[81alum]

Stanford is in the far north of Santa Clara County, but SCC has one of the oldest and most successful turnaround stories when it comes to recharging aquifers.  In its agricultural days, so many wells were constructed to irrigate orchards that much of the northern half of the county sank up to 13 feet.  Downtown San Jose had severe subsidence that damaged many buildings.  Beginning in the 1920s San Jose began to construct over 100 "percolation" ponds--ponds in strategic locations over gravelly soil that allows water to soak in and reach the aquifer.  I used to live near a string of these ponds on Penitencia Creek in the eastern foothills of San Jose.  The percolation ponds plumped the aquifer back up again, along with restrictions on pumping groundwater, and the subsidence had halted by 1970.

I do wonder whether the reappearance of Tulare Lake will have some positive effects on the aquifer in that region--or if the lake bed is not porous and the water is just going to sit on the surface.  Will it work like a percolation pond, or not?  Sure is making a mess out of Tulare county, and the snow has not started to melt yet.

Marc Reisner's classic Cadillac Desert discusses the depletion of the aquifers of the high Great Plains, too, and that book is now almost 40 years old.  The plains states have been "mining" million year old water to support their growth, but that water will not be recharged and eventually it will run out.  Anyone know if those practices have been reformed in the last few decades?  The diminishment of the Colorado River flow is just going to add to the pressure to pump.

[81alum]

Stanford is in the far north of Santa Clara County, but SCC has one of the oldest and most successful turnaround stories when it comes to recharging aquifers.  In its agricultural days, so many wells were constructed to irrigate orchards that much of the northern half of the county sank up to 13 feet.  Downtown San Jose had severe subsidence that damaged many buildings.  Beginning in the 1920s San Jose began to construct over 100 "percolation" ponds--ponds in strategic locations over gravelly soil that allows water to soak in and reach the aquifer.  I used to live near a string of these ponds on Penitencia Creek in the eastern foothills of San Jose.  The percolation ponds plumped the aquifer back up again, along with restrictions on pumping groundwater, and the subsidence had halted by 1970.

I do wonder whether the reappearance of Tulare Lake will have some positive effects on the aquifer in that region--or if the lake bed is not porous and the water is just going to sit on the surface.  Will it work like a percolation pond, or not?  Sure is making a mess out of Tulare county, and the snow has not started to melt yet.

Marc Reisner's classic Cadillac Desert discusses the depletion of the aquifers of the high Great Plains, too, and that book is now almost 40 years old.  The plains states have been "mining" million year old water to support their growth, but that water will not be recharged and eventually it will run out.  Anyone know if those practices have been reformed in the last few decades?  The diminishment of the Colorado River flow is just going to add to the pressure to pump.