You could fill Shasta Lake 7 times with farm groundwater pumped during state drought.
Central Valley farmers pumped enough groundwater to fill an empty Shasta Lake seven times in order to keep their profitable orchards alive during California’s epic five-year drought.
Wade said they’re also diligently preparing to comply with the state’s pending groundwater laws when they start to take effect three years from now.
To estimate pumping rates during the two droughts that struck the state in the past decade, the researchers used NASA satellite data and “water-balance estimates,” which take into account how much water crops need during at temperatures, as well as rainfall, snowmelt and soil-moisture capacity.
In the first drought, the researchers estimated farmers pumped 16.5 cubic kilometers of water.
In the more severe drought, they pumped 40 cubic kilometers, according to the study published in Geophysical Research Letters.
Much of the the past 17 years has been dry with only a few wet winters in between, so the wet winter California just experienced only goes so far to recharge the state’s groundwater deficit, said Thomas Harter, a groundwater expert with the UC Davis Center for Watershed Sciences.
We would need many more above average to wet winters to make up what we’ve lost.” Meanwhile, an increase in pumping has exacerbated a number of problems in the Central Valley.
The findings come on the heels of a Sacramento Bee investigation published last summer that revealed new wells were going in faster and deeper than ever during the drought in California’s southern Central Valley farmbelt.
By one estimate, about 30 percent of the communities in Tulare County had problems with failing wells during the drought.

WATER CONDITIONS: Water supply forecast for March 1st.
The forecasts are posted at: WSI: http://cdec.water.ca.gov/cgi-progs/iodir/wsi Forecast Summary: The projected median April-July (AJ) runoff in the major Sierra river basins ranges from 131 percent on the Inflow to Lake Shasta to 269 percent on the Kern River.
The WSI forecast is based on precipitation and flows observed through February 2017 and can be summarized as follows: Sacramento River Unimpaired Runoff Water Year Forecast (50 percent exceedance)
For the Cosumnes River, the combined flows for January and February this year were a record 754 TAF which is nearly twice the average water year total for that watershed.
Unimpaired flows for the 2016-2017 water year: Region October-February Runoff (%) February Runoff (%) Sacramento Valley Index (4 rivers) 282 431 San Joaquin Valley Index (6 rivers) 426 589 Tulare Lake Basin (4 rivers) 307 482 Precipitation: The 47.0 inches of precipitation measured during January-February in the Northern Sierra 8-Station Index ranks as the highest total during that two month span in the entire record of the 8-Station Index.
The October-February total of 60.6 inches also ranks as the wettest in the San Joaquin Region during this period.
Precipitation for the 2016-2017 water year accumulated at the following rates of average: Hydrologic Region October-February precipitation (%) Sacramento River 215 San Joaquin River 211 Tulare Lake 215 Statewide 190 Precipitation Index Percent of Seasonal Average to Date through March 8, 2017 Northern Sierra 8-Station Index 213 (77.8 inches) San Joaquin 5-Station Index 212 (61.8 inches) Tulare Basin 6-Station Index 202 (41.8 inches) Snowpack: Snowpack is monitored using two complementary methods: automatic snow sensor (or “pillow”) readings and manual snow course measurements.
The snow sensors give us a daily snapshot of snow conditions while the manual snow course measurements provide a monthly verification of snow conditions in locations where snow has been measured in the same manner as far back as 100 years.
The snowpack in the San Joaquin, Tulare Lake, and both North and South Lahontan regions are above 200% of their March 1 historical average and above 175% of their expected April 1 total.
The majority of the expected precipitation will fall today and tomorrow with totals ranging from 0.25 inch up to 1.25 inches over the two day period.