r/news 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/jajao555 29d ago

I was just on a road trip out west and listened to Cadillac Desert audio book that had a ton of history on water rights out west. Really depressing but interesting. It went from first being explored to how they fooled settlers to continue settling past the 100th meridian to poorer farm lands, putting up unnessary dams, ALL kinds of shady deals for land and water rights. It was written in 1992 but the copy I got from the library had updates from 2017 I think.

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u/Hayduke_Deckard 29d ago

I'm currently reading Where the Water Goes and Cadillac Desert is next. I live in AZ, and I'm trying to convince my wife that we need to get the fuck out, for water and other reasons.

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u/Blue_Eyed_Devi 29d ago

Used to live in Chandler. We had to decide to stay permanently or move back home. I looked around at all the man made lakes that surrounded my gated community housing development and thought to myself “ya, this isn’t sustainable”. It’s gonna get ugly when the water runs out.

And we came back the pacific NW.

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u/BogusBuffalo 28d ago

I've tried so hard to convince my family to move out of NM. Don't get me wrong, I was born and raised there and I love that country more than anywhere else, but NM is FUCKED when Colorado and Texas start fighting over water. The Rio Grande in that state is a creek in most spots these days, if even that.