For the First Time, California Growers Have To Say How Much Groundwater They’re Taking

For the first time, growers in one of California’s most acutely water-stressed areas have to reveal how much groundwater they are pumping. For generations, they’ve been free to take water from wells on their own land without reporting to it the state.

The State Water Resources Control Board ordered landowners in parts of the San Joaquin Valley around Corcoran and Pixley to submit detailed reports by Friday.