A drought-hit California town finds itself sinking into the ground

[DBoon]

https://phys.org/news/2021-08-drought-hit-california-town-ground.html

To irrigate its vast fields and help feed America, farm operators began in the last century to pump water from underground sources, so much so that the ground has begun to sink—imagine a series of giant straws sucking up groundwater faster than rain can replenish it, as hydrologist Anne Senter explained it to AFP.

Strangely, signs of this subsidence are nearly invisible to the human eye. There are no cracks in the walls of the typical American shops in the town's center, nor crevices opening up in the streets or fields: to measure subsidence, Californian authorities had to turn to NASA, which used satellites to analyze the geological change.

And yet, over the past 100 years, Corcoran has sunken "the equivalent of a two-story house," Jeanine Jones, a manager with the California Department of Water Resources, told AFP.

The phenomenon "can be a threat to infrastructure, groundwater wells, levees, aqueducts," she said.
...
Few locals have spoken out against the problem—not surprising, since most of them work for the same big agribusinesses pumping up groundwater.

"They are afraid that if they speak against them, they might lose their job," said Atilano. He spent years working for one of the country's biggest cotton producers, J.G. Boswell, whose name is seen on thousands of cloth bags stuffed with cotton that are seen stacked around town.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

1. They are afraid to speak up for fear of losing their jobs.

And what about losing these: "a threat to infrastructure, groundwater wells, levees, aqueducts."

They're not seeing the big picture, but only the part that directly affects them. This is short-sighted in the extreme.

[Merlot]

5. Unless there is collective action they will lose their job for no reason.

Maybe they don't want to throw their loved ones into poverty for an act that will go unnoticed.

[Hugh_Lebowski]

2. Be classic if a giant but shallow sinkhole opens up just under the prison walls

(another major industry in Corcoran) and hundreds of inmates escape.

[Merlot]

6. Ha!

[underpants]

3. Fascinating

[c-rational]

4. Corporate socialism...the corporation takes (steals) the public's natural resources, and the public/

individual pays for the damages. Even if we cannot overturn the improper precedent of a corporation being the equivalent of an individual in the eyes of the law - we should at least figure out how to jail the corporation - maybe the entire Board.

[dickthegrouch]

7. And for some odd reason my flood premium just tripled

I'm next to a river that's 10 feet lower than usual and has not flooded in the last 40 years.
:grrrrrrrrrrr