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California is experiencing the worst drought in its history, and the effects are being felt nationwide. Thus water issues have taken center stage in much of our reporting and the nation's.As the New York Times says, "Water has long been a precious resource in California, the subject of battles pitting farmer against city-dweller and northern communities against southern ones; books and movies have been made about its scarcity and plunder. Water is central to the state’s identity and economy, and a symbol of how wealth and ingenuity have tamed nature ..."As we continue through a fourth year of extreme drought conditions, you'll find all of our reporting on the related issues (and that of NPR and other member stations) in this centralized place.

Vast Water Reserves Found Far Underground

California sits atop a massive reserve of water so large, it blows state estimates right out of the proverbial you-know-what.

In scientific findings published this week, Stanford University researchers estimated that official state forecasts of California’s groundwater reserves may be off by as much as a factor of three.

That’s right, there may be three times more groundwater than identified by the Department of Water Resources.

And that’s about the end of the good news.

The water detailed in the paper is as much as a mile and three quarters below the surface. Pumping water from those depths, let alone drilling wells to reach it, would be wildly expensive.

Researchers acknowledge that the newfound water may also need treatment —either to remove salt or to reduce alkalinity, before being used.

Researchers also warn that those deep aquifers risk contamination from oil and gas wastewater injection wells.