Hard lessons from around the American
West and Australia could help improve ground water management and protect
ecosystems in California, Stanford University researchers find.
The Water in the West program at
Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment is focusing attention on how
ground water pumping can threaten rivers and ecosystems and, conversely, how
creative groundwater management can be a savior during drought. The program
recently released the report, "Instituting Integration," that
explores the ways that various American and Australian states and water
districts manage and regulate connections between ground water and surface
waters and ecosystems such as rivers, streams, springs and
wetlands.
"In many places, over-pumping of
ground water reduces surface-water flows," says report author Rebecca
Nelson. "Failing to recognize and address these fundamental connections
can place other water users like farmers and cities at risk and can harm
fisheries or wetland habitats of migratory waterfowl."
Many jurisdictions manage and regulate
surface water and ground water without any recognition of the connections. For
instance, California has no legal framework for comprehensively managing the
impacts of ground water pumping. Across most of California, well owners can
pump as much as they like with little accountability for the impacts on rivers,
other water users and ecosystems. In contrast, other states around the West
have developed laws and policies for controlling the impacts of wells on
rivers. Australia has gone even further, considering how ecosystems of all
kinds are affected by ground water pumping.
"We have only recently developed
the science necessary to understand the extent of this problem," Nelson
says. "Now we need to move on to thinking about the law and policy tools
we need to deal with this issue. On that score, California is at the rear of
the pack."
Stanford researchers have been learning
from states throughout the western United States and Australia that are dealing
with common issues of water scarcity, increasing competition for water, greater
reliance on ground water and fragile ecosystems. Hard lessons have produced a
range of creative policy tools to ensure that wells do not inadvertently
deplete stream-flow, or damage connected ecosystems, while minimizing economic
disruption to those who often rely on ground water during
droughts.
Some western states, which face stressed
basins and drying rivers, cap ground water pumping in high-use areas. New wells
are permitted when well owners are able to offset their pumping by conserving
water or buying and retiring other water rights. Across the Pacific, a
decade-long drought ravaged many river ecosystems in Australia but until
recently, little attention was paid to the importance of groundwater to those
systems. Now, Australian scientists are preparing to release the country's
first national map of ground water-dependent ecosystems. The map will help
decision makers when they consider applications for new wells and formulate new
water plans designed to protect these ecosystems into the future.