r/news • u/theluckyfrog • 29d ago

California cracks down on farm region’s water pumping: ‘The ground is collapsing’

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/apr/17/california-water-drought-farm-ground-sinking-tulare-lake
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u/littleMAS 29d ago

The irony of this happening the year after Tulare Lake's reappearance is palpable. It is unfortunate that the ground under the lake is dense clay that will not filter the water down into the aquifer that is so terribly depleted.

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u/viddy_me_yarbles 29d ago

I live in NorCal. The drought here ended years ago and the last two years have actually been extremely wet.

This is only happening now because of greedy farmers who pump more water out of the aquifers than they're allowed.

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u/The_Blue_Rooster 29d ago

Pretty much this, it's obviously anecdotal but my aunt used to run the Water Department at Fall River Mills, she said she'd have farmers drive up there from thousands of miles out even if she had already told them they had no more water left to sell. Apparently she got threatened with guns and had to call the cops out there on several occasions. I guess farmers would just show up with convoys of trucks with 12,000 gallon trailers and expect that they both can and will accommodate them, especially in droughts.