General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsDesperate Californian Farmers Are Drilling For Water Like Never Before
The scarcity of irrigation water in drought-stricken California has created such a demand for well drilling services that Central Valley farmer Bob Smittcamp is taking matters into his own hands.
He's buying a drilling rig for $1 million to make certain he has enough water this summer for thousands of acres of fruit and vegetable crops.
"It's like an insurance policy," said Smittcamp, who knows two other farmers doing the same thing. "You have to do something to protect your investment."
With California in a third dry year, well drilling is booming across the nation's most productive agricultural region, and some drilling companies are booked for months or a year. In some counties, requests for permits to dig new wells have soared, more than doubling over this time last year.
Farmers expect to get only a fraction if any of the water they need from vast government-controlled systems of canals and reservoirs interlacing the state. In an effort to make up the difference, they are drilling hundreds of feet deep to tap underground water supplies.
Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/californian-farmers-drill-for-water-2014-4
Jim Warren
(2,736 posts)The floor of the San Joaquin Valley has already sunk nearly 30 feet in places.
http://www.allgov.com/usa/ca/news/unusual-news/over-pumping-of-groundwater-is-sinking-the-san-joaquin-valley-fast-131122?news=851724
bemildred
(90,061 posts)newfie11
(8,159 posts)Our friends have a farm in NE with an irrigation well ( and a seperate well for house water).
No one in The Nebraska Panhandle can drill an irrigation well today UNLESS their previous irrigation well goes dry.
Even so there is a limit on how much water they can pump. It was the same limit as we had with ditch irrigation. And that has been dropped several times over 8 years.
I would bet California puts a limit on irrigation well drilling soon as that pumps a lot of water if the whole valley goes to wells.
I feel for them, it's a very horrifying spot to be in.