Wells in North Bay drying up, tainted due to drought
SONOMA COUNTY, Calif. (KGO) -- The upcoming storm won't be enough to relieve the serious drought.
In the North Bay, farmers in particular are struggling to find usable water. The wells they rely on are drying up and becoming tainted.
Ray Mulas is a dairy farmer in Sonoma County. He practices enormous restraint by using recycled water from the city of Sonoma, instead of tapping it from the ground.
"We could probably get 1,500 gallons to 3,000 a minute if we wanted to," said Ray Mulas. "We're afraid of what it would do to our neighbors."
Subterranean water has become precious during the drought, especially in a county with three stressed aquifers and 40,000 wells pulling water from them.
"It's not caused by the drought but it's exacerbated by the drought," said Jay Jasperse of the Sonoma County Water Agency.
Due to the drought, the state has mandated reports and management, specifically who will manage what and who will pay up, which was up for discussion Monday.
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"Wells will be registered and there will be a quantification of how much people we are pumping," Jasperse said.
It's become necessary because the water below ground has diminished significantly from some wells in Sonoma County and it's coming out salty, if it's coming out at all.
Like the rest of the state, these aquifers store more than the reservoirs above. If they are lost then California could be in deeper water trouble than it finds itself now.
"All the counties have increased population and we haven't done anything to increase our storage," Mulas said. "The years we were flushed with water we never did a damn thing."
And finally California is, but in terms of maintaining ground water supplies, getting all the measures working together could still take years.
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