On/Off Well Management Data
The Water Agreement and Green Book established procedures to determine which LADWP pumping wells can be operated based on soil water and vegetation measurements. As part of the monitoring effort for the Agreement, the Water Department regularly measures soil water content and vegetation leaf area index (with LADWP) to estimate vegetation water needs at 22 permanent sites located in wellfields and eight sites in control areas. Soil water monitoring is conducted monthly and vegetation monitoring is conducted annually in June. Each monitoring site is linked to one or more LADWP pumping wells. On July 1 and October 1, if the soil water is insufficient to meet the needs of the vegetation at a site, the linked pumping wells cannot be operated. The wells must remain off until the soil water exceeds the amount required by the vegetation at the time the wells went off. This is referred to as the On/Off management strategy. During much of the period since this management was implemented in 1990, LADWP has not operated numerous wells in On status in accordance with subsequent agreements with the County.
A Table and map of recent On/Off history, water table depth, vegetation water required, and available soil water content are provided below. Contact Tim to obtain older data or data in digital format. Also, provided are tables containing the recent On/Off calculations.
Soil Water Conditions Map 2021
Soil Moisture ON/OFF Graphs – Updated February 15 2024.