Our View: Well water details are more vital in drought

When Stanislaus County’s Water Advisory Committee was considering its nascent groundwater ordinance last year, one of the stickiest of sticking points was how much information to include about wells.

Farmers and drillers adamantly opposed any requirement to divulge how much they were pumping or from where. They got their way, resulting in rules that aggregated all the wells in vast areas and provided general numbers. The county called the well-log information “presumptively confidential and proprietary,” including all geological and geophysical data. It said the need to keep that data secret “outweighs the public need for site specific private information.”

In today’s world, our whereabouts can be tracked to the centimeter; our computers tells stores if we’re shopping for cars or baby shoes; our electricity meters can reduce the juice to our homes if nobody’s around. Yet, the county balked at tracking specific development and use of a vital resource that we all must share – groundwater.

The state could force that dynamic to change. For the third year in a row, Sen. Fran Pavley, D-Agoura Hills, has sponsored legislation to provide public access to otherwise confidential reports about wells. Her Senate Bill 20, which cleared its first committee Tuesday, should win approval by the legislature. If it does, it is likely to be signed by the governor.

Under a law that dates to Gov. Earl Warren’s tenure in 1951, drillers must provide information about wells to the California Department of Water Resources. But the law denies public access to the well logs. That information is considered proprietary, part of well drillers’ stock in trade. Whatever competitive reasons existed in 1951, they are now far outweighed by the need to understand our ongoing drought and the groundwater overdraft occurring in response.

After all, scientists say our droughts are likely to become more frequent and increasingly severe.

Records on wells and drilling are available to the public in every other western state. Often, all of the information is searchable online.

A report by the Senate Natural Resources Committee staff notes that well logs show the location and depth of wells and the types of soils at each elevation. Academics and consultants could use that information to draw aquifer maps, identify the best underground storage sites, and avoid drilling into plumes of polluted water, as reported by the Center for Investigative Reporting. Farmers might benefit because drillers could use logs to determine how deep to drill and what areas to avoid.

But opponents of public access to the information include some California agribusiness heavyweights: the Western Growers Association, the California Farm Bureau Federation, the California League of Food Processors, the California Chamber of Commerce and the Valley Ag Water Coalition, which represents many San Joaquin water delivery agencies.

Their concerns often are based on perceived private ownership of the water below. Such thinking is changing. Reflexive opposition by farm groups is unfortunate. As urban water users face restrictions, if not outright rationing, they could easily turn on farmers whose crops use 40 percent of the water consumed by humans in California. Further, even in the Valley most homes are supplied by city wells and the water is metered and charged appropriately.

Extensive groundwater pumping has caused areas of the Central Valley ground to sink by up to 30 feet. Bridges have fallen below roadbeds, irrigation canals have cracked, underground pipes have ruptured. Information in these logs could forestall the destruction of costly public property or at help predict where it will occur.

Pavley’s bill offers protections against miss-use of the information and establishes reasonable fees to cover administrative costs.

When Stanislaus County first began deliberating a groundwater ordinance, we asked that it include provisions to provide information on all new wells – including real-time pumping data. That was rejected and this bill would not provide it.

But this horrible drought is forcing lawmakers and the public to rethink who has access to all the water of the state. We have to share the state’s water. It is important to know exactly how much water there is to share and where to find it.

This story was originally published March 26, 2015 at 1:57 PM with the headline "Our View: Well water details are more vital in drought."