Walter Hardesty has raised hay and cattle south of Elk Grove long enough to watch groundwater turn from a private worry into a regional one. Soon, he expects to manage it from his phone. The Harvest Water Program is set to deliver recycled water to his ranch in 2027, and he will order it through an app for a set date and duration. Then, an automated valve at the edge of his property will do the rest, all the while giving the aquifer beneath his fields and his wells, which will be run about half as often, time to recover. That, in essence, is the promise at the center of a nearly $597 million public project. … The Harvest Water Program is billed by SacSewer, the Sacramento Area Sewer District, as California’s largest agricultural water recycling project. … According to the District’s materials, it will deliver up to 50,000 acre-feet of recycled water a year.

Other groundwater news:

• Capitol Weekly (Sacramento, Calif.): Opinion: Local farmers found a groundwater solution that works. Proposition 4 should build on it.