Borrego Springs: A Worse Case Scenario
A recent article in the San Diego Union-Tribune, “Water ‘war’ may brew beneath surface: Aquifer control could pit districts vs. state,” March 27, 2007, calls attention to the chaotic state of groundwater regulation in California.
The article indicates that San Diego county draws only a small percentage of its water from underground; but there is at least one town in the county, Borrego Springs, that is totally reliant on water from a sole-source aquifer.
The Borrego Valley aquifer is mined to provide irrigation water for agriculture and golf-courses; and has been shrinking due to over-pumping for more than 60 years. A groundwater management plan adopted five years ago has yet to save so much as a teacup of water despite expenditure of hundreds of thousands of dollars and countless hours spent in fruitless meetings.
The “first principal” of “local needs first” cited by the executive director of a Sacramento-area groundwater authority interviewed for the U-T article, and a California Department of Water Resources policy of “looking for locals to make the decisions” on groundwater regulation, are responsible for the late start and total failure of groundwater management in the Borrego basin. It has amounted to leaving a hog to guard a cabbage patch. Consequently, Borrego is a poster-child for state management of groundwater resources to prevent their wanton exploitation by greedy and short-sighted local interests. We can only hope that the state steps up to its responsibility before it too late for Borrego. Anything would be an improvement over what we have and have had.
04/03/07