deadpottedplant t1_j48xa4b wrote
Reply to comment by CakeBrigadier in Nearly all of California exits the worst drought categories in U.S. Drought Monitor by pneumatichorseman
As someone who had had wells drilled multiple time and lived off wells, I'll share my experience with the process. I am no expert though. Allowing surface water to run into a 300' well for example, would bypass the natural filtering process provided by the soil. Excrement (animal and otherwise), chemicals, etc, on the surface would be allowed to directly contaminate the water table. In California he water can only come out of the well, never back in. Check valves must be installed on the well head to prevent the water being pulled back out of your house and back into the ground by gravity. This is for residential only in my experience. Some water districts in California are experimenting with injecting clean water back into the ground as storage and to prevent salt water intrusion. Also well drilling is really expensive.
minhtsai t1_j49314y wrote
To add to this great comment, there are areas around LA designated as the "Ground Water Recharge Basins". This is basically big, temporary ponds to capture water before it gets to the ocean. This water is then naturally filtered into the ground and get pumped back up later for urban use.
You can see these at the north end of the 605 fwy, near the Santa Fe dam, as an example. Smaller, local projects aim to utilize the soil areas around public roads to channel and hold water so more can soak into the ground. They look like small riverbeds meandering around other landscapes. 10 fwy on ramps in the San Gabriel area seems to have this feature as well as the median on the upper Santa Anita Blvd.
Efforts are being made but probably more can be done.
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