The Tulare Lake Basin in the southern end of California's San Joaquin Valley has a problem — it's sinking due to persistent overpumping of groundwater. But the landowners pumping most of that water have no desire to stop. What does that mean for everyone else who lives and works there? And what does it mean for the future of farming in the region?
Once the largest lake west of the Mississippi, Tulare Lake is the epicenter for sinking ground in California. Generations ago, it was drained and converted to farmland. Now, water around the lake is heavily pumped, affecting the clay beneath the surface and causing subsidence, the gradual caving in or sinking of an area of land. In some places, the ground is collapsing at a rate of two feet per year.
Starting approximately a decade ago with the mega-drought, California cut back on the amount of water farmers in the region could use. To make up for the shortfall, growers began pumping water at unprecedented rates.
In Corcoran, rates of subsidence have reached nearly five feet a year since 2015. Increases in local property taxes have funded some repairs to the levee that protects the town from flooding. One resident likened the sinking ground to being in an elevator — you don't feel the movement physically, you feel it in your pocketbook.
The California State Water Resources Control Board will decide in April 2024 whether to put landowners in the area on probation from pumping.
Los Angeles Times reporters Susanne Rust, Jessica Garrison and Ian James have been covering the brewing confrontation between state regulators and the agricultural barons who are pulling all that water out of the land.