The California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA), in collaboration with California Department of Water Resources (DWR) and other state entities, are hosting a Public Forum on Managed Groundwater Recharge to Support Sustainable Water Management. This all-day event will be held at the Sacramento Convention Center on November 8th 2017 and bring together a variety of speakers to address recharge opportunities and issues.
Groundwater recharge is an important topic for California as the state continues to recover from an historic drought that caused increased reliance on groundwater basins – resulting in overdraft, failed private domestic wells and impacts to environmental quality.
In June 2017, the California State Board of Food and Agriculture sent a letter to CDFA Secretary Karen Ross encouraging the convening of a forum to, “inform long term state policies related to ground water recharge.” California’s farm and ranching communities are important partners in helping to implement recharge efforts, but many barriers in federal/state policy as well as infrastructure challenges limit wide scale recharge opportunities.
This forum will bring together water authorities, agricultural organizations, regulators and other stakeholders to address groundwater recharge opportunities and associated policies.