The semi-annual (fall) groundwater level measurements for Glenn County taken by the California Department of Water Resources, Northern District (DWR) were completed during the week of October 18, 2010 and presented to the Glenn County Water Advisory Committee at their November 10, 2010 meeting.

Over the past few years, DWR staff has presented DRAFT data in terms of change in groundwater elevation from one period of time to another collected from their monitoring network of domestic, irrigation, and dedicated monitoring wells. The recent information presented was for the fall measurement periods comparing 2009 to 2010 and 2004 to 2010. Using 2004 for this comparison is appropriate, because 2004 is considered to be the most recent “normal” water year according to the Sacramento Valley Water Year Index published by DWR. In this manner, trends in declines and/or increases from the normal range can be observed.

For the fall period 2009 to 2010 groundwater elevations for all wells monitored (150) show a maximum increase of 22.3 feet and a maximum decrease of 17.0 feet and an overall average increase of 1.8 feet.

For the fall period 2004 to 2010 groundwater elevations for all wells monitored (111) show a maximum increase of 2.5 feet and a maximum decrease of 36.3 feet and an overall average decrease of 6.9 feet.

Current and historic groundwater levels in our region can be viewed at the Glenn County Water Advisory Committee webpage at: http://www.glenncountywater.org or on DWR’s Water Data Library at: http://wdl.water.ca.gov/gw/map Point to Glenn County and navigate regionally from there. Butte County has developed a regional groundwater information data base program that provides access to groundwater-related information for agencies as well as interested parties with information relating to established Basin Management Objectives (BMO’s) for groundwater elevation, water quality, and land subsidence monitoring. The website address for access to the program is: http://gis.buttecounty.net/bmoic3.

If you feel you are experiencing pumping problems that may be due to low groundwater levels, there is a process for documenting this by filing a report of abnormal groundwater level with the Glenn County Department of Agriculture. These report forms are available at 720 N. Colusa Street, Willows or call (530) 934-6501 and a form will be sent to you.