As precious groundwater vanishes, a few in California find ways to bring it back

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ARVIN, Calif. — In the southern San Joaquin Valley, where roads cut through thousands of acres of orange groves, grapevines and carrot fields, a canal reaches a linchpin that keeps the farming economy going: dozens of oblong ponds filled with shimmering water.While many parts of California’s Central Valley are struggling to counter widespread overpumping and declining underground water levels, the irrigation agency here is using the ponds to effectively swallow gulps of river water, getting it to seep into the soil and recharge the groundwater.

“That sandy ground, when you put the water on it, it percolates into the groundwater and it recharges,” said Jeevan Muhar, chief executive officer of Arvin-Edison Water Storage District.“So it’s underneath us.

We can see that water come up.”The irrigation district tracks groundwater levels.In dry times, when it needs to tap into stored water, it uses dozens of wells to pump it out and send it flowing to farms.

A new scientific study cites Arvin-Edison as one of dozens of areas where local efforts have managed to halt declines in water levels and allow aquifers to come back up.“Unfortunately, groundwater is being depleted rapidly in many areas.

However, groundwater depletion can be solved,” said Scott Jasechko, a UC Santa Barbara professor of water resources who authored the study in the journal Science.Jaseshko examined 67 cases of groundwater recovery around the world, where water levels rose after prolonged decline.It happened three main ways: policy changes, tapping alternative water sources and replenishing aquifers.In most cases, getting river water was key.

In California, groundwater has rebounded in areas that obtained more water from canals or pipelines decades ago, including Santa Clara Valley, Livermore-Amador Valley, South Yuba Basin, Yucca Valley and parts of Los Angeles.Arvin-Edison Water Storage Dist...