SJVWater

As California implements strict groundwater pumping laws, ag operations may have to be severely curtailed. Some estimates are that up to 20 percent of irrigated lands will have to be fallowed. On a per-farm basis, the thinking is water allocations will only allow for 70 percent of land to be farmed. To move water to the most "highly beneficial use" under those circumstances, some are considering open water markets. What will that mean for small to medium sized farms? Poor communities? Urban growth?

Climate change will alter California's main "storage" method of holding water in the Sierra snow pack awaiting spring thaw to fill reservoirs and and then be dispersed through canals. Groundwater banking has been discussed as a solution. But surface water will still need to be held somewhere and moved to banking facilities.

California's new groundwater law requires an actual accounting of how much San Joaquin Valley growers have overdrafted the aquifers in their basins. That has created intense infighting among districts, that know the only path to balance is a drastic reduction in irrigated acreage.