Tuesday 4 October 2022 06:09 PM Drought-stricken California lost some 1,200 wells this year and half a million ... trends now
Drought-stricken California has seen more than 1,200 wells run dry this year and half a million acres of farmland go to fallow, with officials saying the three-year driest spell on record could drag out longer yet.
The Golden State has seen the driest January-to-March period in at least a century, as well as record amounts of rainfall in October — a so-called 'whiplash' weather effect that is set to become more common as the planet heats up.
Jeanine Jones, drought manager for the state Department of Water Resources, said it was impossible to say whether the dry spell would drag on longer but officials were ‘actively planning for another dry year’.
Snowfall along California’s mountain ranges typically provides one-third of the state’s annual water supply, but last year’s snow levels were far below average. The Colorado River is also beset by drought, reducing supplies to southern California.
Precipitation was 76 percent of average for the year that just ended, and the state’s reservoirs are at 69 percent of their historical levels, state officials said.
Elaine Moore stands next to a dry irrigation canal and almond orchard near her property, where two wells have gone dry this summer, in Chowchilla, California, amid a megadrought plaguing the American West
Ethan Bowles of Hefner and Drew Well Drilling operates a well-drilling rig at a home in Madera County, California, where many wells have gone dry this year after the state's three driest years on record
The USDA's analysis of California's farmland depicts three different categories of unplanted land: fallow - cropland in dry regions left unplanted to rehabilitate the soil; prevented - land left unplanted because of natural disasters and recorded for crop insurance purposes; and idle - all other unplanted land
Most of California is in severe or extreme drought, the U.S. Drought Monitor says. The worst conditions are throughout the Central Valley, the state’s agricultural heartland where many of the nation’s fruits, vegetables and nuts are grown.
Rural communities are losing access to groundwater as heavy pumping depletes underground aquifers.
More than 1,200 wells have run dry this year statewide, a nearly 50 percent increase over the same period last year, according to the California Department of Water Resources. Fewer than 100 dry wells were reported annually in 2018, 2019 and 2020.
Farmers are getting little surface water from the state’s depleted reservoirs, so they’re pumping more groundwater to irrigate their crops. That’s causing water tables to drop across California.
State data shows that 64 percent of wells are at below-normal water levels.
Standing next to a dry well on her property in Chowchilla, California, Elaine Moore said her family was getting water from a new well they drilled after the old one went dry last year. She’s even supplying water to a neighbor whose well dried up.
‘It’s been so dry this last year.
