Water pumped from hundreds of wells has transformed the desert of the Coachella Valley into a lush patchwork of golf courses, farms, resorts and swimming pools. Those wells draw heavily from the underground aquifer year after year and have led to dramatic declines in water levels, posing serious long-term risks for the water supply.
The diminishing water levels in the aquifer during the past half-century illustrate how heavy water use in the Coachella Valley has long outstripped available water supplies. And while public officials have made some progress in recent years, their efforts to reverse the trend have lagged behind the declines in water levels and haven’t fully addressed the problem.
In a three-month investigation of water levels throughout the Coachella Valley, The Desert Sun found that the average depth of 70 existing wells across the valley in 1970 was 104.4 feet. As of this year, the average depth of 291 wells in the valley had dropped to 159.3 feet.
The average loss of 55 feet of water depth reflects a significant depletion of the most precious resource in the California desert. The average well depths calculated by The Desert Sun provide a broad picture of the aquifer’s decline over decades. More specific trends such as areas with particularly large drops in water levels also emerged during the analysis, which is the first such valley-wide review to assess water agencies’ groundwater data.
The newspaper obtained depth measurement records for 346 wells from the Coachella Valley Water District and the Desert Water Agency after the Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians sued the agencies in federal court. The tribe is claiming rights to a portion of the valley’s groundwater and accuses the agencies of mismanaging the water supply by permitting the aquifer’s levels to drop.
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