Measured groundwater reduction
Check your farm’s water potential.
Five answers tell you whether your farm is ready for a sponsor-funded groundwater reduction project, what would make it ready, and an illustrative range of acre-feet a year that could be measured from your own well meters. The method and every deduction are shown beside the number.
Readiness
Ready
Sample result: ready- Metered wells, 3 or more years of pumping records, a known allocation and an orchard crop the program is set up for. The next step is the eligibility check and your metered baseline.
The benchmark number needs one full season of pump records or well meters. The measured range below needs meters and three or more years of records.
Illustrative range
Reduced withdrawal that could be measured: about 26 to 32 acre-feet a year.
For 320 acres, using the planning figure of about 0.10 acre-feet per acre per year net. The low end applies the optional consumptive-use adjustment; the high end does not.
- Gross volume before deductions
- 42 acre-feet a year
- After our proposed 23 percent deduction
- 32 acre-feet a year
- With the proposed 0.80 consumptive-use adjustment
- 26 acre-feet a year
- Allocation for your acres
- 672 acre-feet a year
- Baseline (the lower of pumping and allocation)
- 610 acre-feet a year, from your pumping figure, which is at or under your allocation
This is an estimate for planning, made from the figures you typed. A measured volume comes from your own well meters over monitored seasons, adjusted for rainfall; an independently validated volume adds a third-party review. It can be lower or higher than this range, and nothing here promises a payment.
Benchmark efficiency
Comparison, from your recordsSample data1.91 acre-feet per acre, 2.09 below the published benchmark.
Efficiency against a published benchmark, for the farm's own fields. A performance claim, not a reduction.
Applied water of 1.91 acre-feet per acre is 2.09 acre-feet per acre below the published applied water benchmark of 4.00 for Almonds & Pistachios (DWR crop category) in Madera (estimated).
From your own records; we would measure it on your wells.
Benchmark row dwr-aw-madera-almonds-pistachios: Almonds & Pistachios (DWR crop category), Madera, 4.00 acre-feet per acre, applied water. Source: Statewide Agricultural Water Use Data 2016-2020 (Excel application tool), county sheets Regional_AW_Unit_County and Regional_ETc_Unit_County (California Department of Water Resources, 2024). Every row is on the method page.
Payment
Sponsor pricing is set once sponsors give their indications.
The two paying tiers price per sponsored acre (benchmark efficiency) and per acre-foot (measured reduction). Your share is 50% of the net, after validation and registry costs. Nothing is paid until a sponsor signs.
The method and the deductions
- Baseline, as proposed: admissible historical pumping where records support it (for example, your average metered pumping over 3 representative years, adjusted for rainfall and capped at your GSA allocation), or a prospective measured baseline. The final rule is set project by project.
- Counted, if accepted: reduced withdrawal below the accepted baseline, metered where qualifying wellhead meters are in place. Pumping cuts your GSA already requires do not count.
- Deductions: a conservative deduction is taken from the gross volume before anything is counted; we propose 23 percent, and the final size follows the uncertainty assessment and the independent review.
- Optional adjustment: a consumptive-use factor, proposed at about 0.80, if the accepted method counts consumptive use rather than withdrawal.
- Planning figure: about 0.10 acre-feet per acre per year, net. Your measured volume will come from your own meters and seasons.
- Commitments: the water behind a recorded reduction is not sold or transferred, and no acres are added. Proposed project controls screen GSA transfers, carryover and later pumping.
- Pressure chamber readings document tree water status through the season; they do not measure pumped volume.
Projects follow the Volumetric Water Benefit Accounting guidance (VWBA 2.0). The full conditions are on the program page; the three numbers and the benchmark sources are on the method page.
Sign up for sponsor-funded sensors
If your farm fits, a sponsor’s funding pays for the sensors and our field team’s install. We reply by email. Sending this form does not commit you to anything; this page describes a program, not an offer or a contract.
From your wells to a sponsor payment, in five steps.
Your wells
Metered pumping on your own wells. Where there is no meter, logged pump run-time, with that basis stated on the record, until one goes in.
Our sensors and readings
Soil probes on your blocks, pressure chamber readings by our crew on the monitoring plan’s schedule, and CIMIS weather.
Signed record
Probe reading summaries are signed into a tamper-evident record. Each issued order is kept with the readings behind it. Each record states whether a value is measured, calculated, estimated or agency-reported.
Independent check
The three numbers are computed and labelled. A validator reviews before anyone claims a volumetric benefit.
Sponsor payment
The sponsor pays for the sensors and the evidence. You receive your share, 50% of the net. Nothing is paid until a sponsor signs.
What you would gather
The evidence checklist.
- A site boundary file for the enrolled acres: shapefile, KML, or the GSA parcel map.
- Well meter logs, or dated photos of each meter face.
- Pump energy bills for the assessment period and the prior seasons.
- Weather: the CIMIS station we pair the farm with.
- Sensor data from the probes on the blocks.
- Photos of the irrigation equipment: pumps, filters, emitters.
- The assessment period, with its start and end dates.
- The two commitments in writing: no sale or transfer of the water left in the ground, and no added acres.
You keep your raw data. The sponsor receives the right to make the stated sentence for the stated blocks, label and season, with the record behind it.
Read the full conditions on the program page. We use the details you send to reply about your farm. Privacy policy