Farmers have long relied on the government's engineering marvel of aqueducts to bring surface water from giant reservoirs in the north to the south. However, the federally run Central Valley Project allotted farmers only 20 percent of their share last year -- and none this year. Officials who manage the State Water Project, California's other major water system, have also said that they will not be releasing any water for farmers, a first in the system's 54-year history.
So with the drought cutting off their deliveries, farmers say they must rely on the only source left. Those who can afford the $200,000 to $600,000 price tag are digging deeper and deeper to tap into a once-unreachable aquifer. Many are taking out loans, betting on crop yields to break even....
"We're mining water that is thousands of years old to produce crops that might last a decade or two," said retired U.S. Geological Survey hydrologist Vance Kennedy, 91, who has witnessed wide expanses of grasslands in the foothills of the Sierra converted into large orchards.
So with the drought cutting off their deliveries, farmers say they must rely on the only source left. Those who can afford the $200,000 to $600,000 price tag are digging deeper and deeper to tap into a once-unreachable aquifer. Many are taking out loans, betting on crop yields to break even....
"We're mining water that is thousands of years old to produce crops that might last a decade or two," said retired U.S. Geological Survey hydrologist Vance Kennedy, 91, who has witnessed wide expanses of grasslands in the foothills of the Sierra converted into large orchards.
It takes slightly more than a gallon of water to produce one almond, three-quarters of a gallon to grow a single pistachio and 4.9 gallons to grow a single walnut.
