Sacramento News & Review
Support Local Independent Journalism Sign up for our newsletter!
  • News
    • Crime Beat
    • COVID-19
    • police reform
    • Q&A
  • Voices
    • Greenlight
    • Essay
    • Fifteen Minutes
    • Ask Joey
    • Ask 420
  • Arts+Culture
    • Food
    • Music
    • Home & Garden
    • Rebooting the Arts
  • Calendar
  • Solving Sacramento
    • Rebooting the Arts
    • Housing
    • ABOUT SOLVING SACRAMENTO
  • Newsletter
  • Become a supporter
  • More…
    • Local Dining
    • SN&R Archive
    • Best of Sac
    • SAMMIES
    • Sponsored Content
    • Independent Journalism Fund
    • Letter to the Editor
    • Contact Us
Hot Topics
  • March 9, 2021 | In light of recent deaths, Sacramento City Hall faces reckoning on warming centers
  • September 28, 2023 | The Plot: A years-long revenge gambit involving a meth dealer, a burglar and a member of the Aryan Brotherhood comes to light in Sacramento
  • September 27, 2023 | Yellow leaves, red wines: The end of summer is a wonderful time to try new light reds
  • September 27, 2023 | California inmates accuse prison commissaries of price gouging
  • September 26, 2023 | Area Black farmer collective works to raise funds for land, critical infrastructure
  • September 25, 2023 | Nevada County’s annual Celtic festival returns for three days of music, dancing and mental escape Sept. 29 thru Oct. 1
Spotlight Community

Finding room for cost-effective water storage: Roseville and neighboring communities are tapping into groundwater as a long-term solution

Even at high water levels--as seen here in June, 2023--Folsom Reservoir stores less water than what can be stored as ground water. Photo by Ken James, California Department of Water Resources

By: Debbie Arrington August 1, 2023

A great place to store water may be under your feet.

The potential for local groundwater storage is twice as much as Folsom Reservoir’s capacity—with no new dams necessary.

Groundwater supplies about a third of the Sacramento region’s water needs. An important resource for Roseville and other local cities, it provides water supply reliability in times of drought or abundance.

“It’s the most cost-effective approach (to water storage),” says Ryan Ojakian, Legislative and Regulatory Affairs Program Manager for the Regional Water Authority (RWA).

The RWA is the umbrella organization that coordinates the efforts of 22 local water providers (including the City of Roseville) that serve more than 2.1 million residents,.

“It’s also the most sensible approach from a variety of perspectives,” Ojakian adds. “We’re trying to manage water in a more environmentally sound way. In a lot of ways, it’s what water would do if left to its own devices.”

Historically, local groundwater has been used mostly for agriculture, but urban areas are increasingly tapping into that important resource, too.

“Groundwater all started as surface water,” explains Trevor Joseph, Manager of Technical Services for RWA and the Sacramento Groundwater Authority (SGA), which manages the groundwater basin under Sacramento County and north of the American River.

Water can percolate into the ground naturally or be injected into the ground via wells. Under the surface, groundwater accumulates in “basins,” natural geological formations that line the subsurface under California. Our state’s 515 groundwater basins have been mapped by California’s Department of Water Resources with most being managed by hundreds of different local public agencies.

Groundwater can be hard to visualize; it’s not contained in underground tanks or lakes. Instead, it accumulates in unconsolidated material (gravel, sand, silt etc.) known as aquifers.

“Think of sand at the beach,” says Joseph, who worked for the City of Roseville’s Environmental Utilities department before joining the RWA and SGA earlier this year. “There’s dry sand on top, but dig down and you’ll find wet sand underneath. That’s groundwater. The water table is all the saturated sand below that depth.”

Groundwater fills the pores—the little air spaces—around soil particles contained in the aquifers in each basin.

“The basin acts like a giant sponge,” Joseph adds. “Over millennia, groundwater filled up all the porous spaces between grains of sediment. Then, humans came in and with the development of engineered wells and pumps, this allowed for more significant volumes of groundwater to be extracted out of our basins.”

During prolonged droughts, in many groundwater basins, Californians pumped out far more water then was naturally recharged back into the ground. Wells were dug deeper and deeper as water tables receded further underground.

That caused major issues.

“Water tables just kept going down; it was unsustainable,” Joseph says. “Levels dropped for four decades. In other basins, it could cause subsidence.”

Subsidence—the gradual sinking of land—can cause roads, buildings and other structures built on the surface to crumble. It has serious consequences underground, too. Once depleted of water, the layers of certain types of clay soil can’t be re-saturated, and permanently collapsed.

Through careful water management, local groundwater levels have not only stabilized but actually increased.

Our very wet winter allowed regional water managers to aid Mother Nature’s natural recharge through artificial recharge, thereby adding to their groundwater resources. It’s banking water for non-rainy days.

“There are different artificial recharge methods. What the City of Roseville is able to accomplish is when extra surface water is available, they can inject the water—recharge extra surface water down the well—into the aquifer,” Joseph says. “That water then can be extracted in dry years with no special treatment. It’s really environmentally friendly.”

Another plus for groundwater storage: There’s room—without expensive construction.

“The ability to recharge using different methods can greatly exceed any surface storage tanks you could construct,” Joseph notes. “Our available groundwater storage space in the greater Sacramento regional area is approximately 1.8 million acre feet—or about double Folsom Reservoir; that’s a tremendous amount of space for the future storage of water.”

Folsom Reservoir holds 975,000 acre feet at full capacity.

Besides injecting water via wells, groundwater gets a big boost from snow melt.

“We’ve had an exceptional year of rain and snow,” Joseph adds. “Snow melt naturally percolates into the ground, and it’s making a huge difference. We’ve seen an increase on average of more than 10 feet in monitored wells. We are seeing the benefits of natural groundwater recharge.”

TOPICS:groundwater

Our content is free, but not free to produce

If you value our local news, arts and entertainment coverage, become an SN&R supporter with a one-time or recurring donation. Help us keep our reporters at work, bringing you the stories that need to be told.

Become a supporter
Newsletter

Stay Updated

For the latest local news, arts and entertainment, sign up for our newsletter.
We'll tell you the story behind the story.

    • Previous post
    • Next post

    About the Sponsor

    City of Roseville
    The City of Roseville was incorporated April 10, 1909 and is located in Placer County, 16 miles north of Sacramento, the state capital. Roseville encompasses 43.05 square miles and is positioned along I-80 and Highway 65. The city has long been focused on water needs, especially now with the drought blanketing the western United States. Although water resources are strong, we need to reduce use right now to stretch our supplies going into the fall and winter seasons, and through the summer months. Learn more at http://www.roseville.ca.us

    Related Articles

    News, Voices

    Editor’s note: Facing the forever drought


    Meet the sponsors

    • Berkeley Strategy Advisors
      Berkeley Strategy Advisors

      published 5 articles

    • BRIDGE Housing
      BRIDGE Housing

      published 3 articles

    • California Workforce Association
      California Workforce Association

      published 13 articles

    • City of Roseville
      City of Roseville

      published 8 articles

    • Del Paso Boulevard Partnership
      Del Paso Boulevard Partnership

      published 28 articles

    • Exotic Plants
      Exotic Plants

      published 6 articles

    • Joshua's House Hospice
      Joshua's House Hospice

      published 4 articles

    • Midtown
      Midtown

      published 11 articles

    • N&R Publications
      N&R Publications

      published 5 articles

    • Northern California Research
      Northern California Research

      published 10 articles

    • Sacramento County Department of Child Support Services
      Sacramento County Department of Child Support Services

      published 5 articles

    • Sacramento County In-Home Supportive Services
      Sacramento County In-Home Supportive Services

      published 3 articles

    • Sacramento County Probation Department
      Sacramento County Probation Department

      published 5 articles

    • Sacramento Regional Transit District
      Sacramento Regional Transit District

      published 28 articles

    • SEIU
      SEIU

      published 30 articles

    • Sierra Nevada Brewing Co.
      Sierra Nevada Brewing Co.

      published 1 article

    • The California Endowment
      The California Endowment

      published 65 articles

    • Volunteers of America
      Volunteers of America

      published 8 articles

    • Workforce Development Board of Solano County
      Workforce Development Board of Solano County

      published 4 articles

    Our Sponsors

    Berkeley Strategy Advisors BRIDGE Housing California Workforce Association City of Roseville Del Paso Boulevard Partnership Exotic Plants Joshua's House Hospice Midtown N&R Publications Northern California Research Sacramento County Department of Child Support Services Sacramento County In-Home Supportive Services Sacramento County Probation Department Sacramento Regional Transit District SEIU Sierra Nevada Brewing Co. The California Endowment Volunteers of America Workforce Development Board of Solano County

    Categories

    Community

    Tags

    2020 affordable housing art astrology Black Lives Matter board of supervisors California cannabis City Council city hall climate change coronavirus COVID-19 COVID-19 in Sacramento Donald Trump election food gardening gavin newsom George Floyd homeless homelessness horoscopes jobs Joe Biden letters Mayor Darrell Steinberg music november election pandemic police reform president donald trump presidential election protests public health Q&A sacramento sacramento county Sacramento police Sacramento Regional Transit District SacRT SEIU Stephon Clark strong mayor taxes
    Newsletter

    Stay Updated

    For the latest local news, arts and entertainment, sign up for our newsletter.
    We'll tell you the story behind the story.

      Recent Posts
      • The Plot: A years-long revenge gambit involving a meth dealer, a burglar and a member of the Aryan Brotherhood comes to light in Sacramento
      • Yellow leaves, red wines: The end of summer is a wonderful time to try new light reds
      • California inmates accuse prison commissaries of price gouging
      • Area Black farmer collective works to raise funds for land, critical infrastructure
      • Nevada County’s annual Celtic festival returns for three days of music, dancing and mental escape Sept. 29 thru Oct. 1
      Links
      • Newsletter Signup
      • Follow us on Twitter
      • Find us on Facebook
      • SN&R Archives
      • Best of Sac
      • SAMMIES
      • RSS
      • Privacy Policy
      • Terms of Service
      • Contact Us
      Become a supporter
      Categories
      • 2020 election (86)
      • Arts+Culture (561)
      • Ask Joey (1,017)
      • Cannabis (39)
      • COVID-19 (312)
      • Crime Beat (112)
      • Food (94)
      • Greenlight (492)
      • Home & Garden (77)
      • Housing (64)
      • Music (144)
      • News (1,286)
      • Q&A (30)
      • Rebooting the Arts (46)
      • Solving Sacramento (83)
      • Stage (13)
      • Voices (481)

      © 2019+ Sacramento News & Review