
To save water, an underground movement to bank El Niño's rainfall - vinayak147
http://www.latimes.com/local/california/la-me-water-storage-20151109-story.html
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bsder
> The cheapest method of recharge

Is not to use more water from underground than flows back.

The cheapest method of recharge in California is to start buying up farms and
shutting them down.

California subsidized putting farms in the Central Valley; it can subsidize
taking them back out.

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aaron695
India is doing something similar on a village scale?

[http://www.ecotippingpoints.org/our-stories/indepth/india-
ra...](http://www.ecotippingpoints.org/our-stories/indepth/india-rajasthan-
rainwater-harvest-restoration-groundwater-johad.html)

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orasis
This sounds somewhat like Keyline Design
([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keyline_design](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keyline_design))
a technique developed in Australia to slow water down, minimize runoff, and
maximize water infiltration into the ground.

The primary tool is a Keyline Plow or just a standard subsoiler. You simply
rip lines slightly off contour based on a "key point" on the topography. This
encourages water to flow laterally across the hill from the wet valleys to dry
ridge lines, slowing and soaking in the water rather than flowing straight
down hill and causing erosion.

Pretty much every farm and ranch should be doing this - but on a direct local
scale on each piece of property rather than yet another public works project.

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MrTonyD
This is basically more public money being used to supply the multibillionaire
multi-national farmers of California with more free groundwater to extract and
use for their profit (and yes, there are studies showing that most water is
used by farmers, and that multi-nationals control the bulk of California
farmland - even though 80% of farmers are small, they don't control most of
the water and most of the land.)

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bigdubs
Is the bank underground? Is the movement underground? So many questions.

After reading, it seems like the movement is underground, the water banks are
above ground.

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sp332
The article is about groundwater, which is definitely underground.

 _The cheapest method of recharge is through spreading basins, which have to
be located on relatively coarse-grained soil through which the water can
percolate._

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panzagl
Sounds good until Nevada does it.

