I live in the middle of California, in the great Sacramento Valley about 20 miles north of Sacramento, the state’s capitol. I am surrounded on all sides by miles of flat, arid land dedicated to a vast agricultural economy. Because of this situation, the needs of my community are quite different from those in the urban areas of the county. During a recent county election, there was a change in the membership to the Yolo County Board of Supervisors, including the person that represents the rural portions of the county. The new supervisor has been holding “town hall” meetings in an effort to better understand the needs and desires of her constitutes – but has been doing so by holding meetings in town, without notifying or inviting the folks from the rural areas. Because of this, she is finding out what folks from urban districts think about the needs of the rural areas instead of finding out what her constitutes think. Because of this, a number of us in rural areas have made attempts to express our views to her in writing, with the hopes that she will periodically reach out and hold town hall meetings with us. I posting my letter in this blog in an effort to share my views, for whatever they may be worth.
My letter:
Dear Madam Supervisor,
I have been discussing what we observe as being important in our area with my wife and a few friends. We have identified a few issues that are currently on our list of “most important problems”. This in no way means that they are the only concerns, or that they will remain the “most important” – but for now they are as follows (in order of importance):
1) Ensure a dependable, affordable, source of water for domestic purposes.
Without this there is a great risk that the property values of the residences in rural Yolo County will crash and people will be forced to give up their homes, losing most or all of the value of their investments in their homes. Therefore, in many ways this is an existential, top level, concern. Without water there is no life. Currently many of the residential wells are either going dry, being ruined by sand intrusion, or failing for other reasons. It is my understanding that part of this is caused by the lack of recharge during the current drought, and some is being caused by a massive increase in the use of subsurface water to support recent changes in crops.
2) Stop the current high rate of subsidence in the area.
Currently there is a very high, and accelerating, problem with subsidence in the Zamora area (and perhaps the entire rural region of northern Yolo County). The folks that seem to know about such this point to the recent increase in use of subsurface water in the lower aquifer as being the primary cause. Once this aquifer compresses because of removal of water it cannot be “pumped back up” – it is permanent. This subsidence is already destroying local infrastructures, such as houses developing new cracks in walls and foundations. We have heard that it is a significant concern to the road (and freeway) infrastructures, and is likely to turn areas “near” flood zones to being “in” flood zones. Residences tend to be build outside of historic flood zones, but as the ground subsides relative to the river beds the boundaries of those areas changes to include the homes and other facilities.
The likely outcome of increasing subsidence is similar to a lack of water because frequent flooding will make the area unlivable.
3) Replace the slow, poor and sporadic internet connections in rural Yolo County with modern high-speed, affordable solutions.
As Society moves toward more and more dependence upon the internet, good affordable high speed connections are becoming a necessity instead of a luxury. Many of the people in the rural areas are in the category of “low income” and therefore can’t afford expensive, slow solutions such as satellite internet or similar solutions. The best solution would be to “wire” the rural areas with fiber optics that serve the community are low (or free) rates so that everyone can benefit from on-line training and access to medical care and other important benefits (especially in times of possible continuing pandemics).
4) Fix and/or replace the roads, bridges and drainage systems in the rural parts of Yolo County.
The rural roads are being torn up by a combination of age, heavy usage and neglected maintenance. Currently, many (perhaps most) of the roads “worn out”, either being patched periodically or closed. The patches fill potholes, but leave a terrible road surface that quickly degrades into new potholes. The edges of the roads are crumbling, encroaching on the travel lanes, narrowing the width of the lanes resulting in most people illegally traveling straddling the center divide and destroying shoulders and drainage ditches. It is time to repair or replace the roads, not just keep attempting to put on many layers of band-aids. Roads, bridges and culverts need to be fixed, replaced and/or carefully inspected for damage and wear.
5) Re-engineer and upgrade drainage systems.
New agricultural practices have negatively impacted county maintained drainage. The vast new almond orchards have resulted in major changes to the patterns and quantify of storm runoff across the County. Land has been “leveled”, denuded, and shaped to ensure maximum runoff from the orchards during storm events (in order to prevent damage to the trees). This has resulted in greatly increased runoff volumes that now overwhelm what used to be adequate drainage systems. All parts of the drainage system needs to be re-evaluated, re-engineered and upgraded sop that it is sufficient to contain storm water. Due to the increased levels of runoff created by new agricultural practices, local flooding of previously “safe” residences and other facilities are becoming common, as are road closures during storm events.
Other issues: In addition to these problems, there is an over-arching issue concerning allocation of water. Currently there are almost no region-wide monitoring or limitations on water use in the rural regions. Therefore, the only “costs” associated with the use of subsurface water drawn from “the commons” (aquifers that we all share and depend upon) are those associated with drilling and maintenance of wells, and the highly subsidized cost of power to run the pumps. This results in the current situation that appears to be a “run on water use” that is typical of California. It is our opinion (and the opinion of those scientists that study such things), that this approach of laissez-faire water management of subsurface water sources (wells) is a recipe for disaster. We believe that given the obvious near and long term impacts of global warming and increased populations this management approach needs to change into a much more sustainable, and equitable, allocation of water allowing the demand to follow the availability of the resource instead of over using resources in an attempt to meet demand. The use of shared resources such as water needs to mirror the ability to sustain the resource rather than the current approach of creating a need and then “mining” available resources to meet that artificially creating need.