Posted on 08/24/2013 12:11:43 PM PDT by Uncle Chip
MOORPARK, Calif. (AP) — More than two decades ago, two water distributors came up with a tantalizing idea to increase reserves in parched Southern California: Create an underground lake so vast it could hold enough to blanket Los Angeles — all 469 square miles — under a foot of water.
The reservoir deep within the earth would be injected with water imported from the snowy Sierra Mountains and other distant sources, which could be pumped back to the surface when needed to soak avocado and lemon groves and keep drinking fountains, espresso machines and toilets gurgling.
Officials boasted the subterranean vault would become a model for preserving scarce supplies and combatting droughts, not just in California but globally. Instead, clusters of wells and skeletal metal piping stand as a cautionary and costly reminder that the promise of water, the fuel of California's economy and growth, can be as permanent as a mirage.
"They had a great vision," said Reddy Pakala, who as Ventura County's water director was expecting to benefit from the 18-mile-long trough running below orchards, tree farms and ranches. "It doesn't work the way they told us it would work."
The Las Posas Basin Aquifer Storage and Recovery Project, about 50 miles northwest of Los Angeles, illustrates the risks of what's known as groundwater banking — warehousing water below ground in aquifers to pump out during dry spells or emergencies.
Imagine a bathtub beneath the earth. If geologic conditions are right, water can be added to such a basin, supplementing naturally occurring groundwater and creating a reserve for future use, much like a water tank.
But at Las Posas, water instead disappeared. The project, now owned solely by wholesaler Calleguas Municipal Water District in Ventura County, promised to raise local groundwater levels up to 300 feet...........
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
Southern California is laced with faults an sliding NNW along a tectonic plate boundary; what could possibly go wrong?
Seems like there was something missing in that equation.......it’s earthquake country.
It’s a bummer, man.
With all that water to the west, desalination seems like the obvious solution.
In more ways than one. Provides fresh water to the thirsty state, but the biggest benefit to the pinheaded gorebots in the commie urban area’s of Kalifornia will be the fact desalination will save the coastline from the sure to happen globull warming ocean rise! A tounge-in-cheek way of selling a common sense solution to the braindamaged urban masses.
It clearly is. But only if the brain-dead voters here realize that nuclear energy is the only feasible way to run desalination plants. Windmill energy ain't gonna' cut it and Obama's pricing coal and other power generating fuels out of consideration so as to buy the votes from the same Greenies who demand the water. Doublethink.
The South Santa Clara Valley Water Conservation District was founded in 1938 and began building percolation facilities on area creeks. The goal was to prevent land subsidence; cracked well casings, which result from subsidence; the drying up of wells; and the reduction of creeks' floodwater capacity.
So this isn't new stuff.
Desalinization might be one of the good uses for windmill power. The problem with wind power is that is is sporadic and its production doesn't match with times of usage so you always need back up power. With desalinization you can produce the fresh water when you have power and store it. You would have to do a real cost-benefit analysis to see if it is worth it, but this usage would be better than trying to run the main grid on wind power.
“Desalinization might be one of the good uses for windmill power.”
Desalinization was dependent on cheap nuclear power and you know how that’s gone!
No it isn't. But its one thing to use percolation ponds and another to use wells. A couple of problems with wells - you never can put in as much water as you pull out due to compression of an alluvial aquifer material. Arizona farm areas south of Phoenix actually subsided following groundwater pumping; subsidence starts after water levels drop 125 to 150 feet in alluvial material. Second, water pumped into the aquifer must be free of turbidity and treated (chlorinated) to prevent bacteria clogging well screens and sand pores.
Regarding percolation ponds, they work good at the beginning of the growing season and then their effectiveness decreases due to algae and bacterial mats forming a seal on the bottom. I was measuring monitor wells for a client for a number of years that were located next to an unlined irrigation ditch. Water levels rose quickly in April when the ditch was turned on but by June they began to decline even though the ditch was running full. For effectiveness ponds must be let dry and the vegetation mats removed. A design consideration might by a parallel set of ponds such that one would be drying for cleaning and the second would be used for recharge.
Interesting tidbit...downtown San Jose subsided 14 feet from from (98 feet ASL in 1910 to 84 feet ASL in 1995). Subsidence has been arrested via recharge. 
imagine how much the valley floor would have fell if they hadn’t.. we’re all riding a cushion of stuff, floating along..
with major faults all meeting here in the south bay, a major rupture is likely at some point, we’ll see how things hold up.
John Huston must be involved in this scheme somehow.
Thanks Uncle Chip.
That’s a good thought despite the bird slaughter. If we’re going to run ‘em we might as well put them to good use. But state-of-the-art nukes, coupled with breeder reactor technology to recycle spent fuel, would serve both needs without killing the birdies.
And the snake oil salesman climbed onto his wagon and headed out of town, searching for the next town of opportunity.
Did it ever cross their mind to ask why the trough was standing empty?
Not only did the water disappear but so did a lot of money and nobody seems to know where either went.
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