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HISTORIC RAIN, YET DROUGHT REMAINS <br />APPENDIX A: ACTIONS BY LOCAL <br />AGENCIES TO SECURE SUPPLY <br />Water Banking: <br />Water banking may help with droughts but is only a part of the solution and it has yet to <br />prove itself. <br />Water banking is being pursued Metropolitan Water District and various water suppliers. <br />Simply put, water banking is a voluntary, market -based tool that could facilitate water <br />transactions between willing sellers and buyers. Water right owners, who are willing to <br />free up some of their water in a particularly dry year or years, would temporarily lease it <br />to those who simply cannot afford to be without water. Water banking also takes water <br />during periods when it is available and stores it. Banking water during wet years <br />provides water districts with a cushion of protection during droughts. It also conserves <br />any unused water, rather than letting it run out to the sea or be lost to evaporation. The <br />storage is usually done in aquifers and generally not within the individual agencies area. <br />The water banking agreements can be complex and depend upon broad cooperation <br />among various agencies for delivery and storage. <br />SARCCUP Water Bank Storage <br />Chinoi <br />),ow <br />R�.0a,do <br />San <br />Elsinore ., no <br />a.soo�.Como, 1 <br />Storage, <br />137,000 AF <br />• s.�e..�..e�.a <br />` s <br />7 <br />/vinaton <br />IN <br />0 <br />\e.aro.e <br />O..ny. County ColEw.t.. <br />Conjunctive use is a <br />catchphrase for <br />coordinated use of surface <br />water and groundwater. <br />The state considers water <br />banking a "conjunctive <br />use" and <br />encourages such uses.19 <br />On a statewide level, <br />California has 517 <br />groundwater basins. <br />Stanford's Water in the West institute estimates that the capacity of underground water <br />storage in California is at least 20 times greater than that of the state's reservoirs and <br />lakes. However, the means to store surplus water and return it in dry years is <br />lacking. The Sustainable Groundwater Management Act of 2014 has created the <br />opportunity to expand recharge basins and banking particularly in agricultural areas but <br />to date, action is lagging. <br />ORAgi ltq(6WF GRAND JURY 2022 1 2023 7 — 40 1 1/�U?eQA:�f 57 <br />