California’s Sinking Valley Titelbild

California’s Sinking Valley

California’s Sinking Valley

Jetzt kostenlos hören, ohne Abo

Details anzeigen

Über diesen Titel

 California’s Central Valley is an agricultural bonanza, producing a third of America’s food crops. But it’s facing serious water challenges. The valley floor is 20,000 sq miles of some of the most fertile soil on Earth. Here, the sun shines 300 days a year. More than 250 different crops grow, worth $17 billion per year. The valley was developed into farmland around the turn of the twentieth century. When farmers arrived, they began to drill wells into the fresh-water aquifers below. By the 1930s, scientists began to notice an impact. Some of the aquifers, with their water levels and pressure drawn down, compacted. This meant they would never refill to earlier levels, and the land above them subsided. This continued into the 1970s, when sinking land, up to 30 ft in parts of the valley, had damaged roads, bridges, and buildings so dramatically that California spent millions to repair them and built canals to bring in water. The problem was alleviated—until conservation elsewhere in the state reduced water in the canals and valley farmers pulled hard on their wells again. The wells remained unregulated until 2012, when California passed serious water legislation. It will be decades before it’s fully phased in, but the hardest-hit areas are being addressed now. In the meantime, the valley floor and the water table continue to fall.
Noch keine Rezensionen vorhanden