Hal Hodson reports on another approach to the water problem in California in NewScientist (16 May 2015, paywall):
The traditional method of storage is to create a reservoir by damming a river. But dam-building is expensive, can be environmentally damaging, and most of the good spots are already in use. An alternative is to push water underground using recharge ponds or injection wells. Recharge ponds are constructed surface basins that allow water to collect and seep through the soil; injection wells use high-pressure pumps to actively push water down into aquifers. …
Groundwater management has several advantages over other methods. It is generally cheaper than building dams or desalinating water. What’s more, aquifers lose no water through evaporation, do not flood ecosystems, and in California they have capacity for between 17 and 26 times as much water as all of the state’s reservoirs combined.
This can require removal of man-made structures such as levees which restrict flooding of floodplains – which is precisely the mechanism for feeding aquifers, in many cases. Can man’s pride – and perverse economic incentives – be overcome to, basically, return an area to a semblance of its natural state?
The National Ground Water Association is here.
