Samantha Page | Think Progress

A Third Of California’s Deep Groundwater Aquifers Are Being Used For Oil And Gas

California has a lot more usable groundwater than previously thought — but that water might already be in danger from oil and gas extraction in the state.

Samantha Page | Think Progress
By Samantha Page | Think Progress
In this undated file photo, water flows through the Southern California desert in the Metropolitan Water District's Colorado River Aqueduct from the Colorado River to the Los Angeles area. A pricing dispute has sharply escalated hostilities between San Diego and the agency that delivers water to much of Southern California, straining an odd partnership already defined by years of lawsuits and heated rhetoric. The San Diego County Water Authority launched a website to attack the MWD, its largest supplier, saying it wanted to lift a veil of secrecy. The site displays a trove of internal documents obtained under California’s public records law, including references to a "Secret Society" and an "anti-San Diego coalition." (AP Photo/Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, File)

A study released this week by Stanford scientists shows that there is nearly three times more groundwater in California’s Central Valley than earlier surveys had indicated. “It’s not often that you find a ‘water windfall,’ but we just did,” study co-author Robert Jackson, the Michelle and Kevin Douglas Provostial Professor at Stanford, said in

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