California Struggles over Water Storage for Farmers

Keeping California’s agricultural land in production depends on fixing its growing water problems.

 

As the state considers its options, many farmers want to revive the approach that worked for them in the last century: building dams. Not far from this tiny hamlet northeast of Fresno, for instance, the government is thinking of building a new artificial lake just above an existing one.

 

Doubts are growing about whether spending huge sums to pour high walls of concrete are the best way to solve California’s water problems.