Aaron Fukuda, general manager of the Tulare Irrigation District, took a gamble when he supported cracking down on his growers as wells across the arid southern San Joaquin Valley were going dry — and he’s still waiting to see if it will pay off. Fukuda said he got angry phone calls from his community for about a year after he championed a local emergency ordinance in 2022 to put pumping limits and penalties on irrigation wells across 163 square miles of prime farmland in Tulare County, where overuse and drought have been lowering groundwater levels 2 to 3 feet per year. He’s since also embraced policies to recharge more groundwater and protect domestic wells. But the specter of his region’s over-pumping is still coming for Fukuda. State officials have determined that his sub-basin still hasn’t done enough to stop groundwater levels from dropping further by 2040, as required by the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act.

Other groundwater articles:

• Civil Eats: Colorado’s groundwater experiment
• Arizona Daily Star: Power line project can’t soar past Willcox water woes