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Impact of the Drought .
Due to cut down in water deliveries from rivers and reservoirs, the farmers have resorted to pumping the water from underground. The Central Valley aquifer in California extends from Sacramento to the San Juan Valley and now hosts more than hundred thousand wells; the overuse, unregulated and unmonitored wells have pierced the valley floor, causing it to sink half-inch each month (Boxall, 2015). The farmers are readily using up their groundwater supply and therefore exhausting this water reservoir since the recharge rate is longer than the depletion rate. Once this water reservoir has been emptied and the drought persists, the farmers may be forced to lose their crops. It has been reported that the Center Valley groundwater has been depleted of eight million-acre feet since 1962 and twenty million of that has occurred in the past decade (Boxall, 2015). On realization of sustaining groundwater, and overcoming resistance from the farm lobby, Gov. Jerry Brown introduced a law to limit the use of ground water effective January 1st, 2015 (Fountain, 2015). This law imposes strict restrictions, however twenty years has been allowed to fully comply with these restrictions. If twenty million acre-feet water was used just in the past year, this number may triple in the next twenty year, especially due to higher demands caused by the drought. This is worrisome as scientist are unsure if the groundwater can even last until the 2040s (Gillis & Richtel, 2015). It appears that unsustainable groundwater may be lost before it is intended and the agricultural industry may suffer greatly. It is therefore necessary to prevent such calamity before it occurs by taking immediate action now. .
The Central Valley happens to be California's greatest food resource and provides a third of all produce (230 crops) grown in the nation. The four year drought has already had a significant impact on this agricultural region and is in the process of causing more damage.
