Archives

Visitor Counter

322670
Visit Today : 141
Visit Yesterday : 165
This Month : 1683
This Year : 9973
Total Visit : 322670
Hits Today : 167
Total Hits : 1071700
Who's Online : 2
Your IP Address: 18.206.83.160
Server Time: 24-03-29

Train vs Water? How About Both

February 12,2016-

water vs high speed 2016-02-11 at 3.57.01 PMCritics of high speed rail are out collecting signatures this week to put a controversial measure on the ballot. They want Californians to approve a constitutional amendment that would take money earmarked for high speed rail construction to add more high Sierra water storage to help fight the drought and bring water to our depleted water basins.

But what if the train that farmers in the Central Valley love to hate would somehow help those same farmers store more water? Now there is a twist.

Kings County farmer Brad Johns says he is negotiating with the contractor for high speed rail to buy 320 acre of his farmland next to the Kings River for a 20 feet deep recharge basin that would be gravity fed from the river. He says land could be tilled when it was not flooded for groundwater recharge. Johns family farm runs right next to the proposed train alignment in Kings County.

Johns says he understands talks are going on up and down the rail alignment with other farmers and irrigation districts.“This will be a major benefit for all of Kings County” expects Johns.

“The train needs dirt to build bridges and other infrastructure and the cheapest place to get it is next to where they want to build.” He argues that “this is win-win for everyone.”

Indeed high speed rail’s awarded construction package 2-3 will include approximately 36 grade separations in the counties of Fresno, Tulare and Kings, including viaducts, underpasses and overpasses.That will require a mountain of dirt. So if you need to build a mountain,might as well build a lake or many ponds.

California High Speed Rail Central Valley manager Diana Gomez confirms the contractors are in discussions with both private farmers as well as irrigation districts along the 100-mile stretch in the Central Valley where the train will run

“In some cases we can help build or enlarge a basin they already have  or are planning for” says Gomez. In certain situations like in Fresno California High Speed Rail Authority is building drainage basins that also function to replenish groundwater. “Much of the alignment is in rural parts and more basins will benefit farms” she suggests.

“We own over 100 parcels in Kings County now so we are ready to talk with parties on where we can get construction dirt. These discussions are evolving right now.”

General Manager for Corcoran Irrigation District Gene Kilgore says so far talks with the train construction contractor have centered on the possibility of deepening or expanding existing district basins in exchange for materials. “They’ve taken some soil samples.”

We would look at ways we could add capacity” says Kilgore whose district covers 23,000 acres of farmland.

Confirming there have been some early talks with the contractor over dirt is Lakeside ID General Manager Shawn Corley.”A recharge basin would make sense” he says, although talks are not that far along.The rail alignment runs about 6 miles along the length of the water district.

“Any place we can sink more water in a wet year is a good idea” says Kaweah Delta WCD staffer Larry Dobson,even if it is at their western edge.

After 4 years of drought Kings County groundwater is considered in” critical overdraft “ say several new reports – as less surface water has been flowing into the county forcing farmers to suck up more groundwater.

The overdraft situation appears to most critical at the edge of the old lakebed around Corcoran where the land is sinking fast due to increased water withdrawals.

NASA recently found that the Tulare Lake area of subsidence measures approximately 60 x 25 miles with depths of up to 37 inches, and reaches up toward the California Aqueduct. It is considered to be one of the worst incidences of subsidence in the State of California, and continues to sink at a rate unseen before — at nearly two inches per month in some locations.

Farmers have been extracting as much as 2 million acre-feet a year from beneath the San Joaquin Valley even before the drought began, says the Department of Water Resources – that has now ramped up to an estimated 5 million acre-feet a year.
California’s Sustainable Groundwater Management Act, signed into law in 2014, adds new regulatory pressure on farmers to replenish the state’s groundwater. The law requires local water agencies to manage the aquifers.

So it is one more irony that the bullet train alignment runs through some of the most productive farmland in the county –  a fact often presented by farm interest as a key reason not to build it.

But it appears these same farms will likely enjoy an unexpected windfall of water recharge right where it is needed – as soon as scores of basins are built or enlarged in the next year or two at no extra cost – not a decade to 20 years from now.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *