Local
Valley land has sunk from too much water pumping. Can Fresno County fix it?
The Fresno County Board of Supervisors adopted a plan on Tuesday meant to maintain groundwater and keep users from pumping too much from underground basins.
The supervisors adopted plans for two areas connected to the Delta-Mendota subbasin. Officials throughout the San Joaquin Valley have been required by the state to adopt a plan by the end of the month.
State regulators stepped in during 2014 after a U.S. Geological Survey in the previous year showed so much water was being pumped out of the ground in the Valley that the land was sagging. The process – called subsidence – could damage roads, dams, railroads, pipes and bridges.
Wells became a topic of discussion in the Central Valley and particularly on the west side of Madera, Merced and Fresno counties as the state saw a historic drought from 2012 to 2014. Farmers often pump water from the ground when they cannot sufficiently water their crops with the available surface water.
Pumping was so extreme during the drought that an area near El Nido in Merced County was found to have been dropping at a rate of a foot per year, with other areas in the Valley sinking by inches.
Researchers have warned that the sinking area is spreading. Experts have also said that once aquifers collapse, they cannot be refilled with water.
The sustainability plan is supposed to prevent undesirable results through 2040 of the lowering of groundwater levels and storage, degrading water quality, allowing seawater intrusion and other issues.
Officials said the plan also lays out efforts to try to recharge groundwater — in other words, replace water sucked out from underground.
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