Eastern San Joaquin County Groundwater Management

by Monique B. Magolske,
Miguel A. Marino, (M.ASCE),



Document Type: Proceeding Paper

Part of: North American Water and Environment Congress & Destructive Water

Abstract:

An aquifer system of significant volume is located in Eastern San Joaquin County (ESJC), part of California's Central Valley. The industry in that region is primarily agriculture, and the aquifer system has been pumped heavily, primarily to satisfy the evapotranspiration needs of the crops. Decades of groundwater pumping have placed the aquifer in a critical state of overdraft, leading to such adverse impacts as saline groundwater intrusion from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, and potential subsidence. A groundwater model has been developed and calibrated for the Eastern San Joaquin County groundwater basin. Using the output from this model, the optimal balance between surface water diversions and groundwater pumping, which satisfies agricultural and urban water demands while allowing groundwater elevations to recover to at least sea level, can be determined. The recovered groundwater elevations are sufficient to forestall saline intrusion through the Delta and minimize subsidence.

Subject Headings: Groundwater depletion | Pumps | Groundwater management | Salt water | Salinity | Land subsidence | Irrigation water

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