DWR Drills Mendocino County Monitoring Wells
By Don Strickland

Drilling of groundwater monitoring wells got under way in May at six Mendocino County locations as part of the Critical Water Shortage Contingency Plan developed by the Governor’s Advisory Drought Planning Panel.

The panel recognized that the availability of groundwater data in California lags behind that of surface water data and it recommended a yearly appropriation of $1million from the State General Fund for ongoing statewide groundwater data collection and compilation. A program was advised that would include installing monitoring wells in areas where data gaps exist.

Mendocino County was targeted for some of the first monitoring wells because it is an area particularly lacking in groundwater supplies during droughts. The area, bordered on the south by Sonoma County and on the north by Humboldt and Trinity counties, normally receives substantial wintertime precipitation but relies on groundwater during the hot summer months. A number of its communities are built over “fractured hard rock,” which stores groundwater in limited amounts, making residents especially susceptible to water shortages in dry years.
DWR will conduct several workshops this fall for Mendocino County homeowners who have private wells that rely on marginal groundwater sources.

In addition to the Mendocino County wells (three in the Sanel Valley and three in the Anderson Valley), DWR will be installing wells in eastern Riverside County. Groundwater information collected will be posted on a Web site maintained by the Department of Water Resources, Division of Planning and Local Assistance.

The third Sanel Valley monitoring well was installed on the property of Hopland Elementary School, and because May was Water Awareness Month, the event became an educational event for the school’s 200 students. School principal Gloria Jarrell said the drilling operation was a made-to-order field trip for her pupils. “We haven’t had the opportunity to see a drilling rig in operation,” she said, “and we’re looking forward to reading the results on DWR’s Internet Web site because we’ve done a lot with technology at our school and this gives a personal experience to looking at the water table in our own little valley.”

After learning about the drilling operation and hearing a water conservation and water safety message, each student received a bag of educational and water safety materials to take home.
Eight-year-old second grader Russell Elliott was particularly impressed with the device that geologists use to check water depth. “When this needle touches water, it beeps,” he said, pointing to an electronic sensor on the end of a long measuring tape, “and then they know where the water is in the ground.”

Seven-year-old first grader Cynthia Dominguez paid attention to the water conservation lecture. “When you take a shower, you don’t have to stay in for too much time,” she said, getting the message that shorter showers save water.

The Mendocino County monitoring wells are being drilled by a crew from the Zamora division of Spectrum Exploration, Incorporated, under the supervision of DWR Associate Engineering Geologist Chris Bonds.

“We’re expanding the network of monitoring wells in the area,” said Bonds, “to better understand how the aquifer responds during dry years, wet years, and average rainfall years.”
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For more information about California Department of Water Resources water activities write or phone the DWR Office of Water Education
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