California Is Sinking — and Now Could Flood | KQED Newsroom

it's better nothing Johnny Andrews is a third-generation farmer in California Central Valley my grandpa came out of Texas he told me years ago he said you know whiskeys for drinkin waters for fighting see oh it's changing colors Andrews is one of thousands of farmers in the state struggling to keep their crops green during a record drought it's lifting the water he is turning to what he calls a last resort drilling for groundwater you're looking at two hundred thousand dollars to drill a well you're looking at the pumping cost every month of about between 2500 and 3500 dollars per well farmers like Andrews use about 80 percent of the state's developed water growing everything from tomatoes to almonds with the drought in its fourth year farmers are drilling deeper and deeper running pumps day and night these are just running all the time but burning diesel yeah they're running all the time they're born in four gallons an hour all that pumping has consequences as the groundwater gets drawn up the land sinks down scientists call it subsidence these fields in California's Central Valley have been sinking by more than one foot per year that means that about five years ago these fields would have been above my head no one knows exactly how much water is being pumped but hydrologist Michelle Sneed is alarmed by how quickly the ground is sinking I've been studying land subsidence throughout the West for 20 years and I've never measured rates like this before over the past two decades the ground in one area has sunk from Snead's head tore feet according to NASA some parts of the Central Valley are now sinking more than two inches a month we saw that the area being affected by subside ins was enormous stretching all the way from i-5 to 99 about 1,200 square miles were being affected by subsidence that's an area the size of Rhode Island and it is sunk permanently how do you stop those areas from sinking well the scientific solution is really easy you stop lowering groundwater levels putting that into practice is a whole note ball wax farmers would have to cut back on drilling for water the center of it is down south of here but she needs colleague Claudia font took me to see some of the damages subsidence has already caused I mean what do we got going on here and I mean it's really buckling yeah and a few years ago when I was here it wasn't nearly this bent so it's showing evidence of continuing to warp even more these canals deliver water to farms and cities throughout Southern California including Los Angeles and this isn't the only one I see I mean I see it here mm-hmm I see it right down there and I see a third one yeah there's another one up that direction as well so this can be happening to the bridges to the roadways to the railroads correct in fact there's a bridge right down the road from here that the water level is now coming up over the base of the road because that area has sunk when I went to see the bridge the flood risk was clear the water level has risen up so high now that it would go right over the surface of the road if they hadn't built these retaining walls to keep it back problems like these are already costing taxpayers tens of millions of dollars and subsidence is also damaging a vital part of California's flood control system so the levees through here are about five to six feet lower than they were historically this is Chris White runs the central California irrigation district he says subside ins is weakening levees this area we've always had flood challenges through here but with this subsidence that's occurred it's going to be even more challenging to deal with floods in the future to the west of forecasters are predicting a record El Nino this winter the wet weather pattern could bring heavy rains to this region red on this map is bad white showed me areas most at risk of flooding there's a school there's an elementary school there Highway 152 crosses right through the area there is significant farmland assets I'm praying for rain regardless but it's a high risk situation from a flood control standpoint nearly half the nation's fruits vegetables and nuts are produced in California to find out what the state is doing to protect its vital farmland I met with Jeannine Jones of the governor's drought task force subsidence is not regulated historically under California law no one is respond spoole for it but sir the state doesn't even know how big the subsidence problem is we're not even monitoring all of the subsidence there's no there has not been funding or programs because there has been no statutory responsibility or requirement to do so last year California lawmakers passed legislation to manage groundwater but it won't require regulators to limit pumping for another 25 years until then the sinking will likely continue the independent nonprofit California Water Foundation has estimated that damage due to subsidence across the state could cost taxpayers billions of dollars to fix do you think a billion dollars is a high estimate for what the total costs will be or a low estimate I really don't have anything to judge it but I just don't have the data for some farmers drilling for water has provided a lifeline during the drought but the long-term consequences of that drilling are becoming clear if we do have a wet year as large swaths of the state continue to sink the risk of flooding increases and people like Johnny Andrews whose farms have survived for dry years are now worried they could be wiped out by the rain the state desperately needs we're talking about the state and feeding the people in this state if that flood is bad enough it'll wipe out the next year's farming or a lot of it

Channel: KQED News

Views: 1,202,197

Rating: 4.6961069 out of 5

Keywords: California (US State), Flood (Disaster Type), Central Val, San Joaquin River (River), Drought, Agriculture (Industry)

Id: BT3lU8CYc9c

Length: 5min 58sec (358 seconds)

Published: Fri Oct 09 2015