California Farmers Dig Deeper for Water, Sipping Their Neighbors Dry

[phantom power]

Early one morning in late April, Parvinder Hundal stood beside a hole in the ground at the edge of his almond farm near Tulare in the Central Valley of California. The hole, which was about the size of a volleyball and was encased in a shallow block of concrete, was the opening of a well, one that went hundreds of feet into the earth. He had paid $100,000 to have it drilled, but it wasn’t producing water. Mr. Hundal was hoping that if he cleaned out the well, the water would start flowing again.

On the nearby trees, some leaves had turned yellow and the almond husks appeared smaller than usual. In February, Mr. Hundal received emails from various water districts, informing him that, because of a historic drought that has left reservoirs nearly dry, he would most likely get no surface water to irrigate his 4,000 acres of crops this summer. Not one drop.

...

There’s a well-drilling boom in the Central Valley, and it’s a water grab as intense as any land grab before it. Drilling contractors are so swamped with requests that there is a wait of four to six months for a new well. Drilling permits are soaring. In Tulare County, home to several of Mr. Hundal’s almond farms, 660 permits for new irrigation wells were taken out by the end of this April, up from 383 during the same period last year and just 60 five years ago — a figure rising “exponentially,” said Tammie Weyker, spokeswoman for Tulare County Health and Human Services Agency.

The new drill that Mr. Hundal ordered from Texas should be up and running in a few weeks. He says it can push 2,500 feet into the ground, tapping new aquifers and making way for wells that can produce thousands of gallons of water a minute. He plans to drill at least six new wells on his various farms across the Central Valley: Four of them are in Tulare, and two are on property 100 miles north.

“It’s about survival,” he said. “Everybody is pulling water out of the ground.”

“Nobody is bothered,” he added. “The neighbors aren’t bothered. Everybody is doing what they’ve got to do.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/07/business/energy-environment/california-farmers-dig-deeper-for-water-sipping-their-neighbors-dry.html

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[valerief]

1. Every time I think of California and water, "My daughter, my sister, my daughter,

my sister," runs through my head.

[CrispyQ]

2. Humanity is on an unsustainable course & no one is doing a thing about it. -nt

[NickB79]

3. Oh, we're doing plenty about it all right

We're doing studies, raising awareness, placating the masses, and jamming our collective foot on that global gas pedal as hard as we can!



Weeeeee!!!

[CrispyQ]

4. I love that pic.

And yes, that's exactly what we are doing!


I used to think I was blessed with perfect timing - that I would exit this planet before the shit really starts to hit the fan. But now, I'm not so sure. Everything has accelerated.

[Erich Bloodaxe BSN]

5. I used to think I was too cynical

when I decided very early on that I wouldn't have kids, because it wouldn't be fair to them to force them to live in what we're doing to the planet. Nowadays, I don't think I was cynical enough. And I agree, I think it will happen in our lifetimes. California is well on the way to being the next great dustbowl. All of those farmers who left the last dustbowl and moved to California didn't learn any lasting lessons.

[CrispyQ]

6. I think it was Lily Tomlin who said,

"No matter how cynical I am, I can't keep up."

I was never mommy material & have never regretted not having kids. More so now, as I read the reports coming in . . . daily.