Volunteers built the aquifer sensor network the state stopped funding

Forty-one low-cost probes, one open dataset, and a groundwater picture the official model missed.

Priya RamanScience desk · former hydrology researcherAug 24, 2026, 08:15 AM 11 min read 🎧 7 min listen

The probes cost $180 each and report every six hours. The state's decommissioned network cost forty times as much per site.

Where the two overlap, the readings agree within four centimetres — which is the argument the volunteers are taking to the water board.

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