All posts tagged: groundwater

Some California growers have found ways to to recharge precious groundwater

Some California growers have found ways to to recharge precious groundwater

Published by Sam Flores

ARVIN, Calif. — In the southern San Joaquin Valley, where roads cut through thousands of acres of orange groves, grapevines and carrot fields, a canal reaches a linchpin that keeps the farming economy going: dozens of oblong ponds filled with shimmering water. While many parts of California’s Central Valley are struggling to counter widespread overpumping and declining underground water levels, the irrigation agency here is using the ponds to effectively swallow gulps of river water, getting it to seep into the soil and recharge the groundwater. “That sandy ground, when you put the water on it, it percolates into the groundwater and it recharges,” said Jeevan Muhar, chief executive officer of Arvin-Edison Water Storage District. “So it’s underneath us. We can see that water come up.” The irrigation district tracks groundwater levels. In dry times, when it needs to tap into stored water, it uses dozens of wells to pump it out and send it flowing to farms. The Tejon Spreading Works is part of a network the Arvin-Edison Water Storage District uses to recharge groundwater. A …

The global reservoir of background PFAS: Implications for soil, groundwater, and regulatory strategy

The global reservoir of background PFAS: Implications for soil, groundwater, and regulatory strategy

Published by skeptic

A new study published in the Journal of Hazardous Materials provides one of the most comprehensive empirical inventories to date of background PFAS across environmental media, reframing how we understand mass distribution, cross-media transfer, and site management strategy Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are no longer viewed solely as contaminants emanating from discrete industrial sources. Increasingly, regulators and site managers are grappling with a more complex reality: PFAS are detectable at “background” locations where no direct release has occurred. Drawing on global and U.S. occurrence datasets spanning soil, groundwater, surface water (fresh and ocean), precipitation, air, biosolids, and wastewater, the authors establish a quantitative mass balance of background PFAS. Their central conclusion is both striking and consequential: surficial soil is the largest current reservoir of background PFAS globally and in the United States, surpassing groundwater, surface water, and even ocean water in estimated total mass. Reframing “background” PFAS The study adopts a pragmatic definition of background PFAS: concentrations observed in environmental media where no known direct release has occurred, even though the compounds themselves are …

Arizona to limit groundwater pumping in hard-hit area

Arizona to limit groundwater pumping in hard-hit area

Published by Sam Flores

For years, the water table has been dropping beneath thousands of acres of desert farmland in western Arizona, where a Saudi-owned dairy company has been allowed to pump unlimited amounts of groundwater to grow hay for its cows. But the company and other landowners in the area will now face limits under a decision by state officials to impose regulation. Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs said Monday that her administration is acting to “crack down on the out-of-state special interests that are pumping our state dry while Arizona families and farmers suffer.” Fondomonte, part of the Saudi dairy giant Almarai, is by far the largest water user in the area, using dozens of wells to to irrigate alfalfa that it ships overseas to the Middle East. After conducting a review, the state Department of Water Resources designated the Ranegras Plain area, located 100 miles west of Phoenix, as a new “active management area” to preserve the groundwater. This isn’t the first time the Democratic governor and her administration have used this approach to curb excessive pumping …