Maintaining Stable and Sustainable Groundwater Resources

Groundwater offers our greatest insurance against future water shortages.

While groundwater is being critically depleted in other parts of the state, the Sacramento region’s groundwater aquifer is stable and sustainable.

Water providers have been sustainably managing groundwater for more than a decade and actively storing groundwater in the underlying basin for nearly two decades. Since 1998, more than 200,000 acre-feet of surplus water has been stored in the groundwater basin in Sacramento County.

Local water providers also have invested substantially in projects and programs needed to recharge and store groundwater, expand surface water in wet years and reduce water use through conservation. As a result, the region’s groundwater levels have been recovering for the last 15 years.

Expanding this system further would make water supplies more secure during dry times–for people, as well as for the fish and wildlife that also depend on our local waterways.