Forum to explore link between groundwater pumping and subsidence

Panelists will discuss the link between groundwater use and subsidence, or land sinking, at an event Nov. 11 in Visalia.

“Groundwater and Land Subsidence – A Pending Crisis,” will be held at 210 W. Center Ave, starting at 7 p.m. It is presented by Tulare County Voices at 210.

The event is free and open to the public.

Panelists include Johnny Amaral, chief operating officer at Friant Water Authority, Aaron Fukuda, general manager at Tulare Irrigation District and Mid-Kaweah Groundwater Sustainability Agency, and Greg Collins, former Visalia mayor and co-author of “Seven Generations: The Past, Present and Future of the Tulare Lake Basin.” Organizers are working to confirm another panelist representing a municipal water system. 

The forum is intended to explain what is being done to address the twin issues of groundwater depletion and subsidence. All of the panelists have spoken at Tulare County Voices in the past and are back to provide updates as local water agencies implement the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA). The landmark California  groundwater law was passed in 2014 and mandates that aquifers reach sustainability by 2040. 

“Clearly if those twin issues are not addressed, the valley faces a dire future, maybe no future at all,” organizer Paul Hurley wrote in an email. “Some of our planning team members believe the public is dreadfully uninformed.” 

Hurley said the planning team believes groundwater sustainability is an existential problem for the San Joaquin Valley. It is critical to the area’s ag industry and therefore the economy. 

As groundwater is depleted, land collapses damaging infrastructure, including the Friant Kern-Canal which has cost hundreds of millions to repair. 

“Subsidence is among this area’s most threatening, if slow-moving, natural disasters,” Hurley said. “The slow-moving part is what makes it dangerous: People don’t see it gradually undermining our Earth. Literally.”

Tulare County Voices at 210 is a monthly forum that explores topics of local interest and is co-sponsored by the Visalia Times-Delta, the Valley Voice newspaper, and First Presbyterian Church.