State Senator Angelique Ashby of Sacramento, one of many new faces in the Capitol, has added more details to a measure on groundwater recharge.
She is proposing the state percolate 10 million acre-feet of water annually into the ground by 2035. That is more than double the capacity of the state’s largest reservoir, Lake Shasta. The proposal would give the Department of Water Resources one year to form the plan.
According to the bill, DWR estimates groundwater basins can store a billion acre-feet of water, with a potential of recharging up to 13 million acre-feet in wet years.
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Gov. Gavin Newsom set a goal last August of recharging just 500,000 additional acre-feet per year. That estimate is based on groundwater sustainability plans local agencies have submitted to DWR. But policy researchers worry those plans are overly optimistic with recharge and DWR has rejected six of those plans from the San Joaquin Valley.
