East County News Service

Photo: US Geological Survey scientist Michelle Sneed shows where a farmer would have been standing in 1988, before drought triggered sinking in the San Joaquin Valley.

June 12, 2015 (Sacramento) – California is sinking – fast.  Records from the U.S. Geological Survey reveal that some parts of California are subsiding by a foot a year, as groundwater pumping has increased by 40 percent due to the drought.  That’s causing wells to crumple, thousands of miles of highways to become damaged, irrigation canals to crack and bridges to be destroyed, according to an article in Reveal from the Center for Investigative Reporting.