretive products are based off of here's the data. And so everything that USGS does is intended to be reproducible. It's intended to be shared, and it's in the public interest. And this is here, any number of datasets the USGS puts out, so if growers are interested in their local geology, local soils, local water, and local climate, and I'm sure there's many others there that people interested in, the USGS probably has a data set out there, or at least has historical records, you know, going to the USGS website, there's a lot of information on there, but you can find that data, you can also reach out to a local USGS office, and those are, we're all over the state many different capacities and one of us doesn't know the answer. We probably know someone who knows someone who knows the answer.   Craig Macmillan  28:58  And again, that would be nationwide. Nationwide, where can people find out more about you?   Geoffrey Cromwell  29:02  About me, the easiest would probably be to look at my contact on the Adelaida website, the Adelaidaa Area Project website and I'll share that with you Craig and I'm based out of our Santa Maria field office. This is in very northern Santa Barbara County. So I'm the Central Coast local California Water Science Center. We have our main project hubs are San Diego and Sacramento. And we do we do geology, we do groundwater. We do surface water, we do biology, we do modeling climate data collection, we touch a lot.   Craig Macmillan  29:29  USGS touches a lot of different things. I want to thank you for being on the podcast. Our guest today has been Geoff Cromwell, geologist with the United States Geological Survey, specifically the California Water Science Center. Thanks for being on podcast. This is great conversation. I really appreciate you taking the time to do it.   Geoffrey Cromwell  29:45  Loved to be here, Craig. Thanks so much.   Nearly Perfect Transcription by https://otter.ai

Taylor Chalstrom sits down with Dr. Ellen Bruno, assistant cooperative extension specialist in the Dept. of Agricultural and Resource Economics at UC Berkeley, to discuss the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act, or SGMA, in 2023 and how to best support its implementation moving forward.

A conversation with Laurel Firestone (State Water Resources Control Board) about water governance, leadership, and policy implementation in CA. Released June 2, 2023. 

In the fourth and final installment of our 2023 series with Self-Help Enterprises, Michael chats with the following rural water, housing, and health experts: Tami McVay, Director of Emergency Services at Self-Help Enterprises; Meghan Tosney, Assistant Deputy Director at California's State Water Board's Division of Financial Assistance; Eddie Ocampo, Program Director with the Community Sustainability Department at Self-Help Enterprises; and Paul Gosselin, Deputy Director for Sustainable Groundwater Management at the California Department of Water Resources. Together, they discuss emergency services and response work in California during a period of drought, the nonprofit role in the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act, helping families find viable solutions for safe and affordable drinking water, and much more.  This episode, and the entire series, is sponsored by Self-Help Enterprises. For more information, visit www.selfhelpenterprises.org.  The views stated by podcast guests do not necessarily reflect those of our sponsors.

How will state groundwater regulations affect the California dairy industry? A new study reveals possible impacts. DairyVoice guest Geoff Vanden Heuvel talks with Editor Emeritus Joel Hastings, describing the findings and how dairy producers are adjusting.  He's the director of economic and regulatory affairs for the California Milk Producers Council and a former dairy producer from Chino. He has followed the implementation of the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act which is now imposing some new water limitations on agriculture across the San Joaquin Valley. 

On today's episode, we hear about a new platform designed to help groundwater agencies address Sustainable Groundwater Management Act requirements in ways that are mutually beneficial for both agencies and growers.   Supporting the People who Support Agriculture Thank you to our sponsors who make it possible to get you your daily news. Please feel free to visit their websites. The California Walnut Board - https://walnuts.org/ PhycoTerra® - https://phycoterra.com/ Verdesian - https://vlsci.com/ BeeHero - https://www.beehero.io/    

Taylor Chalstrom sits down with Steven Springhorn, Department of Water Resources' SGMA technical assistance manager, and Tara Moran, president/CEO of California Water Data Consortium, to discuss a new platform designed to help groundwater agencies address SGMA requirements in ways that are mutually beneficial for both agencies and growers. Helpful links: DWR's statewide groundwater management webpage https://water.ca.gov/programs/groundwater-management To sign up for DWR's Sustainable Groundwater Management email list: sgmps@water.ca.gov California Water Data Consortium project webpage: https://cawaterdata.org/projects/groundwater-accounting-data-reporting-pilot-project/ Environmental Defense Fund project webpage: https://waterplatform.edf.org/ DWR News release: California Water Agencies Collaborate on Groundwater Digital Platform to Help Address Dry Wells and Water Supply Shortages Rosedale-Rio Bravo Water Storage District story map - Online interactive guide to accounting platform

Devin: What is your superpower?Evan: Something that I've always tried to do—it sort of happened naturally and unconsciously in the beginning of my career, and now I'm a lot more conscious and sort of deliberate about it—but it's finding the synergies between organizations, between teams, among technologies, among problems. There are not a lot of people that are working on water access in Africa and California. My other day job is I'm a professor of engineering at the University of Colorado in Boulder, and I'm the CEO of this company. I've gotten a lot of side-eye about that over the years. My joke is I'm the best academic in a group, in a room of entrepreneurs, and I'm the best entrepreneur in a room of academics. And there's some truth to that because the corollary is I'm not the best at any one of those things. But by being able to see the benefit of what a university can do and what research can do and what students and faculty can do, but also seeing the benefits of what capital can do, and engineers and technology development and working with nonprofits and working with government—I've benefited from being able to see how those things can be aligned with each other and can help solve problems that any one of those kinds of organizations aren't able to do by themselves.“My Ph.D. is in aerospace engineering,” Evan Thomas, CEO of Virridy and professor in the Civil, Environmental and Architectural Engineering Department at the University of Colorado. “The beginning of my career was at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston. I worked on water recycling and air quality systems for spacecraft.”That is not the beginning of most stories about public health. It is a fascinating start to our story today. Evan was the project manager for a system on the International Space Station today measuring recycled water quality.“The astronauts have to recycle the drinking water every day, and the astronauts in the space station need the same thing we all need,” Evan says. “They need clean water. They need clean air. They need safe sanitation. They need safe food. They need a warm environment. On the space station, we do that through water recycling and scrubbing the air and making sure that the environment is safe.”“We have those challenges here on Earth, too,” he says. “It's 2022, and you still have almost half the world's population, over three and one half billion people who use firewood every day to cook and to stay warm. The use of firewood contributes to deforestation and soil erosion and black soot emissions.”“But, all of those things are secondary to the immediate emissions that people breathe in every day because of the use of fuels like firewood,” Evan says. “We have almost 5 million kids under the age of five who die every year because of respiratory disease. Still today, we have 2 billion people in the world that don't have safe sanitation. And most reasonable estimates put it at over a billion people still don't have access to clean water.”When Evan launched Virridy while still at NASA, he recognized an essential choice in his life and career. “Am I going to make a career out of being a NASA engineer, or am I going to make a career out of applying that engineering skill to the same basic necessities here on Earth?”He left NASA to focus on global health.These days, he focuses his work on two regions of the world: the Horn of Africa and California.The Horn of Africa“I'll tell you a little bit about the Horn of Africa,” Evan says. “This is a very arid region of the world. It includes Somalia and Ethiopia and northern Kenya. We've been working in that region for about ten years. I just got back from northern Kenya a few weeks ago, where they're suffering from a five-season drought. It's unprecedented.” “You have 40 million people that are relying on rains, rains for their livestock, for themselves, for their agriculture,” he says. “When you have drought, you have crop failure, you have livestock death, you have the displacement of people. And 40 million people are facing food insecurity right now in East Africa.”The challenges in East Africa differ from those in California. While aquifers are drying up in California, groundwater reserves are increasing in Africa.The challenge in Africa is often that water pumps fail due to a lack of resources, so the water isn't accessible to those who need it.“During peak drought, UNICEF estimates that as much as 45 percent of water points are actually broken,” Evan says. “It's not that the water is dried up. The water is still in the ground, but the water points are broken, the water pumps are broken. So we've been working on this seemingly easy but not-so-easy problem of how do we keep these water pumps working?”“We do it with a combination of technology, community partnerships and financing mechanisms to try to increase the maintenance and operation of these water pumps so that people have water access,” he says.“Virridy, our company, invented and has deployed sensors, satellite-connected sensors that are installed on these water pumps so that we can remotely monitor when a pump is working and when it's broken,” Evan says.Partnering with NASA, Virridy connects data from satellites with data from water pumps to help local and national governments—and international donors—determine where water is available and where to offer water trucking or send maintenance teams to repair pumps.“Our technology is currently monitoring millions of people's water supplies in the region every single day,” Evan says.He explains how the business works in Africa:So, how do we monetize that? In Africa, it's a question of making sure the pumps are working so that people have water. When we do that, and we provide clean safe drinking water, we offset the need for people to boil their water with wood. Some people boil their water, which creates a lot of emissions. Other people just drink dirty water, which causes a lot of health problems. We're able to take both of those scenarios, replace them with a company that is providing clean, safe drinking water and then generate and claim carbon credits under voluntary mechanisms that are demonstrating that reduced demand for energy. Those voluntary carbon credits can be sold on the open market; that lets us have a profitable business delivering clean water in Africa.CaliforniaThere are 40 million people facing a water crisis in the Horn of Africa. Similarly, there are 40 million people who rely on the Colorado River in the western U.S.“I'm in Boulder, Colorado,” Evan says. “The Colorado River starts just over the foothills from where I am now. Sometimes it flows to Mexico.”“In between Colorado and Mexico, there are seven states and major cities like LA and Denver that rely on the Colorado River, and it's drying up,” he says. “We're within 40 feet of what's called dead pool behind the Hoover Dam on Lake Mead.”It's as scary as it sounds.“The estimates are if nothing is done by next summer, by less than a year from now, there will be no more water running through the Hoover Dam, delivering water to the lower basin or generating electricity,” Evan says.For decades, Californians have addressed water shortages by pumping water out of the ground. As noted above, California differs from Africa in that groundwater is being depleted.“Those groundwater reserves are being used at a really unsustainable rate,” he says. “There are areas in the Central Valley in California that have physically dropped 40 feet in 80 years. So, just in the past 80 years, in a human lifetime, the level of the ground has dropped 40 feet because we're pumping out that water. It's not sustainable. At some point, we're going to run out of that groundwater.”Evan explains Virridy's work in California using the same technology with an almost opposite goal:Virridy has introduced the same sensors, the same satellite-connected sensors that are monitoring groundwater pumps in Africa are also monitoring groundwater pumps here in Colorado and in California. We're working with landowners, farmers and local irrigation districts and regulators to try to make sense of who's using the water and to see if we can support incentives to conserve that water.We try to better manage groundwater. Well, one of the big challenges with groundwater is data. You can't measure groundwater from space, at least not very easily. So, we use our sensors to instrument these pumps so that we know who's pumping where, when and how. In the United States, it's almost the mirror image [of Africa]. But instead of trying to make sure more water is pumped, we're trying to make sure less water is pumped. Evan explains the model in California:There's the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act that requires conserving water. But you need to actually measure how much water is being used. So we offer a service. More directly out in California—you saw this during the recent heat wave just a few weeks ago—they had ten straight days of almost record heat. When that happens—it's in the middle of the summer—all the agricultural farms and ranches are pumping water. They're pumping groundwater, which takes a lot more energy than pumping surface water, because the surface water is run out during this drought. Everybody in LA, everybody in San Francisco, everybody in San Diego has their season. So the utility gets overwhelmed. There are programs called Demand Response that will pay people to reduce their energy use. Our technology can take control of pumps. So we have customers where we control their water pumps with their permission. We turn them off during peak demand, and the energy utility actually pays us and our customers for the inconvenience of reducing pumping.Tremendous amounts of electricity are used to pump water in California—more so during the drought. “When you have wet years, and you have water in the rivers, gravity helps you,” Evan says. “Gravity helps move the water around. So it doesn't take a lot of energy to maybe move it over small hills or between fields.”“During drought like we have now—22 years of drought—now it's a lot more energy intensive to pump up groundwater—a lot more,” he says. “These are really, really big pumps pumping up a lot of water. We can help those users of that water, conserve the water and get paid because they're also conserving electricity.”In his work, Evan has employed his superpower—finding synergies—to increase his impact.How to Develop Finding Synergies As a SuperpowerEvan used his superpower, “finding the synergies between organizations, between teams, among technologies, among problems,” to significant effect while at NASA. He shares the story of his epiphany that led to the creation of Virridy:About 15 years ago, when I still worked at NASA, we came up with this idea. Can we get carbon credits for water treatment in Africa in a way that generates revenue to pay for a service so that you don't always have to write grants to donors forever? Because that's often how the water sector works. That required thinking about business and public health and engineering and international development. But to implement it, to actually make it happen, we had to be really good at the technology and the implementation, but we also had to be really good at the research. So, in partnership with a number of universities and researchers, we ran a randomized controlled trial of our work in Rwanda, where we experimentally established the health benefits of these water interventions. We showed that we reduced exposure to parasites by almost 50 percent among children, and we reduced diarrheal incidence by over 30 percent. If I were only wearing one hat, the academic hat or the business hat or the implementer hat, we wouldn't have done a comprehensive program like that. You see very few large-scale business businesses, operating programs that also are trying to generate best-in-class research at the same time.His finding synergies superpower was on full display. Learning that skill isn't easy. Teaching t is part of the program he oversees at the University of Colorado. He explains:As much as our students would love to go straight to the machine shop or into the lab to tinker. We don't start there. We start with why does poverty exist? We start with one who is poor in the world today. And why did that happen? It's not random. It's not an accident. It's because of history, and it's because of, unfortunately, exploitation and even more unfortunately, exploitation often done by Western countries like ours. So we go pretty heavy pretty fast. I have 78 freshmen this year, and they're learning about the impact of how how how colonialism still reverberates today in Africa in terms of very basic things, like why is it that a water pump is broken? And so we start there. We don't get to the engineering for a while. We start with the history, the economics, the social issues. Before we even start talking about what some of the solutions could be. So, our students are trained in economics, in public health, in history before they even think about turning a wrench.Evan assigns tremendous value to understanding context to learn to find synergies. He also sees value in developing your own unique superpowers and not relying on your general competence. Your ability to develop his superpower requires the ability to develop your own and put yours in context.There's always a risk in the jack of all trades, master of none. You still need to be really good at a few things in order to add value. If you're just a generalist, you're not necessarily making a big contribution to any team. So it's still important to be really good, at least at a couple of things. But then also conversant, maybe even fluent in a few other things as well. So you understand how your piece of the puzzle fits into the whole picture.You can develop finding synergies as a superpower by following Evan's example and his counsel. Get full access to Superpowers for Good at devinthorpe.substack.com/subscribe

It's been over ten years since the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA) passed.  Now is the time when the rubber meets the road, and Groundwater Sustainability Plans are currently being implemented. Join Darcy Villere and Darcy Burke as they discuss the best and worst of SGMA. If you have questions or comments, we'd love to hear from you. We Grow California Podcast is paid for by the Exchange Contractors Federal PAC and Exchange Contractors State PAC and is not authorized by any candidate or candidate committee.

Join us as Assemblyman Adam Gray, representing the 21st Assembly District, weighs in on the Governor's Water Plan. We also discuss Gray's fight to defeat the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act, his water efforts in Sacramento, his opinion on what needs to happen now, and how Washington can help. We Grow California Podcast is paid for by the Exchange Contractors Federal PAC and Exchange Contractors State PAC and is not authorized by any candidate or candidate committee.

"So we're not at the point in the United States of telling farmers what they can grow and can't grow. We probably will get there, but we're not there yet. And one of the things that we have focused on instead, and I think California's a great example with the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act, which has broken down the state into a number of different groundwater sustainability agencies. Each one has a plan to basically minimize groundwater losses or at least to manage them and stretch out groundwater losses over a long period of time. And so that's a slightly different approach in that what's being managed at the groundwater level and what's not happening is – we're not telling farmers you can grow this or you can grow that.So we'll see how that works. It has a term implementation horizon, like 20 more years, which is a little slow, but there's a question on the table about will this be either state or national policy. Will we get to the point where we start saying we don't have enough water. Let's think nationally about food security and what crops do we actually need for the health of people in the United States first, and go that way. And what can we grow where, given water availability and how we set up our food system. So we have a tremendous amount of work to do on this topic. My fear is that we're being reactive rather than proactive."Jay Famiglietti is a hydrologist, a professor and the Executive Director of the Global Institute for Water Security at the University of Saskatchewan, where he holds the Canada 150 Research Chair in Hydrology and Remote Sensing. He is also the Chief Scientist of the Silicon Valley tech startup, Waterplan. Before moving to Saskatchewan, he served as the Senior Water Scientist at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory at the California Institute of Technology. From 2013 through 2018, he was appointed by Governor Jerry Brown to the California State Water Boards. He has appeared on CBS News 60 Minutes, on HBO's Real Time with Bill Maher, as a featured expert in water documentaries including Day Zero and Last Call at the Oasis, and across a host of international news media. He is the host of the podcast What About Water?https://jayfamiglietti.comWhat About Water? podcast with Jay FamigliettiTwitter @WhatAboutWaterGIWS https://water.usask.cawww.waterplan.comwww.oneplanetpodcast.orgwww.creativeprocess.info

Jay Famiglietti is a hydrologist, a professor and the Executive Director of the Global Institute for Water Security at the University of Saskatchewan, where he holds the Canada 150 Research Chair in Hydrology and Remote Sensing. He is also the Chief Scientist of the Silicon Valley tech startup, Waterplan. Before moving to Saskatchewan, he served as the Senior Water Scientist at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory at the California Institute of Technology. From 2013 through 2018, he was appointed by Governor Jerry Brown to the California State Water Boards. He has appeared on CBS News 60 Minutes, on HBO's Real Time with Bill Maher, as a featured expert in water documentaries including Day Zero and Last Call at the Oasis, and across a host of international news media. He is the host of the podcast What About Water?"So we're not at the point in the United States of telling farmers what they can grow and can't grow. We probably will get there, but we're not there yet. And one of the things that we have focused on instead, and I think California's a great example with the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act, which has broken down the state into a number of different groundwater sustainability agencies. Each one has a plan to basically minimize groundwater losses or at least to manage them and stretch out groundwater losses over a long period of time. And so that's a slightly different approach in that what's being managed at the groundwater level and what's not happening is – we're not telling farmers you can grow this or you can grow that.So we'll see how that works. It has a term implementation horizon, like 20 more years, which is a little slow, but there's a question on the table about will this be either state or national policy. Will we get to the point where we start saying we don't have enough water. Let's think nationally about food security and what crops do we actually need for the health of people in the United States first, and go that way. And what can we grow where, given water availability and how we set up our food system. So we have a tremendous amount of work to do on this topic. My fear is that we're being reactive rather than proactive."https://jayfamiglietti.comWhat About Water? podcast with Jay FamigliettiTwitter @WhatAboutWaterGIWS https://water.usask.cawww.waterplan.comwww.oneplanetpodcast.orgwww.creativeprocess.info

Geoff Vanden Heuvel of Milk Producers Council and Sarina Sharp of Ag Business Solutions and Daily Dairy Report joins T3, Gus and Ted Jr. for a discussion on California water today and moving forward. Geoff enlightens the group on localized production cost challenges and shares some anecdotes about farmers dealing with expensive feed. Sarina and Gus talk about regional challenges to expansion and the adverse economics limiting dairy in much of the eastern U.S.  T3 sees cause for Class IV prices to stay high, and, after a lively conversation, the group shares a healthy laugh at Ted Jr.'s expense. T3: Welcome everybody to the Milk Check. This month we've got two guests. Welcome Sarina Sharp with the Daily Dairy Report in Ag business and also Geoff Vanden Heuvel. Geoff, why don't you quickly introduce yourself? Geoff Vanden Heuvel: Well, Ted, it's great to be here. I'm a faithful listener of the Milk Check, so it's fun to see you guys by the power of Zoom. I'm not sure if our listeners will see that. But I was a dairy farmer in Southern California for 39 years, and at 2018, urbanization took my dairy. I was very involved in water and milk pricing issues as part of the Milk Producer's Council, which is Dairy Farmer Trade Association board. And when I sold my cows in 2018, I was going to move to the Central Valley because I had kids and grandkids here. Given my experience in water policy, the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act had just been passed in California and was being implemented throughout the Central Valley. And Milk Producers Board asked me to be the dairy industry's guy on water supply, and the implementation of what we call SGMA, Sustainable Ground and Water Management Act. So since 2018, mid-year, that's what I've been focusing a lot of my time on. That particular Act is designed to be implemented at the local level. So what that meant was I needed to identify where we had dairies in the Central Valley that were in what the state had designated as critically overdrafted basins. That turns out that's pretty much all of the Central Valley. It's critically overdrafted. There were dozens of new groundwater sustainability agencies that had been formed as a result of that law. They were all in the early stages of organization, and then gathering data, with a goal of putting plans together for how they were going to bring their area into basically balance or sustainability. So in the course of that I cover, we have dairies from south of Bakersfield all the way up to Stockton that are in overdrafted basins. That's about a little over 200 miles. So north to south, I spent a lot of time on the road. But that's what I do, is focus on water supply for the California Dairy Industry. T3: Well thanks Geoff and welcome. Dad, I know you've got a question that you're burning to ask, so I'll let you go ahead and start it off. Ted Jr: I've bet every time you open the papers these days you're seeing pictures, and hearing dissertations on how miserable the water supply is in California. Just yesterday I picked up the Sunday edition, and I had pictures of parched land, perfectly brown, not a bit of green on it, but the last number we have on milk production is up 2.5%. So how do we manage to have all these dire predictions of drought? And we've had predictions about drought for 50 years. And every time we hear it, the milk production in California goes up. Is this the year that all of a sudden we're going to have a drought that really counts? Let me pose that question to you as a matter of getting the ball rolling. Geoff: I hope not. We would hope that we can manage our way through it. But it's real. If we don't get some rain and snow, and we don't have any surface water, I think we are going to begin to bite down on the water availability, particularly in the Southern San Joaquin. Because those water districts there now, the groundwater sustainability agencies that I've described to you,

For decades, Mario Santoyo is someone who has fought hard for water for California Farmers. He describes the catastrophic nature of SGMA.

Director of the Center for Irrigation Technologies at Fresno State University, Sarge Green, joins  to discuss the importance of water to the state of California.  He walks us through the state's Sustainable Groundwater Management Act and its impact on housing and agriculture. In addition, Sarge provides insight on some of the best management practices the initiative has to offer and how it will affect the rest of the country. Podcast recorded on March 31, 2022

On today's episode, hear from UCCE's Sarah Light about upcoming in-person cover crop events in the Sacramento Valley. Additionally, Ashlee Pike reports on Sustainable Groundwater Management Act updates.   Supporting the People who Support Agriculture Thank you to our sponsors who make it possible to get you your daily news. Please feel free to visit their websites. Musco Family Olive Co. –www.olives.com/milliontrees The California Walnut Board – https://walnuts.org/ Soil and Crop – https://mysoilandcrop.com/  TriCal, Inc. – https://www.trical.com/ Phycoterra -https://phycoterra.com/

On Episode 10 of the TID Water & Power Podcast we sit down with TID's Herb Smart to discuss the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act of 2014, better known as SGMA.Following the third year of a historic drought, the state passed a series of bills that would become SGMA and would become the framework for how groundwater would be managed throughout California.  Over the last several years, TID has been working in concert with local cities and water agencies to develop a plan for how to manage groundwater sustainably in our region.On this episode we discuss how groundwater is used in our region, the work TID has done to comply with SGMA, and what the future of groundwater sustainability looks like for TID customers. Let's get social!Facebook: @TurlockIDInstagram: @TurlockIDTwitter: @TurlockIDLinkedIn: /company/turlockidFind out more about TID at https://www.TID.org/podcast. 

There are numerous tools and technologies to improve irrigation efficiency but by looking at grower demographics, we can better predict which growers will implement best management practices. Plus, we can learn how to educate all growers to improve adoption. Nicholas Babin, Assistant Professor of Natural Resources Management and Environmental Sciences at California Polytechnic State University, conducted a two-year study to assess Paso Robles California AVA grape growers' thoughts around climate change adaptation, irrigation efficiency, practice adoption, and SGMA. SGMA, or Sustainable Groundwater Management Act, is a California state policy aiming to bring over drafted groundwater basins into sustainability in 20 to 30 years. Agencies are established in sub basins like Paso Robles to establish groundwater management strategies for their region. After discovering that the adoption of water management strategies like soil and plant tissue monitoring devices, distribution uniformity tests, and flow meters, was lower for smaller vineyards under 40 acres, Nicholas and his team looked at other demographics to determine which factors most influence adoption of best management practices. By evaluating growers' income, rainfall, education, vineyard size, and other influences, the research found that the most important factor in predicting the adoption of water efficiency management practices is participation in the SIP Certified program for sustainable winegrowing. Nicholas also covers the Cal -Adapt tool to predict the impact of climate change on specific vineyards and gives a sneak peek at his latest research on the efficacy of carbon farming programs. References: 116: Using Nudge Theory to Improve Irrigation Practices   122: Preserving Agriculture Land to Combat Climate Change Cal-Adapt Cal-Adapt Tutorial California Climate & Agriculture Network (CalCAN) Nicholas Babin, Assistant Professor of Natural Resources Management and Environmental Sciences at California Polytechnic State University Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA) SIP Certified State Water Efficiency and Enhancement Program (SWEEP) Vineyard-specific climate projections help growers manage risk and plan adaptation in the Paso Robles AVA Get More Subscribe on Google Play, iHeartRADIO, iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, TuneIn, or wherever you listen so you never miss an episode on the latest science and research with the Sustainable Winegrowing Podcast. Since 1994, Vineyard Team has been your resource for workshops and field demonstrations, research, and events dedicated to the stewardship of our natural resources. Learn more at www.vineyardteam.org.

Ellen Bruno explains how better understanding the price (in)elasticity of Water Demand shall influence policies, to make sure that Water flows to its best use. Her research at UC Berkeley tends to demonstrate that Water Trading and at least Groundwater Pricing shall better the water efficiency as compared to the status quo - even when market power disturbs the market.

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November 9, 2021 — This Thursday, residents around the Ukiah groundwater basin may see a helicopter flying low, hauling a large hoop. It's part of a state-sponsored program designed to map the geological features of groundwater basins. Katherine Dlubac is an engineering geologist and the project manager for the Department of Water Resources' stateside Aerial Electromagnetic (AEM) surveys. She laid out some of the ways that information from the surveys can be used, with the larger goal of implementing SGMA, the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act of 2014, which requires local jurisdictions to come up with plans to manage the resource. “It tells us about the aquifer structures,” she said; “where we have thick layers in the subsurface of sands and gravels that allow for water to flow, but also for water to be stored. It also tells us where we have layers of clays and silts, so fine grained materials that inhibit water movement. And so while the AEM data still needs to be combined with other types of data...what it can do is it can provide you a better picture of what's happening in the aquifer...so that you can make those management decisions of whether you want to try recharging water in the area from the surface, or if you want to try injecting water into the aquifer to store it there as another type of reservoir.” Supervisor Glenn McGourty is part of the local Groundwater Sustainability Agency tasked with gathering as much information as possible to craft the plan. The Ukiah groundwater basin relies mostly on the Russian River, but is also fed by about 160 smaller tributaries. “Any data we get is going to be useful,” he said; “because you can't usually see groundwater. You have to have some way of measuring it. Often it's delineated by wells, so you don't know for sure what you're looking at. And there are a couple of mysteries, because we don't really have uniform geology here in the valley. So the two mysteries are, where is the groundwater? And the second mystery is, how does it get recharged? The surface groundwater interface, as we call it, is the thing that's really hard to understand.” Dlubac says the electromagnetic technology has been around since the middle of the last century, but it was used mostly in mining applications. After Prop 68, a Parks, Environment, and Water Bond passed in 2018, the Division of Water Resources carried out a pilot program in central and Southern California counties to gather data for their groundwater management plans. The survey taking place now will measure basins across the state for the next two years, taking what Dlubac calls “a snapshot” of their geological features. After the two-year survey of “coarse grid data,” she hopes to go back for a finer picture. “When we go in and start collecting fine grids of data, we can start to get more high resolution information about some of the space in between the coarse grid where we didn't collect information,” she reported. “And that can support defining recharge areas, better understanding where we have clays in the subsurface, where we have subsidence, and other areas that can support the implementation of SGMA.” McGourty is interested in experiments that are currently underway in the Central Valley, on how to store water in the ground, rather than in surface reservoirs. Knowing what kinds of sediments are where could further that approach locally. “The idea would be to divert the river during really high flows and to inundate some parts of the basin where there's fairly permeable alluvium, gravel, principally,” he explained, adding that the City of Ukiah already uses recycled wastewater to recharge the aquifer. “One of the things we're not really sure about,” he reflected, adding to the mysteries still to be solved; “is what are the parameters of the river underflow and things like that. So any information about where water is coming from is of interest to us.” Dlubac expects the information from the survey to be available to local groundwater management agencies in about eight months.

Water has long been a contentious subject in California.  As the nation's most populous state, leading the nation in farm production and a state dedicated to environmental protection, it's easy to understand why. The severe, ongoing drought only puts a greater focus on water. While there's hope for a wet fall and winter, Sacramento Valley water managers and other stakeholders are doing what they can to prepare for all outcomes. Teamwork and coordination are invaluable, especially during difficult times. “We are really fortunate in the Sacramento River Basin,” said Northern California Water Association President David Guy. “We have a real cohesive set of leaders that work very well together. Our managers and counsel work well together. That's critical, particularly as we head into these next years that could be very challenging. I think every river system in the valley works together. We realize we're all invested in the same types of actions and need to do the same types of things to be able to make sure that we have water supplies for the farms, cities and refuges.” Guy said he hopes more robust scenario planning this fall will further bring the region together, to be unified and best prepared for whatever 2022 holds for our water supply.  While the drought took its toll in our region, including a 100,000 acre reduction in rice planting, the familiar fall activities of harvest and the Pacific Flyway wildlife migration are welcomed. This year has been an uphill battle for those safeguarding water for all who need it and for future generations. “It's a daily, weekly, monthly and annual balancing act,” remarked Thad Bettner, General Manager of the Glenn-Colusa Irrigation District, the largest water district in the Sacramento Valley. “We're always making those sorts of decisions about how best to manage and use our supplies. A lot of environmental assets sit in our backyard, so we want to make sure we are meeting those needs as well. As a district, we're very transparent in all of the things that we do and we'd love to have other partners come alongside us in helping us make these key decisions.”  Harvest of America's sushi rice is nearing its peak, with growers reporting good quality and production from the fields they were able to plant. Grower Don Bransford in Colusa said he planted about 25 percent less acreage this year due to the water cutbacks. Bransford has long  been a leader in this region on key issues, and water is no exception.  He said planning and coordination for 2022 must be a priority. “The challenges are great, as they were this year,” he said. “There obviously is not enough water to go around, so the environment was shorted and farming acreage had to be reduced because of the curtailments. Urban areas had a little better supply situation, so they have not experienced what agriculture has. Moving forward, I believe we have huge challenges in this coming year.” Those who know and love the Sacramento Valley understand the need to preserve this unique and essential part of California. “We are all very proud of our little communities in the Sacramento Valley, many of which are dependent on a viable rice industry,” Bransford said. “What other commodity can you grow that has over 200 wildlife species inhabiting a growing crop, and then once that crop is harvested, then you have the migratory waterfowl moving in for a winter feast. Here we have land that's producing food and habitat – and they coexist wonderfully.” Michael Anderson: This past year is ranking up there in the top five of our driest years, and you pair it with last year, 2020, which was also dry, and now you're looking at the second driest since '76, '77. Very extreme pair of drought years there. Jim Morris: California state climatologist, Michael Anderson, describing our greater climate variability, which has contributed to this highly disappointing year for rain and snowfall. Michael Anderson: We're a lot warmer now than we were in '76, '77. April, May and June, that was the warmest and the driest in 125 years of record. The narrative of climate change for California is that we see a warming in temperatures, more rain, less snow, and more extremes. And we're seeing that play out in this last decade. Jim Morris: Drought impacts are being felt far and wide, including 100,000 fewer acres of rice planted here in the Sacramento Valley. What lies ahead for 2022? Only time will tell, but there's already a lot of thought being put into water management for the next year. Welcome to Ingrained, the California Rice Podcast. I'm your host, Jim Morris, proud to have worked with California farmers and ranchers for more than 30 years to help tell their stories. This year has been extremely dry with significant impacts. There is widespread hope that fall and winter will be wet, but of course that's far from guaranteed. So I think it would be helpful to hear from regional leaders about this critical subject. Jim Morris: David Guy is president of the Northern California Water Association. He's been NCWA's president for 11 years. He also served eight years as their executive director. We spent time together a long time ago at the California Farm Bureau, and he and his family were in Yosemite living in the park from 2007 to 2010 as David was CEO of the nonprofit, Yosemite Association. And I will be forever jealous of that opportunity you had. So looking ahead, David, what can water managers do to prepare for the possibility of another dry year? David Guy: Well, I think that as we look forward to 2022, there's still some work that has to be done on 2021. And I think the Pacific Flyway programs that are underway right now with the Rice Commission, with the water suppliers, with the conservation organizations are really, I think, stage setting for next year. The birds are so important and the species are so important. We'll be doing some more of that in the floodplain later in the winter for fish. And then as we start to go into the fall, obviously we need to start thinking about precipitation. And if there is going to be any precipitation this fall or early winter, we want to be able to capture that precipitation. David Guy: So I think that's what the water managers in the Sacramento Valley and throughout the state do really well. So I think we want to pull as much water into storage as we can. I think we want to be able to recharge groundwater as much as we can, and we want to be able to get water out on the ground for birds and fish as much as we can. So I think there's going to be a real concerted effort to help make sure that we utilize our water this fall and winter the best we can because everything we do this fall and winter will set the stage for next year. Jim Morris: To effectively do the most with such a precious resource, you need a lot of people with common goals. How would you describe the cohesiveness of water management in our region? David Guy: Well, I think we're real fortunate in the Sacramento River basin and we have a real cohesive set of leaders that work very well together and our managers and council and everybody else work really well together, and I think that's critical particularly as we head into these next years that could be very challenging. I think every river system in the valley works together. We realize that we're all invested in the same types of actions and that we need to do the same types of things to be able to make sure that we have water supplies for the farms, cities, refuges. So we're going to be doing some scenario planning this year in the fall to start planning for 2022 in a way that we've really never done before, and I think that will even further bring the region together, hopefully to unify around some planning for next year, and then the actions that will be necessary. Jim Morris: Northern California Water Association has a ridgetop to river mouth holistic water management approach. For someone not fully immersed in the water world, what does that mean? David Guy: Well, I think is what it really means is that the water obviously starts in the mountains and then it flows down through the valley. And the bottom line is this really calls on the managers in this region to manage the water the best they can. And they already manage water in this way. A lot of our agencies manage water from ridgetop to river mouth. And I think the other couple things that it does is water obviously flows from one area to the other, and we try to utilize that water the best we can and sometimes that water's used multiple times as it goes through the system and we want to be able to continue that. David Guy:The other thing of course, that it really allows is that we know that salmon, for example, which is a big part of the region, you need to address every salmon life stage for them to be successful, and that means from the ridgetop to the river mouth. And then of course, we can't control what goes on in the ocean, but we can sure help influence what goes on from the ridgetop to the river mouth. And I think that's really just calling on the best of our managers to do what they really do well. Jim Morris: There is some criticism that comes up on how much water is used by farms and ranches, and my belief on this is it's really not an either or that that water can help in many different ways. And taking rice, for example, that water is used to grow a crop that's America sushi rice. It also helps rural communities and our economy, and it also helps the Pacific Flyway migration of millions of birds. And now salmon are benefiting from rice farming too. So when you look at the collaboration, the multiple uses of water, what thoughts do you have about how effective that is going on right now in the Sacramento Valley? David Guy: The Sacramento Valley does this better than anybody. Quite honestly, they use water for cities and rural communities. We get water out for the farms. We get water out for the refuges. And quite honestly, it's a lot of the same water. It's a lot of synchronized water management that happens in the region. So yeah, I find that when people want to say that one use is being used at the sacrifice of others, that's usually just a false choice. So we find that you can do all of that. You just have to be creative and you just have to get the leaders in the region to want to embrace that. David Guy: And we do that in the Sacramento better than anybody. This last year, for example, most agriculture in the state really received zero surface water. And there were some areas that received maybe about 50 percent of their supplies, and I think to their credit, these water suppliers utilize that water to their benefit and they not only use the water for the farms, but they're now working to use that water for the birds and will be using it for water for the salmon later in the year. And I think there's a sequence there that could actually work well in the Sacramento Valley as well. Jim Morris: And I'm glad you mentioned those surface water cutbacks because there was an incredible news cycle this past year, and maybe that was lost, but there were very significant, huge reductions in the amount of surface water available in our region. We've had dry years before and certainly will again. So what can be learned from our most recent dry year this year? David Guy: Well, I think we just have to call on everybody's creativity and working together. I think that's what we've learned. We have a program, our dry year task force, where we've worked with state and federal agencies, and I think having that communication is just essential. We're going to be doing this scenario planning going into next year and really focusing on what are the scenarios that we may see in 2022? And let's be honest, some of those scenarios are fairly ugly for the region and some of those scenarios may involve a wet 2022, which we're all hoping for, but the bottom line is we have to be prepared for all of those scenarios and I think having the managers thinking about that together, I think we'll be really effective. David Guy: I think there's also to a lot of actions that can be taken in the meantime that are not as high profile, but again, some of the things we talked about moving water into storage, moving water out on the floodplain, moving water out into the refuges, I think those are the kind of things that are happening and are really important as we head into 2022. Jim Morris: Moving water out on the floodplains, that is a growing area of emphasis in our region, and talk a little bit about that. What does that look like and how does it help? David Guy: Well, I think we've seen in the last 50 years in California, that we've used the same formula. How much water do we put into the Delta and who has to give up that water to flow into the Delta? Well, that path has led to declines in fish. That path has led to declines in water supply reliability. So I think a lot of people are saying, "Why don't we try something different?" Well, fortunately the scientists over at the University of California have been pointing to the floodplain for some time now and saying, "This is where we can get the best benefit for fish and wildlife." So I think there's a real concerted effort, big coalition, the Floodplain Forward Coalition, is working on how do we reactivate our floodplain? And of course, there's a whole lot of things that have gone into that, but I think we've seen that there's been success with waterfowl on the Pacific Flyway. David Guy: We've seen that there's been success with spring run salmon on Butte Creek. And a big part of both of those efforts is this idea of reactivating the floodplain. So, we think that's the new approach and the best part about it is that we can do that in synchronicity with the farming and all the things that we do in the region, and we can also do it probably with a lot less water than just putting a bunch of water into the Delta that doesn't seem to be providing any benefits for anything. Jim Morris: And it's interesting when you talk about reactivating the floodplain, it may sound like this incredible amount of water, but really it's a shallow amount of water that does get a lot of benefit from it. And we've seen that in the rice fields of the Sacramento Valley. So some of the issues in this past year we've had include voluntary agreements, water transfers, and groundwater. They came up a lot and those are pretty big topics. How do you feel those issues or maybe others may fit into 2022. David Guy:Groundwater of course is the resource that people go to when they don't have surface water, and I think that will continue. Obviously there's a concerted effort through the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act and the plans that are coming early next year to really manage our groundwater basin sustainably. So I think there's a real concerted effort at the local level to do that. So we'll hopefully get that in place and people can start taking some of those actions as soon as possible to protect the groundwater for future uses. The voluntary agreements, I think are really just essential for the region. We need stability in that Bay Delta process. And without that stability, we're just going to keep having supplies in Northern California threaten in various regulatory processes. So we need that stability and I think there's some interest in the Administration in moving that forward. So I think 2022's got a lot in store, but I think we're going to be prepared for the year no matter what it looks like with respect to precipitation. Jim Morris: And you mentioned the word stability. How does that factor in when we look at the water rights system that is in place? David Guy: I think the water rights system in California works quite well and it works very well in the Sacramento River basin. It's painful for some, because some get their waters curtailed and other there don't, but I think everybody knows how that works. I think people have certain expectations. They've built their business models around that. So in our view, the water system works really well. We're going to continue to work with the State Water Board to make that process even better, but I really think that making the water rights system obviously work is really important. And we know there's going to be critics and some academics and others who are going to want to suggest that we have to rewrite our water rights system, and obviously that would destabilize California water immensely. So we need to make the water right system work, and then we need to be able to put water into storage and let the managers do what they do best, which is obviously a big part of the water rights system as well. Jim Morris: I am really impressed when I see the meetings in the Sacramento Valley. There are members of the environmental community, there's urban representatives, agriculture, water officials, of course. So what is your assessment on the willingness to find water solutions in our valley? David Guy: You're right, Jim. I mean, we have an amazing group of folks who are working hard out on the ground to really implement solutions. And again, they're for cities, they're for rural communities, they're for farms and ranches, they're for the environment. And I don't think anybody's done that better than the Sacramento Valley. Kudos to the leaders and the rice community in the valley for really step up and doing all the work that you've done. I think as we go forward, we're going to continue to work with that group and I think that work is really proving fruitful. David Guy: Unfortunately, we also know there's a group of litigators that are sitting out there, who their business model is not to solve problems. Their business model is to file lawsuits and to try to disrupt what we're doing in the Sacramento River Basin. So unfortunately we're going to need to be part of that process as well, to make sure that they can't in fact disrupt the Sacramento River Basin. And in the meantime, let's keep working with those who show up and get their nails dirty and want to work out on the ground, because that's how this is going to get better. Jim Morris: What is at stake here? I've spent my entire life in the Sacramento Valley. Absolutely love it. But I think for a lot of people that are driving on I-5 or Highway 99, and they're just heading from one place to the next and don't understand the full beauty and importance of it. So what's at stake here in making sure this region stays whole? David Guy: Well, Jim, you started off by mentioning my time in Yosemite and of course, I just have wonderful memories of Yosemite and our national park system is beyond equal in this world. But I think the Sacramento Valley is on that level as far as the grandeur and as what it is, it's just so vast and big, but we have what? 2 million acres of farmland, some of the best farmland in the world. We have seven national wildlife refuges, 50 state wildlife areas, four runs of salmon. We have cities and rural communities that really sparkle and have wonderful people in them, and I think it's water that really brings this region together in a special way, and I think that's what's at stake and I hope that we can all roll up our sleeves, continue to work together to make sure that we have water for this region for all of those purposes. It's not and/or. It's how do we do both? And I think that's what this region really excels at. Jim Morris: I'm in Willows at the headquarters of Glenn-Colusa Irrigation District, the largest water district in the Sacramento Valley, covering 175,000 acres, much of it farmland. There are communities and several wildlife refuges here, as well. There were fields that went unplanned this year, including rice, the underground water table has been pressured, and they've had to deal with severe surface water cutbacks. Thad Bettner has been head of this water district since 2006. Of course, that's included several dry years. And as we get through this year, Thad, how taxing has it been? Thad Bettner: I have to say that you have been here for 15 years and doing this water thing for over 30. I would say this has probably been the most challenging year I've ever experienced in my career. I look back and I've talked to other people about the COVID year of last year and how challenging that was, but honestly this year has been even more challenging than that. So just given the constraints, the challenging hydrologic conditions, the internal needs that we have for trying to meet water for our growers, for the environment, for the refuges that we serve, and then also the concerns about trying to protect salmon in the river, and just trying to balance all those competing needs has been very challenging this year. The good thing is we've kind of gotten through it. We're here in the fall, so that's good news, but certainly, we have another challenging year ahead of us going into next year. Jim Morris: What are some lessons that might be learned from this year as we head into a potentially dry 2022, which could magnify all of these impacts? Thad Bettner: I think certainly the challenge is just from a surface water standpoint, how do we manage the system to one, get water where it's needed for people, for the different crops that we grow, for certainly protecting fish and I'm not minimizing them at all by same fish. Thirdly, but just, I think in terms of just the environment, it's broader than just fisheries. We have birds that we're trying to manage for right now, et cetera. So I think the broader environmental needs are very significant. And then the other thing we're facing here in the Sacramento Valley is a lot of these groundwater sustainability plans are getting adopted in January. So we'll also be going into next year, once those plans are adopted, actually starting to implement them. So how we also manage our water supply for the benefit of maintaining our sustainable groundwater system here in the Sacramento Valley is going to be vitally important as well. Jim Morris: How important is coordination and cooperation among all of the stakeholders? Thad Bettner: It's very important. I mean, honestly I spend most of my day just working with other agencies, other managers, groundwater folks, talking to different regulatory agencies about operations, talking to our environmental partners on restoration projects, and then just trying to meet our own internal staff needs. We have about 75 employees here in the district. So just trying to make sure that just as an entity, as a company, we continue to have good bonds internally. So it's been most of our days, just trying to foster sorts of relationships. Jim Morris: Longer term, it would be great, I think to have more water storage like Sites Reservoir, and how would that help in the long term for all Californians? Thad Bettner: We've been an advocate for Sites for decades. It's right next to our district and certainly parts of our facilities would be used both to fill and drain sites. I think one of the most significant benefits of Sites, not just of the water supply, it would provide to those folks who are investing in the project, but the project would provide just a lot more flexibility to some of our backbone infrastructure like Shasta, like Oroville, which I'm sure everybody has heard are historic lows this year. So having additional storage up in sites could help some of these dry years to provide more water into the system and ultimately provide more water for environmental benefits. Jim Morris: The purpose is not to try to get Sites filled in a dry year, but when we have those abundant rainfall years, to take advantage of that in a better way than we're doing now. Thad Bettner: One of the things about the Sacramento Valley that a lot of folks don't recognize at least on the Sacramento River, is that it's really more of a rain-driven watershed than a snow-fed watershed. So, under climate change, a lot of the forecasts are saying actually that more rainfall will fall in the Sacramento River system, which could lead to more runoff, which, again, Sites Reservoir would be relying on those really wet years, high runoff years to fill Sites and then draw that water out of storage in the dryer years. Jim Morris: What responsibility do you feel you're trying to have as much reasonable water to all the needs here in your district, but you also have to safeguard this resource for down the road? What kind of a balancing act is that? Thad Bettner: Well, I would say it's a daily, weekly, monthly, and annually balancing act. I mean, we're always making those sorts of decisions about how best to manage and use our supplies and also looking for just broader from... A lot of these assets, like environmental assets sit in our backyard. So how do we make sure we're also providing and meeting those needs as well? So I would say for us as a district, we're very transparent in all the things that we do and would love to have other partners come alongside us and helping us make some of these key decisions. Jim Morris: It's harvest time in rice country, including here in Colusa, the largest rice growing county in America. I'm visiting with grower Don Bransford, who in addition to farming is extremely active in his community and with statewide service. Don, first of all, how is harvest going this year and how has the drought impacted your farm? Don Bransford: Well, so far harvest is going pretty well. This has been one of those years where we've had a few more breakdowns than we'd like, but we're progressing well and the moisture's holding up. As far as the drought goes, we fallowed about 25 percent of our ground due to our reductions in supply, according to our contracts. Jim Morris: Thanks for taking time during such a busy time. It is windy today, but the harvesters and the bankout wagons are going and things are looking great. So how important is it when we look ahead to 2022, that there is some planning and coordination in terms of water? Don Bransford: I think the planning and coordination is extremely important. For this cropping year, we started planning in early February for the potential of a drought. We worked with the regulators, NGOs and other water districts to see how we might adapt our systems to meet a lot of needs of the environment, the farms and the urban areas. So it was a challenge. Jim Morris: What kind of pressures are there on water supplies? It's always challenging in California, but it seems lately to be exceptionally so. There will always be discussion, debate, and dispute. So what kind of challenges from a farming perspective, do you see on the water supply? Don Bransford: The challenges are great as they were this year. There obviously is not enough water to go around. So the environment was shorted. Farming acreage had to be reduced because of the curtailments. Urban areas had a little better supply situation. So they have not experienced what agriculture has, but moving forward, I believe we have huge challenges in this coming year. A number of wells were used to make up for deficient supplies. I think moving into the new year, there's going to be concern about how much groundwater's available, which puts more pressure on surface supplies. And then you have urban areas who were able to get through this past year with... Their supplies are short. Don Bransford: We've been contacted by a number of urban districts about the potential for water transfers. And then obviously, those growers south of the Delta that have contracts are most likely going to be very short of water. It's going to be tremendously challenging. We are going to start planning and actually this next month up here in the north state, we're going to work with NGOs, the state and federal regulators and the other irrigation districts to figure out how to best use every drop of water that we have available and hopefully some of that water can be used two or three times to achieve or meet needs of any number of demands. Jim Morris: This is a really special area. The communities, Colusa, I love Gridley, Biggs, Marysville, Yuba City, Richvale, on and on. The farms, the environment, the unique communities, how important is it to have these discussions and try to maintain this special thing that we have in the Sacramento Valley? Don Bransford: I think it's very important. We are all very proud of our little communities in the Sacramento Valley, many of which are dependent on a viable rice industry. We're here at harvest this year and the wildlife are everywhere. I mean, where else... What other commodity can you grow which has over 200 species of wildlife inhabiting a growing crop? And then once that crop is harvested, then you have the migratory waterfowl moving in for a winter feast. Just this morning, I also saw some sandhill cranes. They arrive about this time every year. In the same fields, the geese have started to move into the fields at night to forage the rice that's left behind by harvesters. About 50 percent of the feed for all migrating waterfowl are located in these rice fields. These fields are ecosystems and the only way to replace those ecosystems would be to build wetlands, which would cost hundreds of millions of dollars, but here we have land that's producing food and habitat and they coexist wonderfully. Jim Morris: Another sign of fall in our valley, the ducks and geese are coming back. I'm at the Sacramento National Wildlife Refuge in Willows, a great place for your family to visit. If we are fortunate to have abundant rain and snow in the coming months, perhaps everyone can exhale a bit, but at the moment, next year looks like it will be a major test. Hopefully with collaboration, cooperation, and creativity, we will persevere. Thank you to our interviewees, David Guy, Thad Bettner, Don Bransford, and Michael Anderson. We will, of course, keep you updated on this issue as we get farther into fall and winter. You can go to podcast.calrice.org to find out more. Please subscribe and spread the word. And thanks for listening.

A conversation with researchers Darcy Bostic (Pacific Institute) and Kristin Dobbin (UC Davis) about the legislated human right to drinking water, the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act, sustainability, and participation in California. Find the transcript here: https://www.watertalkpodcast.com/episodes/episode-17 

In this episode of Food & Facilities on CentralValleyTalk.com, Vicky Espinoza of CaliWaterAg joins to explain how her water and land use research spurred her video series on the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act. Subscribe to our channel and on our website at wcismag.com/subscribe for more quality safety, and compliance news in agribusiness. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/wcismag/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/wcismag/support

In this episode, Courtney speaks with Bill Blomquist, a Professor of Political Science at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) and a fellow at the Ostrom Workshop. We explore Bill's ground-breaking and decade-spanning research into California groundwater governance. We talk about Bill's work tracking the evolution of groundwater policy and institutions, the unique theoretical insights we can learn about natural resource governance from California's most recent groundwater experiment, the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act, and finally we end with some reflections on Bill's time working with the Ostrom Workshop.   If you'd like to dig a little deeper into the content Bill discusses in this podcast, here are a few resources:   The Commons Governance program at the Ostrom Workshop: https://ostromworkshop.indiana.edu/research/commons/index.html   The special issue of Society and Natural Resources on the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act, featuring a few articles by Bill: https://t.co/66njZziLk6?amp=1   NSF-funded project led by Anita Milman at UMass Amherst on California's Sustainable Groundwater Management Act that Bill is a collaborator on. This project focuses on inter-agency coordination and Bill mentions it in the discussion in this podcast on mandated-coordination-vs-local-autonomy: https://watergovernance.umasscreate.net/groundwater-sustainability/sgma/

Some estimate that the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act could take 10% of agricultural land out of production.

Holly King, Almond Grower

A conversation with University of California Davis School of Law Professor Karrigan Börk about the CA Water Rights, the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act, drinking water, and federal vs. CA controls over water. Find the episode transcript here: https://www.watertalkpodcast.com/episodes/episode-06

Water and labor issues once again dominate the worries of California's farmers, oh, and yeah…that Covid-19 situation, as well, is creating confusion and problems. The coronavirus outbreak may put a halt to any new farm workers coming from Mexico. We update that story. Farmers markets: are they open, or are they closed. We unravel the confusion. A UC Study says that full implementation of the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act could lead to economic disaster for the San Joaquin Valley. But there's good news: dairy sales are way up in California. Apparently people eat a lot of ice cream when they're cooped up indoors. Birds can be your friends when battling codling moth on the farm. We'll tell you how. And we learn how to correctly stake a walnut tree. It's the KSTE Farm Hour.

Water and labor issues once again dominate the worries of California’s farmers, oh, and yeah…that Covid-19 situation, as well, is creating confusion and problems. The coronavirus outbreak may put a halt to any new farm workers coming from Mexico. We update that story. Farmers markets: are they open, or are they closed. We unravel the confusion. A UC Study says that full implementation of the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act could lead to economic disaster for the San Joaquin Valley. But there’s good news: dairy sales are way up in California. Apparently people eat a lot of ice cream when they’re cooped up indoors. Birds can be your friends when battling codling moth on the farm. We’ll tell you how. And we learn how to correctly stake a walnut tree. It’s the KSTE Farm Hour.

The Great Lakes hold 20% of the world’s surface drinking water, with Lake Superior holding half of that alone. The lakes stretch from New York to Minnesota, and cover a surface area of nearly 100,000 square miles—large enough to cover the entire state of Colorado. And they’re teeming with life. Fish, phytoplankton, birds, even butterflies call the lakes home for some portion of their lives. But not all is calm in the waters. In The Death and Life of the Great Lakes, journalist Dan Egan tells the story of the changes that have unbalanced these ecosystems since the St. Lawrence Seaway was first made navigable for cargo ships and, with them, invasive species, like sea lampreys, alewives, quagga mussels and, perhaps soon, Asian carp. The Science Friday Book Club has spent a month swimming in Great Lakes science. We’ve pondered the value of native fish to ecosystem resiliency, the threats facing people’s access to clean drinking water, and the influence of invasive species. SciFri producer and Book Club captain Christie Taylor, Wayne State University ecologist Donna Kashian, and Wisconsin-based journalist Peter Annin discuss potential paths to a healthy future, from ongoing restoration efforts to protective policies and new research. Dennis Hutson’s rows of alfalfa, melons, okra and black-eyed peas are an oasis of green in the dry terrain of Allensworth, an unincorporated community in rural Tulare County. Hutson, currently cultivating on 60 acres, has a vision for many more fields bustling with jobs. “This community will forever be impoverished and viewed by the county as a hamlet,” he says, “unless something happens that can create an economic base. That’s what I’m trying to do.” While he scours his field for slender pods of ripe okra, three workers, community members he calls “helpers,” mind the irrigation station: 500-gallon water tanks and gurgling ponds at the head of each row, all fed by a 720-foot-deep groundwater well. Just like for any grower, managing water is a daily task for Hutson and his helpers. That’s why he’s concerned about what could happen under the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act, the state’s overhaul of groundwater regulations. Among other goals, the law sets out to eliminate the estimated 1.8 million acre-feet in annual deficit the state racks up each year by pumping more water out of underground aquifers than it can replenish. Hutson worries small farmers may not have the resources to adapt to the potentially strict water allocations and cutbacks that might be coming. Their livelihoods and identities may be at stake. “You grow things a certain way, and then all of a sudden you don’t have access to as much water as you would like in order to grow what you grow,” he says, “and now you’re kind of out of sorts.” Read the rest on sciencefriday.com.

Michael Franz

The landmark Sustainable Groundwater Management Act aims to keep aquifers healthy by requiring plans from newly formed local agencies. The policy represents a major shift, mandated by arguably the most important new California water law in 50 years.

Lauren Noland-Hajik, Attorney and Lobbyist at Kahn, Soares & Conway gives an update on new policies that affect the wine industry. She explains the legislature and how bills are formed through committee hearings; covers the Water Resiliency Plan and how it affects Sustainable Groundwater Management Act; regulating power shutoffs to prevent wildfires; anticipated regulations on pesticides including glyphosate, rodenticides, and fungicides; the importance of educating consumers and government about the these ag tools; and impending labor law changes including the minimum wage increase, overtime (AB 1066), paid sick leave, and how the Dynamex Decision affects truck drivers. References: AB 1066 California Department of Pesticide Regulation California Minimum Wage Kahn, Soares, & Conway, LLP Lauren Noland-Hajik | lhajik@kscsacramento.com SGMA Groundwater Management SIP Certified Get More Subscribe on Google Play, iHeartRADIO, iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, TuneIn, or wherever you listen so you never miss an episode on the latest science and research with the Sustainable Winegrowing Podcast. Since 1994, Vineyard Team has been your resource for workshops and field demonstrations, research, and events dedicated to the stewardship of our natural resources. Learn more at www.vineyardteam.org.

Welcome to Part Two of our 2019 retrospective here on the KSTE Farm Hour. This week, we delve into a growing segment on the California farming scene: the rise of urban agriculture and the young farmers who are implementing changes and increasing the flexibility of land use in the Golden State. Last week, we looked at the ongoing issues that faced California's farmers in 2019: water availability issues, complicated by the implementation of the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act; trade issues, especially with countries that are large importers of California agricultural products such as Canada, Mexico and China; and how the future of agriculture is changing here based on the tighter availability of farm labor. You can hear that report by going to your favorite podcast aggregator, including IHeart, and doing a search for the KSTE Farm Hour.

Welcome to Part Two of our 2019 retrospective here on the KSTE Farm Hour. This week, we delve into a growing segment on the California farming scene: the rise of urban agriculture and the young farmers who are implementing changes and increasing the flexibility of land use in the Golden State. Last week, we looked at the ongoing issues that faced California’s farmers in 2019: water availability issues, complicated by the implementation of the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act; trade issues, especially with countries that are large importers of California agricultural products such as Canada, Mexico and China; and how the future of agriculture is changing here based on the tighter availability of farm labor. You can hear that report by going to your favorite podcast aggregator, including IHeart, and doing a search for the KSTE Farm Hour.

Welcome to the first of two, year-end retrospective programs about the state of California agriculture as we wrap up 2019. This week, we look back on three issues of great concern to the state's farmers: access to water under the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act, access to farm labor, and the ongoing tariff wars, which have put a big dent in California's overseas agricultural sales. And there's good news from 2019, as well: The official repeal of the Waters of the United States rules; and, progress on securing a trade deal with two of our biggest customers, Canada and Mexico.

Welcome to the first of two, year-end retrospective programs about the state of California agriculture as we wrap up 2019. This week, we look back on three issues of great concern to the state’s farmers: access to water under the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act, access to farm labor, and the ongoing tariff wars, which have put a big dent in California’s overseas agricultural sales. And there’s good news from 2019, as well: The official repeal of the Waters of the United States rules; and, progress on securing a trade deal with two of our biggest customers, Canada and Mexico.

During part 2 of this special Voices of the Valley episode with Abby Taylor-Silva of Grower-Shipper Association, the vice president takes us through a host of water topics, including the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act and how it differs in the Salinas Valley, and some of the critical water issues producers in Monterey County are experiencing. She also touches on traceability in ag and it’s progress while she’s worked in the food safety space. Taylor-Silva also stresses the importance of government agencies talking to the industry. A special “thank you” to Harvestport for sponsoring the Voices of the Valley podcast!

The U.S.-Japan trade deal is now official. But, there are winners and losers, including many important California agricultural commodities. Another widely used pesticide on California's farms will be unavailable beginning in 2020. We have the details. Deadlines are approaching for water agencies throughout California to be in compliance with the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act. We take a deep dive into SGMA, and what it means for California's farmers. All that, crop reports, the valley weather forecast, and more…on this week's KSTE Farm Hour.

The U.S.-Japan trade deal is now official. But, there are winners and losers, including many important California agricultural commodities. Another widely used pesticide on California’s farms will be unavailable beginning in 2020. We have the details. Deadlines are approaching for water agencies throughout California to be in compliance with the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act. We take a deep dive into SGMA, and what it means for California’s farmers. All that, crop reports, the valley weather forecast, and more…on this week’s KSTE Farm Hour.

Jenny Lester Moffitt discusses her role at the California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA).  She also walks through CDFA's role in working within the Administration on some of agriculture's toughest issues such as the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act, Food Safety Modernization Act, and SB 27, the nation's first antibiotics law.  Jenny also highlights challenges and opportunities she sees in the next five to ten years for the industry.

William Bourdeau VP Harris Farms in Coalinga, a Director of Westlands Water District and Chair of the Board with CA WaterAlliance. He speaks about the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act.

Away from Home meals are up. What does that mean for California Farmers' income? We have the details. What are the Trump Administration's strategies for increasing rural prosperity? We've got that info, too. Have you heard about the California Farm Demonstration Network? We'll tell you all about it. When it comes to gophers versus drip irrigation, it's usually the gopher that wins. We have tips to put you on the winning side. And the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act is slowly being implemented in California. And for some California farms, the slower the better. We'll tell you why. All that, plus a report on the mushrooming, um growing,…mushroom business. It's all on today's KSTE Farm Hour. Let's get started!

Away from Home meals are up. What does that mean for California Farmers’ income? We have the details. What are the Trump Administration’s strategies for increasing rural prosperity? We’ve got that info, too. Have you heard about the California Farm Demonstration Network? We’ll tell you all about it. When it comes to gophers versus drip irrigation, it’s usually the gopher that wins. We have tips to put you on the winning side. And the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act is slowly being implemented in California. And for some California farms, the slower the better. We’ll tell you why. All that, plus a report on the mushrooming, um growing,…mushroom business. It’s all on today’s KSTE Farm Hour. Let’s get started!

Lozano Smith attorneys discuss some of the important aspects of California’s future and complex history with groundwater. Topics include the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA), Groundwater Sustainability Agencies (GSA), pre-1914 water rights, and CEQA issues and evaluations. Additionally, they dive into various considerations as local governments adopt general plans and make decisions affecting groundwater and land use. Show Notes & References: 1:15 Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA) – https://water.ca.gov/Programs/Groundwater-Management/SGMA-Groundwater-Management 3:38 Groundwater Sustainability Agencies (GSA) – https://water.ca.gov/-/media/DWR-Website/Web-Pages/Programs/Groundwater-Management/Sustainable-Groundwater-Management/Files/2014-Sustainable-Groundwater-Management-Legislation-with-2015-amends-1-15-2016.pdf?la=en&hash=ADB3455047A2863D029146E9A820AC7DE16B5CB1 6:31 Pre-1914 water rights – https://www.waterboards.ca.gov/waterrights/board_info/faqs.html 7:47 CEQA issues and evaluations – http://opr.ca.gov/ceqa/ 10:35 General plans adopted for local governments – http://opr.ca.gov/planning/general-plan/ 14:30 Prop 218 – http://www.lao.ca.gov/1996/120196_prop_218/understanding_prop218_1296.html For more information on the social media issues discussed in this podcast, please visit our website at: www.lozanosmith.com/podcast.

As wildfires continue to rage in California, farm and range losses are mounting. We have an early look at some of the damage. The state is claiming victory, again, against the Medfly. This time, in Solano County. The Sustainable Groundwater Management Act isn't just about what's below the soil, there are serious land use decisions that are going to have to be made, especially in the Central Valley. We have an in-depth report. All that, crop reports, and multiple awards for California's cheesemakers. It's all on this week's KSTE Farm Hour.

As wildfires continue to rage in California, farm and range losses are mounting. We have an early look at some of the damage. The state is claiming victory, again, against the Medfly. This time, in Solano County. The Sustainable Groundwater Management Act isn’t just about what’s below the soil, there are serious land use decisions that are going to have to be made, especially in the Central Valley. We have an in-depth report. All that, crop reports, and multiple awards for California’s cheesemakers. It’s all on this week’s KSTE Farm Hour.

Since peaking in 2015, some California agricultural land prices have since softened. Lower tree nut prices, low capitalization rates for investors, and rising production costs all play a part, but the impending implementation of California’s Sustainable Groundwater Management Act will continue to put additional downward pressure on specific types of property in specific California growing regions, particularly in the San Joaquin Valley. Roland Fumasi, a Senior Agricultural Analyst at Rabobank, gives us his 2018-19 baseline outlook for California agricultural land values for each specific growing region in the state.

The long California drought forced many growers to pump groundwater to irrigate their crops. With the establishment of California's Sustainable Groundwater Management Act replenishment of California's groundwater supplies is of utmost importance. To develop replenishment strategies, Professor Helen Dahlke joins fellow UC Davis researchers, UC Cooperative Extension and California farmers to test the impacts of irrigating almond orchards in the winter to recharge groundwater aquifers and to help manage water resources sustainably. Series: "UCTV Prime" [Science] [Show ID: 32526]

A recent California Department of Water Resources Workshop in Clovis outlined the policy and regulations on the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act, did not sit well with many growers.