It’s National Groundwater Awareness Week

95 percent of the water we use in Monterey County is groundwater, which includes things like tap water, public water supplies, and agriculture.

The county uses about 162 billion gallons of ground water each year. There’s about 6 trillion gallons of ground water in the county, but not all of it is accessible. Recent storms have helped replenish the groundwater that’s used.

“We capture water in both San Antonio and Lake Nacimiento reservoirs, and we release that water through the Salinas River, and when the Salinas River runs up the valley, it does percolate into the ground,” said Robert Johnson, Deputy General Manager with the Monterey County Water Resources Agency.

To get the water from the ground, it’s pumped out of 2,000 wells across Monterey County. And because the Salinas Valley is the Salad Bowl of the World, 90% of the water used in the Salinas Valley is for agriculture. The Monterey County Water Resources Agency said they monitor 90 wells a month to check pumping stress and water quality.

“You’ll find that there’s definitely poorer quality closer to the coast because of sea-water intrusion, however the nitrate values are sort of mixed throughout the valley,” said Johnson.

But the agency is confident about the quality of the water.

“There’s nothing to be concerned about, the urban water purveyors do have rigorous quality standards they have to go through to deliver water to your house,” said Johnson.

Taking a look at the bigger picture, 99% of all freshwater in the world is groundwater, it just goes to show how important groundwater is.