Recharge Alone Won’t End California’s Groundwater Drought
After a winter of historic rains, California’s reservoirs are filled to the brim. Rivers are supercharged—and have flooded much of the Central Valley. With the water came a deluge of news voicing worries that California is letting all that water wash into the sea after years of drought—and heralding the idea of capturing it to recharge our long-parched groundwater aquifers. The political will is strong: Gov. Gavin Newsom has issued three separate executive orders aimed at amping up recharge efforts.
But while recharge is a useful way to put surface water back underground, experts say it is a limited solution.
“We have unrealistic expectations of groundwater recharge, as a way of addressing groundwater overdraft and long-term drought in particular,” says Jay Lund, a professor of civil and environmental engineering at UC Davis. “We will probably be able to reduce the overdraft by maybe 15 to 25 percent by increased groundwater recharge. It’s nice, but it’s not going to be enough.”