Spotlight Feb. 2023: Ag Districts Put Storms to Work Recharging Groundwater by ACWA Staff Feb 17, 2023 Newsletters Photo show on-farm recharge at work within Madera Irrigation District as a result of January’s storms. Photos courtesy of Madera Irrigation District. Collaboration and investment into groundwater recharge delivered promising results for ACWA member agencies during January’s atmospheric storms, while also providing urgent reminders of unmet potential in matching infrastructure needs to climate change. Tulare Irrigation District (TID), Fresno Irrigation District (FID) and Madera Irrigation District (MID) are among three member agencies that reported successful on-farm recharge from growers in their districts. The MID Board acted Jan. 4 by deciding to allow water deliveries effective immediately. A couple weeks later, the district hosted a well-attended workshop on on-farm recharge for growers. “There’s been literally an exponential increase in people willing to do this,” said MID Assistant General Manager Dina Nolan, about growers participating in on-farm recharge. Nolan credited the work of prominent landowners in making opportunities for on-farm recharge known through word-of-mouth, along with organizations such as the local Resource Conservation District, Natural Resources Conservation Service and the nonprofit Sustainable Conservation. MID has also invested in expanding its recharge capacity, having earlier acquired 80 acres for recharge purposes. “It’s really gratifying to see those efforts put to work and produce results,” said MID General Manager Thomas Greci. The Fresno Irrigation District (FID) also immediately began offering on-farm recharge water to growers as the storms hit, according to an FID news release. The storms filled reservoirs and allowed FID to route water to replenish the underlying groundwater supply and help improve local groundwater levels, which have steadily declined since 2019. “In light of the requirements of the state’s Sustainable Groundwater Management Act’s (SGMA) requirements to improve local groundwater levels, FID is making every effort to route storm and flood waters into its boundary and utilize facilities, including individual farms, for recharge purposes,” stated FID General Manager Bill Stretch in the news release. At TID, more than 80 irrigation canal turnouts were flooding fields with about 1,500 acre-feet of water a day, as of late January, said TID General Manager Aaron Fukuda. That amount of water has more than doubled since 2011, previous to SGMA, when only a few growers flooded their fields with storm water equaling about 700 acre-feet a day. And the steady increase in on-farm recharge is making a difference, with groundwater levels coming up by 18 feet across TID’s 65,000-acre territory during the wet winter of 2017. TID growers worked with the district last year to overcome difficult decisions in the face of ongoing drought, cutting back on groundwater pumping as part of an emergency ordinance. This included an online Water Dashboard to track evapotranspiration along with groundwater recharge credits, and the system was in place when the atmospheric rivers swept in. “The hard work and decisions that the district and our growers made last year prepared us to be able to conduct recharge efforts that yield growers groundwater credits to ensure future access to groundwater in dry years,” Fukuda said. In Northern California, the Yolo County Flood Control & Water Conservation District’s 160-mile, unlined canal systems moves storm water from farm field runoff through the 200,000 acre service area where flows ultimately run eastward toward the Yolo Bypass into the Sacramento-San Joaquin Bay-Delta. The district manages irrigation and storm releases in the hydrologically flashy Cache Creek watershed. At the heading of the district’s canal system, Cache Creek experienced significant bank erosion that will need to be repaired, said General Manager Kristin Sicke. Overall, the district was prepared for the nearly month-long series of storms, and welcomed the change in weather. “Because of the reprieve between January storm events, Yolo County storm conveyance channels handled rainfall and runoff similar to previous years. The intensity of a few of the events surprised us and resulted in some unexpected storm damage throughout the canal system,” Sicke said.
