SEC. 2.
The Legislature finds and declares as follows:(a) California’s vast, natural aquifers were formed by rain and melted snow that percolated into the soil over thousands of years. When water is extracted in huge volumes, and there is insufficient rain to replace it, the earth gradually sinks.
(b) Subsidence has been a recurring problem in the San Joaquin Valley, the more arid southern half of California’s heavily farmed Central Valley. In one example that became legendary among groundwater experts, an area near Mendota sank 28 feet between 1925 and 1977. The issue largely abated with the advent of California’s massive manmade plumbing system that showered the valley with an abundance of surface water from northern California. In recent years, as the Sierra snowpack has dwindled and fresh water supplies have diminished, subsidence has returned with a vengeance.
(c) A National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) study based on satellite imaging showed significant rates of subsidence in recent times. A spot near Corcoran in the Tulare Basin sank 12 inches in one recent eight-month period. Researchers found a stretch near the California Aqueduct, the key highway of the State Water Project, that sank eight inches in four months last year.
(d) Subsidence is not a problem limited to the San Joaquin Valley. A spot near Arbuckle in Colusa County sank five inches during the last half of 2014, according to the NASA report.
(e) The rate of subsidence underscores how quickly underground aquifers are being drained. A report by the University of California, Davis, said farmers are pumping an additional six million acre-feet of groundwater this year as compared to 2011, the year before the drought started, in order to compensate for shortages in deliveries of surface water from the State Water Project and the federal Central Valley Project.
(f) Groundwater acts as a savings account to provide supplies during drought, but the NASA report shows the consequences of excessive withdrawals as we head into the fifth year of historic drought. The Legislature will work together with counties, local water districts, and affected communities to identify ways to slow the rate of subsidence and protect vital infrastructure, such as canals, pumping stations, bridges, and wells.
(g) Experts say subsidence makes it harder to replenish an aquifer once the rains come because subsidence effectively compacts the soil, making it harder to store water underground.