California Groundwater Issues Case Study

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Part 2: Groundwater Issues In California cities there is frequently a demand for water that exceeds natural surface flow. Historically, groundwater extraction in the San Francisco region was used to meet municipal water needs. In the 1930s the city of San Francisco moved towards using Hetch Hetchy water which is piped in and provides 85% of the city’s water needs (San Francisco Public Utilities Commission, 2015). However, in recent years as the drought has reduced snow melt the area has begun to reevaluate using groundwater to supplement its municipal needs. Current water demand is “nearly 94 million gallons per day” (SFPUC, 2005).
The San Francisco Public Utilities Commission is begging exploration wells around Golden Gate Park with …show more content…
However, in emergency drought scenarios, more groundwater would be pumped. This would result in overdraft. Groundwater levels have been an issue in the Westside basin before, most recently in the southern area of the basin. The groundwater in the northern region is above sea level in the shallow and primary aquifer and the level in the deeper aquifer was slightly below sea level in some areas. The lowest groundwater levels in the northern area were measured near the San Francisco Zoo (Luhdorff, 2005). Declining groundwater levels have been more extreme in the southern area due to pumping historically. However since this was addressed in the 60’s there has been little decline and some recharge (Luhdorff, 2005). That being said, in the southern end of the basin, “groundwater levels in the most developed part of the basin remain well below sea level…” (Luhdorff, 2005, 40). Around Lake Merced groundwater elevations in the primary production aquifer were between 18 feet and 8 feet below sea level (Luhdorff, …show more content…
“The probably cause of the long-term decline in the level of Lake Merced is pumpage from the deep part of the aquifer system beneath the lake” (Yates, 1990, 35). The effects of pumping the aquifer are delayed due to interaction between the deep and shallow aquifers. Downward leakage from the top layer takes two years and there is evidence of long term decline of the shallow aquifer near Lake Merced due to pumping of the deep aquifer (Yates, 1990). This means that effects of long term pumping of the deep aquifer could be only visible now in the shallow aquifer as the level of groundwater (and recharge) from the deep aquifer has begun to
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