More Central Valley groundwater stuff

Cool study published in Earth’s Future from Scott Jasechko and Debra Perrone at UC Santa Barbara.

Here we show with observational data that thousands of wells ran dry at the peak of the recent drought, especially in the southeastern Central Valley. We use groundwater well construction data to show that domestic water wells ran dry in disproportionate numbers, because typical domestic wells are shallower than typical agricultural wells.

…and…

We estimate that at least one-in-thirty wells constructed between 1975 and 2018 ran dry between 2013 and 2018; wells that have run dry are concentrated in the southeastern Central Valley.

The study uses some nice datasets I was unaware of, including Well Completion Reports compiled by the CA Department of Water Resources and voluntarily reported (!) dry well instances collated by the state Gov.

Link to the study here.