As the Brown administration prepares to open multi-agency, multi-stakeholder negotiations for California’s first groundwater management program, the San Jose Mercury News published a two-part story with useful background and many interviews with regulators. Part I – The rush to drill is driven not just by historically dry conditions, but by a host of other factors that promote short-term consumption over long-term survival — new, more moisture–demanding crops; improved drilling technologies; and a surge of corporate investors seeking profits for agricultural ventures.
Now those forces are renewing an age-old problem of environmental degradation: Decades ago, overpumping sunk half of the entire San Joaquin Valley, in one area as much as 28 feet. Today new areas are subsiding, some almost a foot each year, damaging bridges and vital canals.
Yet in California, one of the few states that doesn’t regulate how much water can be pumped from underground, even this hasn’t been enough to create a consensus to stop.
“It’s our savings account, and we’re draining it,” said Phil Isenberg of the Public Policy Institute of California, a former Sacramento mayor and assemblyman. “At some point, there will be none left.”
http://www.mercurynews.com/drought/ci_25447586/california-drought-san-joaquin-valley-sinking-farmers-race#
Part II – Major groundwater stakeholders approach the negotiating table:
http://www.mercurynews.com/science/ci_25453902/california-drought-after-years-overpumping-groundwater-state-may?source=rss