Southern California water managers have long recognized the importance of groundwater supplies as insurance against dry times, and now federal and state regulators realize it’s key to coping with climate change, officials said Friday.
Nearly 100 scientists and water industry representatives gathered at UC Riverside to explore efforts to measure groundwater levels in the face of climate change.
Experts from the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, state Department of Water Resources, Metropolitan Water District, Santa Ana Watershed Project Authority and San Bernardino Valley Municipal Water District talked about their efforts and needs.
"Climate changes in those large watersheds will affect the water supply and reliability picture in Southern California," said Kathy Kunysz, a Metropolitan program manager.
Groundwater supplies about a third of the state’s water. Models show a 25 percent to 40 percent drop in storage in the Sierra Nevada snowpack over the next four decades and a northward movement of the snowline, said Andrew Schwarz, a state engineer.
Tom Evans, a board member of Western Municipal Water District in Riverside, said the predictions are for more periods with large amounts of runoff.
"That makes the case for why storage is important. You have to capture it or it will go into the ocean," he said.
The workshop was part of the university’s quest for a multi-million dollar award from the National Science Foundation, said James Sickman, an associate professor of hydrology.
The money might fund research into water trading systems, how dust on snow accelerates melting or data collection on groundwater levels, he said.