Friday Top of the Scroll: The hunt for water is causing this region to sink. Now, California is weighing a historic crackdown
A stretch of California that’s considered one of the fastest-sinking areas in the nation, where farms have pumped so much water from the ground that the land has slowly collapsed, is on the verge of state intervention. In a first-ever move, California regulators are looking to step in and monitor groundwater pumping in the Tulare Lake subbasin, an 837-square-mile hydrological region flush with cotton, hay and almonds between Fresno and Bakersfield. Because of heavy pumping, some places here are sinking a foot a year, causing roads to buckle and canals to crack. … The looming confrontation between the state and water agencies marks the latest, and one of the most significant, developments with California’s decade-old groundwater legislation, the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act, or SGMA.
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- Ag Info: One big problem with SGMA
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- Red Bluff Daily News – Opinion: Penalize first, Projects second
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