The Valley floor is sinking, and it’s crippling California’s ability to deliver water

Completed during Harry Truman’s presidency, the Friant-Kern Canal has been a workhorse in California’s elaborate man-made water-delivery network. It’s a low-tech concrete marvel that operates purely on gravity, capable of efficiently piping billions of gallons of water to cities and farms on a 152-mile journey along the east side of the fertile San Joaquin Valley. Until now.

The Friant-Kern has been crippled by a phenomenon known as subsidence. The canal is sinking as the Valley floor beneath it slowly caves in, brought down by years of groundwater extraction by the region’s farmers.

Along a 25-mile stretch of Tulare County rich with grapevines and pistachio trees, the canal has fallen so far — a dozen feet since it opened in 1951 — that it has lost more than half of its carrying capacity downstream from the choke point. Water simply can’t get through like it’s supposed to.

“It ponds up; you lose capacity and that ability to move water through the system,” said Douglas DeFlitch, chief operating officer at the Friant Water Authority. The authority operates the canal […]

More about ground subsidence and water usage:

California’s water wars heat up at Sacramento hearing over river flows

Animation of Satellite Data Shows SoCal “Breathing” Water

Sinking land, poisoned water: the dark side of California’s mega farms

Exploring the Hydrodynamics of Sediment Diversion at Mid-Barataria

Mississippi River Sediment Diversions & Louisiana

Summary
The Valley floor is sinking, and it’s crippling California’s ability to deliver water
Article Name
The Valley floor is sinking, and it’s crippling California’s ability to deliver water
Description
The Friant-Kern Canal is sinking as the Valley floor beneath it slowly caves in, brought down by years of groundwater extraction by the region's farmers.
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Publisher Name
The Sacramento Bee
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