As a consequence of the drought, state water officials are moving toward regulations preventing overdrafting of groundwater basins.
The California Water Commission approved regulations Wednesday that will guide creation of sustainability plans by local groundwater agencies. For more than a century, groundwater pumping in California has been mostly unregulated.
Groundwater supplies over a third of the water Californians use. Unrestrained pumping in recent years has driven groundwater to lowest recorded levels in parts of the San Joaquin Valley. It has caused overlying land to fall, or subside, in some places. Subsidence threatens bridges, aqueducts, roads, and other infrastructure.