Originally Posted By skinnerbox Even if you're disinclined to read the article, at least check out the photos from San Joaquin Valley documenting the sinking: <a target="blank" rel="nofollow" href="http://www.motherjones.com/environment/2015/06/california-sinking-drought-ground-water">http://www.motherjones.com/env...nd-water</a> California Is Literally Sinking Into the Ground And it's going to cost taxpayers big time. —By Nathan Halverson | Wed Jun. 10, 2015 3:21 PM EDT <> This story was originally published by Reveal from the Center for Investigative Reporting and is republished here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. California is sinking—and fast. While the state's drought-induced sinking is well known, new details highlight just how severe it has become and how little the government has done to monitor it. Last summer, scientists recorded the worst sinking in at least 50 years. This summer, all-time records are expected across the state as thousands of miles of land in the Central Valley and elsewhere sink. But the extent of the problem and how much it will cost taxpayers to fix are part of the mystery of the state's unfolding drought. No agency is tracking the sinking statewide, little public money has been put toward studying it and California allows agriculture businesses to keep crucial parts of their operations secret. The cause is known: People are pulling unsustainable amounts of water out of underground aquifers, primarily for food production. With the water sucked out to irrigate crops, a practice that has accelerated during the drought, tens of thousands of square miles are deflating like a leaky air mattress, inch by inch. Groundwater now supplies about 60 percent of the state's water, with the vast majority of that going to agriculture. Tens of thousands of groundwater pumps run day and night, sucking up about 5 percent of the state's total electricity, according to a Reveal analysis of the increased pumping resulting from the historic drought. That's an increase of 40 percent over normal years – or enough electricity to power every home in San Francisco for three years. The sinking is starting to destroy bridges, crack irrigation canals and twist highways across the state, according to the US Geological Survey. Two bridges in Fresno County—an area that produces about 15 percent of the world's almonds—have sunk so much that they are nearly underwater and will cost millions to rebuild. Nearby, an elementary school is slowly descending into a miles-long sinkhole that will make it susceptible to future flooding. Private businesses are on the hook, too. One canal system is facing more than $60 million in repairs because one of its dams is sinking. And public and private water wells are being bent and disfigured like crumpled drinking straws as the earth collapses around them—costing $500,000 or more to replace. The sinking has a technical name: subsidence. It occurs when aquifers are drained of water and the land collapses down where the water used to be. The last comprehensive survey of sinking was in the 1970s, and a publicly funded monitoring system fell into disrepair the following decade. Even the government's scientists are in the dark. "We don't know how bad it is because we're not looking everywhere," said Michelle Sneed, a hydrologist with the geological survey. "It's frustrating, I'll tell you that. There is a lot of work I want to do." Some places in the state are sinking more than a foot per year. The last time it was this bad, it cost the state more than a billion dollars to fix. <> More at the link. Definitely a must-read.
Originally Posted By SallyOmalley Uuuuumm what is so wrong with pulling water out of the ground to produce food? Sorry but food is more important than roads or bridges. Now if you mean pulling out the water for swimming pools, water shows and golf courses then that is different story.
Originally Posted By velo they are pulling water out of the ground at an unsustainable rate. And without the "roads and bridges" how will you get this food anywhere? The Central Valley is being overfarmed - so much of this area was never meant for crops anyway - it's a desert.
Originally Posted By SallyOmalley Food and drinking water now trumps just about anything except air to breathe . Do I have to say this? We need food and water to live. We don't need roads to live. We need roads for communication and economics but we need food to live. Hard to believe I have to say this as if it isn't painfully obvious already. Use what little water is left to grow food. If using central valley ground water to grow food is not the answer then what is the right thing to do to address the food/water question? I would love to know.
Originally Posted By RoadTrip Build pipelines to transport water instead of oil. There is more than enough water in the United States. It just isn't always in the proper place.
Originally Posted By Kar2oonMan >>Build pipelines to transport water instead of oil.<< I like this idea a lot. Of course, it would mean we Californians would pay a lot more for our water, but it's what we get for building our home in a dry, dusty hellscape where soon we'll be willing to sell our leathery bodies for a bottle of Dasani. Seriously, though, our state should always be rationing its water use, rain or not. If we had been more careful all along, a longterm drought wouldn't be quite as bad.
Originally Posted By Dabob2 <Build pipelines to transport water instead of oil. There is more than enough water in the United States. It just isn't always in the proper place.> I've often thought this too. SoCal already gets much of its water through pipes, after all. NYC gets its water from upstate. And we have oil pipelines that stretch many hundreds of miles, so the concept is not exactly foreign. As a whole, the US normally gets plenty of water in a given year. Just not always well distributed.
Originally Posted By Kar2oonMan >>As a whole, the US normally gets plenty of water in a given year. Just not always well distributed.<< Stop it, storm!
Originally Posted By Kar2oonMan You think California has it bad, the rain in Spain falls mainly on the plain.
Originally Posted By Tikiduck Where would California source this piped water? The Great Lakes? Even though prohibitively expensive, de salinization may be the only option.
Originally Posted By RoadTrip Plenty of water throughout the Mississippi River region. If the U.S. can pump oil from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico, it could sure as heck pump water from the Midwest to the West. Whether farming in California was originally a good decision or not, it was done. And now it supports a large number of people in the Central Valley and is a major source of food for Americans. You can't just tell them to go away because the state is having a drought.
Originally Posted By TomSawyer How about instead of transporting water we shift agricultural production to areas where there is plenty of water?
Originally Posted By trekkeruss Is it partly a weather thing, I mean about a large percentage of food being grown in California? Anyway, I believe a lot of crops in the midwest, the "food" goes to the production of cattle and livestock.
Originally Posted By RoadTrip In the upper Midwest the weather is not conducive to growing fruits and vegetables. Almost everything is corn, soybeans and alfalfa. Alfalfa and most corn is used for feeding livestock. Soybeans are used for all kinds of things. When you get down to Missouri and Arkansas the land is of poor quality and not used to grow much of anything but alfalfa used to feed cattle. Except for water supply, it is difficult to duplicate the ideal growing conditions of the Central Valley. It actually does make more sense to send water there.
Originally Posted By Kar2oonMan >>It actually does make more sense to send water there.<< Plus, I need to wash my car eventually. ; )
Originally Posted By Tikiduck I still say the guy who figures out how to economically purify sea water will rule the world. The oceans are rising anyway, right? So we have an endless source of water that may even be diluted from all the melting ice. We just have to get the damn salt out of it.
Originally Posted By RoadTrip If people start needing it bad enough, it will become economical. Fracking oil is not economical except when oil prices are very high.
Originally Posted By Kar2oonMan >>I'm not in California, but sometimes I use waterless car wash.<< I've been using that instead of showering for months now.
