Opinion: Water markets can help bring California’s groundwater into balance
The San Joaquin Valley town of Corcoran is sinking. It’s fallen as much as 11.5 feet in some places, damaging drinking wells, changing the town’s flood zones and undermining critical infrastructure. The story is so dramatic that the New York Times covered it recently. The culprit here, though, is no ordinary villain – it’s the overpumping of groundwater. Corcoran’s story, while extreme, is not unique. Groundwater is an increasingly important – and threatened – resource in California.
-Written by Andrew Ayres, an economist and research fellow at the Public Policy Institute of California’s Water Policy Center, and Ellen Hanak, director of the PPIC’s Water Policy Center.