Their land is sinking. But Tulare Lake farm barons defy calls to cut groundwater pumping
Earlier this year, as floodwaters rushed toward the San Joaquin Valley city of Corcoran — home to roughly 20,000 people and a sprawling maximum-security state prison — emergency workers and desperate local officials begged the state for help raising their levee. Corcoran had been sinking, steadily, for years because of persistent overpumping of groundwater by major landowners in the Tulare Lake Basin that has sent the valley floor into a slow-motion collapse. … Now, the state is finally trying to enforce the requirements of a nearly 10-year-old law limiting groundwater pumping that major landowners in a half-dozen regions — including the Tulare Lake Basin — have blatantly resisted. In October, state water regulators announced they’re taking the first step toward putting the Tulare Lake region on “probation” for its lack of progress.
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- Fresno Bee: Opinion – California’s antiquated water laws need updating to make use of flood flows
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