The Institutional Dimensions of Groundwater Recharge: A Special Collection

Guest Editors:

Anita Milman, Department of Environmental Conservation, University of Massachusetts Amherst, USA and Michael Kiparsky, Wheeler Water Institute, UC Berkeley, USA

INTRODUCTION: Groundwater pumping exceeds naturally occurring recharge in many regions of the world. The resulting impacts to groundwater systems adversely affect human and environmental systems. Climate change adds urgency, as the combination of more extreme flood and drought regimes coupled with intensifying demand further push groundwater resources out of balance. In many or most groundwater basins, some reduction in groundwater extraction will be necessary to reduce outflows from stressed basins. Increasing inflows to these basins through Managed Aquifer Recharge (MAR) is increasingly looked to as a mechanism to help bring aquifers into sustainable balance.

In this special collection, we examine deployment of MAR in examples from around the USA to illustrate the range of institutional approaches used as well as how those relate to the drivers and objectives of MAR. The overarching impetus for this work is the recognition that water managers often anecdotally agree that institutional elements are as important, or more important, than technical challenges to MAR in many cases.

CONTENTS:

Introduction to the Special Collection: The Institutional Dimensions of Groundwater Recharge

Kathleen Miller, Anita Milman, and Michael Kiparsky

Groundwater Recharge to Address Integrated Groundwater and Surface Waters: The ESPA Recharge Program, Eastern Snake Plain, Idaho

Kathleen Miller, Phoebe Goulden, Kate Fritz, Michael Kiparsky, John Tracy, and Anita Milman

Groundwater Recharge for a Regional Water Bank: Kern Water Bank, Kern County, California

Michael Kiparsky, Kathleen Miller, Phoebe Goulden, Anita Milman, and Dave Owen

Groundwater Recharge to Address Seawater Intrusion and Supply in an Urban Coastal Aquifer: Orange County Water District, Orange County, California

Michael Kiparsky, Kathleen Miller, William Blomquist, Annapurna Holtzapple, and Anita Milman

Incentivizing Groundwater Recharge in the Pajaro Valley through Recharge Net Metering (ReNeM)

Kathleen Miller, Andrew T. Fisher, and Michael Kiparsky

Surface Water Quality Regulation as a Driver for Groundwater Recharge: The Case of Virginia’s Sustainable Water Initiative for Tomorrow