<html><body><div style="color:#000; background-color:#fff; font-family:garamond, new york, times, serif;font-size:16px"><div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1428342436740_64948"><b id="yui_3_16_0_1_1428342436740_64958" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;"><i id="yui_3_16_0_1_1428342436740_64957"><span style="font-size:14.0pt;color:#C00000;" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1428342436740_64956">Last week, Mr. Brown <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/02/us/california-imposes-first-ever-water-restrictions-to-deal-with-drought.html" title="Times article"><span style="color:#C00000;">imposed mandatory cuts</span></a> in urban water use, the first ever. He exempted farmers, who already had to deal with huge reductions in surface water from the state’s irrigation works. Mr. Brown defended the decision on ABC’s “This Week” on Sunday, saying, “They’re providing most of the fruits and vegetables of America to a significant part of the world.”</span></i></b><br></div><div class="qtdSeparateBR"><br><br></div><div class="yahoo_quoted" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1428342436740_64850" style="display: block;"><div style="font-family: garamond, new york, times, serif; font-size: 16px;" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1428342436740_64849"><div style="font-family: HelveticaNeue, Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, Lucida Grande, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1428342436740_64848"><div class="y_msg_container" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1428342436740_64847"><div id="yiv9810322923"><div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1428342436740_64846"><div class="yiv9810322923WordSection1" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1428342436740_64845"><div class="yiv9810322923story-body-text"><b><i><span style="font-size:14.0pt;color:#C00000;">In normal times, agriculture consumes roughly 80 percent of the surface water available for human use in California, and experts say the state’s water crisis will not be solved without a major contribution from farmers.</span></i></b></div><div class="yiv9810322923story-body-text"><b><i><span style="font-size:14.0pt;color:#C00000;"> </span></i></b></div><h3 id="yui_3_16_0_1_1428342436740_65482"><span class="yiv9810322923kicker-label"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;">Note: For better view of graphs, click on link.</span></span><span class="yiv9810322923kicker-label"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;"></span></span></h3><h3 id="yui_3_16_0_1_1428342436740_64969"><span class="yiv9810322923kicker-label" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1428342436740_64973"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1428342436740_64972"><a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/06/science/beneath-california-crops-groundwater-crisis-grows.html?emc=edit_th_20150406&nl=todaysheadlines&nlid=2424741" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1428342436740_64971">http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/06/science/beneath-california-crops-groundwater-crisis-grows.html?emc=edit_th_20150406&nl=todaysheadlines&nlid=2424741</a></span></span><span class="yiv9810322923kicker-label"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;"></span></span></h3><h3 id="yui_3_16_0_1_1428342436740_64967"><span class="yiv9810322923kicker-label" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1428342436740_64975">New York Times</span></h3><h3 id="yui_3_16_0_1_1428342436740_65480"><span class="yiv9810322923kicker-label"><a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="http://www.nytimes.com/pages/science/index.html">Science</a></span> </h3><h1 id="yiv9810322923story-heading">Beneath California Crops, Groundwater Crisis Grows</h1><div class="yiv9810322923byline-dateline"><span class="yiv9810322923byline">By <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/g/justin_gillis/index.html" title="More Articles by JUSTIN GILLIS"><span class="yiv9810322923byline-author">JUSTIN GILLIS</span></a> and <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/r/matt_richtel/index.html" title="More Articles by MATT RICHTEL"><span class="yiv9810322923byline-author">MATT RICHTEL</span></a></span>APRIL 5, 2015 </div><div class="yiv9810322923MsoNormal"><span class="yiv9810322923visually-hidden">Photo</span> </div><div class="yiv9810322923MsoNormal"><img border="0" width="675" height="450" id="yiv9810322923Picture_x0020_12" src="cid:image001.jpg@01D0702B.F9F3E640" alt="http://static01.nyt.com/images/2015/04/06/us/06agriculture-web01/06agriculture-web01-master675.jpg" data-id="8fd5dba1-3406-d667-961e-48d6e8377084"></div><div class="yiv9810322923MsoNormal"><span class="yiv9810322923caption-text">A well-drilling rig at an almond orchard in Hanford, Calif. Land devoted to water-thirsty almonds has doubled in the state in 20 years.</span> <span class="yiv9810322923visually-hidden">Credit</span><span class="yiv9810322923credit"> Max Whittaker for The New York Times </span></div><div class="yiv9810322923story-body-text">Even as the <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/05/us/california-drought-tests-history-of-endless-growth.html" title="Times article">worst drought in decades ravages California</a>, and its cities face mandatory cuts in water use, millions of pounds of thirsty crops like oranges, tomatoes and almonds continue to stream out of the state and onto the nation’s grocery shelves.</div><div class="yiv9810322923story-body-text">But the way that California farmers have pulled off that feat is a case study in the unwise use of natural resources, many experts say. Farmers are drilling wells at a feverish pace and pumping billions of gallons of water from the ground, depleting a resource that was critically endangered even before the drought, now in its fourth year, began.</div><div class="yiv9810322923story-body-text">California has pushed harder than any other state to adapt to a changing climate, but scientists warn that improving its management of precious groundwater supplies will shape whether it can continue to supply more than half the nation’s fruits and vegetables on a hotter planet.</div><div class="yiv9810322923MsoNormal" style="margin-left:.5in;"> </div><div class="yiv9810322923story-body-text" id="yiv9810322923story-continues-2">As a drilling frenzy unfolds across the Central Valley, California’s agricultural heartland, the consequences of the overuse of groundwater are becoming plain to see.</div><div class="yiv9810322923story-body-text">In some places, water tables have dropped 50 feet or more in just a few years. With less underground water to buoy it, the land surface is sinking as much as a foot a year in spots, causing roads to buckle and bridges to crack. Shallow wells have run dry, depriving several poor communities of water.</div><div class="yiv9810322923story-body-text">Scientists say some of the underground water-storing formations so critical to California’s future — typically, saturated layers of sand or clay — are being permanently damaged by the excess pumping, and will never again store as much water as farmers are pulling out.</div><div class="yiv9810322923story-body-text">“Climate conditions have exposed our house of cards,” said Jay Famiglietti, a NASA scientist in Pasadena who studies water supplies in California and elsewhere. “The withdrawals far outstrip the replenishment. We can’t keep doing this.”</div><div class="yiv9810322923story-body-text">Cannon Michael, a farmer who grows tomatoes, melons and corn on 10,500 acres in the town of Los Banos, in the Central Valley, has high priority rights to surface water, which he inherited with his family’s land. But rampant groundwater pumping by farmers near him is causing some of the nearby land to sink, disturbing canals that would normally bring water his way.</div><div class="yiv9810322923story-body-text" id="yiv9810322923story-continues-4">“Now, water is going to have to flow uphill,” said Mr. Michael, who plans to fallow 2,300 acres this year.</div><div class="yiv9810322923MsoNormal"><span class="yiv9810322923visually-hidden">Photo</span> </div><div class="yiv9810322923MsoNormal"><img border="0" width="315" height="210" id="yiv9810322923Picture_x0020_5" src="cid:image002.jpg@01D0702B.F9F3E640" alt="http://static01.nyt.com/images/2015/04/06/us/06agriculture-web02/06agriculture-web02-master315.jpg" data-id="0ddb5e49-56c1-94f5-a0dc-75541f93718d"></div><div class="yiv9810322923MsoNormal"><span class="yiv9810322923caption-text">Garrett Schaad after plowing a dry field in Dunnigan, Calif.</span> <span class="yiv9810322923visually-hidden">Credit</span><span class="yiv9810322923credit"> Max Whittaker for The New York Times </span></div><div class="yiv9810322923story-body-text">In the midst of <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="http://www.nytimes.com/video/us/100000003577285/californias-extreme-drought-explained.html" title="Times video">this water crisis</a>, Gov. Jerry Brown and his legislative allies pulled off something of a political miracle last year, overcoming decades of resistance from the farm lobby to adopt the state’s first groundwater law with teeth. California, so far ahead of the country on other environmental issues, became the last state in the arid West to move toward serious limits on the use of its groundwater.</div><div class="yiv9810322923story-body-text">Last week, Mr. Brown <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/02/us/california-imposes-first-ever-water-restrictions-to-deal-with-drought.html" title="Times article">imposed mandatory cuts</a> in urban water use, the first ever. He exempted farmers, who already had to deal with huge reductions in surface water from the state’s irrigation works. Mr. Brown defended the decision on ABC’s “This Week” on Sunday, saying, “They’re providing most of the fruits and vegetables of America to a significant part of the world.”</div><div class="yiv9810322923story-body-text">In normal times, agriculture consumes roughly 80 percent of the surface water available for human use in California, and experts say the state’s water crisis will not be solved without a major contribution from farmers.</div><div class="yiv9810322923story-body-text">California’s greatest resource in dry times is not its surface reservoirs, though, but its groundwater, and scientists say the drought has made the need for better controls obvious. While courts have taken charge in a few areas and imposed pumping limits, groundwater in most of the state has been a resource anyone could grab.</div><div class="yiv9810322923story-body-text">Yet putting strict limits in place is expected to take years. The new law, which took effect Jan. 1, does not call for reaching sustainability until the 2040s. Sustainability is vaguely defined in the statute, but in most basins will presumably mean a long-term balance between water going into the ground and water coming out. Scientists have no real idea if the groundwater supplies can last until the 2040s.</div><h2>Draining the Central Valley </h2><div class="yiv9810322923interactive-leadin">Eighty percent of the water used by humans in California goes to agriculture. The state’s Central Valley has 17 percent of the irrigated land in the United States and produces a quarter of the nation’s food. But growing that food takes more water than is available from rain and snow, even in wet years. </div><div class="yiv9810322923MsoNormal"><img border="0" width="1440" height="1958" id="yiv9810322923Picture_x0020_4" src="cid:image003.jpg@01D0702B.F9F3E640" alt="http://graphics8.nytimes.com/newsgraphics/2015/04/03/california-groundwater/3cc38ef2ea63d2c9fafba936a40b50f7563dca25/agriculture-720.jpg" data-id="1db05846-4480-3f59-9d08-855c042585c6"></div><div class="yiv9810322923g-aipstyle0">Snow and Surface Water</div><div class="yiv9810322923g-aipstyle1">Snow accumulates in the mountains until early April, then slowly melts over the spring and summer, flowing downhill into the Central Valley. A drought in recent years has left the Sierra Nevada with a record low snowpack, below, reducing the flow of surface water and increasing the amount of water that must be pumped from wells.</div><div class="yiv9810322923g-aipstyle2">NEVADA</div><div class="yiv9810322923g-aipstyle3">SACRAMENTO</div><div class="yiv9810322923g-aipstyle3">VALLEY</div><div class="yiv9810322923g-aipstyle4">San Francisco</div><div class="yiv9810322923g-aipstyle3">SAN JOAQUIN</div><div class="yiv9810322923g-aipstyle3">BASIN</div><div class="yiv9810322923g-aipstyle5">March 2010</div><div class="yiv9810322923g-aipstyle6">March 2015</div><div class="yiv9810322923g-aipstyle7">Wells and Ground</div><div class="yiv9810322923g-aipstyle7">water</div><div class="yiv9810322923g-aipstyle8">Even in relatively wet years, wells in the Central Valley are pumping water faster than it can be replenished, and the depth of well water has been falling.</div><div class="yiv9810322923g-aipstyle3">TULARE</div><div class="yiv9810322923g-aipstyle3">BASIN</div><div class="yiv9810322923g-aipstyle9">CALIFORNIA</div><div class="yiv9810322923g-aipstyle7">Change in well water heights</div><div class="yiv9810322923g-aipstyle10">From 2009 to 2014</div><div class="yiv9810322923g-aipstyle8">25 feet lower</div><div class="yiv9810322923g-aipstyle8">25 feet higher</div><div class="yiv9810322923g-aipstyle8">100 feet lower</div><div class="yiv9810322923g-aipstyle8">100 feet higher</div><div class="yiv9810322923g-aipstyle11">Los Angeles</div><div class="yiv9810322923g-aipstyle8">The water table is also falling, though typically less than measurements from individual wells.</div><div class="yiv9810322923g-aipstyle7">Change in the amount of groundwater</div><div class="yiv9810322923g-aipstyle10">In millions of acre-feet</div><div class="yiv9810322923g-aipstyle12">0</div><div class="yiv9810322923g-aipstyle13">Sacramento Valley</div><div class="yiv9810322923g-aipstyle13">San Joaquin Basin</div><div class="yiv9810322923g-aipstyle12">–25</div><div class="yiv9810322923g-aipstyle12">–50</div><div class="yiv9810322923g-aipstyle14">DRY YEARS</div><div class="yiv9810322923g-aipstyle12">–100</div><div class="yiv9810322923g-aipstyle10">Note: One acre-foot of water is enough to flood a football field to a depth of nine inches.</div><div class="yiv9810322923g-aipstyle13">Tulare Basin</div><div class="yiv9810322923g-aipstyle12">–125</div><div class="yiv9810322923g-aipstyle15">1925</div><div class="yiv9810322923g-aipstyle15">1950</div><div class="yiv9810322923g-aipstyle15">1975</div><div class="yiv9810322923g-aipstyle15">2000</div><div class="yiv9810322923g-aipstyle15">’10</div><div class="yiv9810322923MsoNormal">Sources: California Department of Water Resources; NASA; U.S. Geological Survey; Public Policy Institute of California </div><div class="yiv9810322923MsoNormal">By Jonathan Corum, Josh Keller and Tim Wallace </div><div class="yiv9810322923story-body-text" id="yiv9810322923story-continues-6">“I wish we could do it faster,” Mark Cowin, director of California’s Department of Water Resources, said in an interview. “I wish we would have started decades ago.”</div><div class="yiv9810322923story-body-text">But Mr. Cowin noted that the state, after neglecting groundwater management for so long, had a lot of catching up to do. Years of bureaucratic reorganization and rule-drafting lie ahead. “This is the biggest game-changer of California water management of my generation,” Mr. Cowin said.</div><div class="yiv9810322923story-body-text">In the near term, as the drought wears on and the scramble for water intensifies, farmers are among the victims of the drilling frenzy, as well as among its beneficiaries.</div><div class="yiv9810322923story-body-text">Growers with older, shallower wells are watching them go dry as neighbors drill deeper and suck the water table down. Pumping takes huge amounts of electricity to pull up deep water, and costs are rising. Some farmers are going into substantial debt to drill deeper wells, engaging in an arms race with their neighbors that they cannot afford to lose.</div><div class="yiv9810322923story-body-text">“You see the lack of regulation hurting the agricultural community as much as it hurts anybody else,” said Doug Obegi, a lawyer with the Natural Resources Defense Council in San Francisco.</div><div class="yiv9810322923MsoNormal"><span class="yiv9810322923visually-hidden">Photo</span> </div><div class="yiv9810322923MsoNormal"><img border="0" width="600" height="400" id="yiv9810322923Picture_x0020_3" src="cid:image004.jpg@01D0702B.F9F3E640" alt="http://static01.nyt.com/images/2015/04/06/us/06agriculture-web04/06agriculture-web04-articleLarge.jpg" data-id="9cfc5faf-a060-ae3f-b57a-ea1bcbe0b475"></div><div class="yiv9810322923MsoNormal"><span class="yiv9810322923caption-text">Juan Silva checking a dam in Zamora, Calif.</span> <span class="yiv9810322923visually-hidden">Credit</span><span class="yiv9810322923credit"> Max Whittaker for The New York Times </span></div><div class="yiv9810322923story-body-text">Against this backdrop, water-thirsty crops like almonds are still being planted in some parts of the Central Valley to supply an insatiable global demand that is yielding high prices.</div><div class="yiv9810322923story-body-text">The land devoted to almond orchards in California has doubled in 20 years, to 860,000 acres. The industry has been working hard to improve its efficiency, but growing a single almond can still require as much as a gallon of California’s precious water.</div><div class="yiv9810322923story-body-text">The expansion of almonds, walnuts and other water-guzzling tree and vine crops has come under sharp criticism from some urban Californians. The groves make agriculture less flexible because the land cannot be idled in a drought without killing the trees.</div><div class="yiv9810322923story-body-text" id="yiv9810322923story-continues-7">Not even the strongest advocates of water management foresee a system in which California farmers are told what they can plant. As the new system evolves, though, the growers might well be given strict limits on how much groundwater they can pump, which could effectively rule out permanent crops like nuts and berries in some areas.</div><div class="yiv9810322923story-body-text">“We want to be careful in dealing with this drought not to go down the command-and-control route if we can avoid it,” said Daniel Sumner, professor of agricultural and resource economics at the University of California, Davis. “It interrupts the flexibility, the creativity and the resilience that people in agriculture have already been using to deal with severe water cutbacks.”</div><div class="yiv9810322923MsoNormal"><span class="yiv9810322923visually-hidden">Photo</span> </div><div class="yiv9810322923MsoNormal"><img border="0" width="600" height="400" id="yiv9810322923Picture_x0020_2" src="cid:image005.jpg@01D0702B.F9F3E640" alt="http://static01.nyt.com/images/2015/04/06/us/06agriculture-web05/06agriculture-web05-articleLarge.jpg" data-id="4f7b72e7-401f-bd46-9e69-3479bc3dd3fb"></div><div class="yiv9810322923MsoNormal"><span class="yiv9810322923caption-text">Fritz Durst inspecting his barley crop in Zamora.</span> <span class="yiv9810322923visually-hidden">Credit</span><span class="yiv9810322923credit"> Max Whittaker for The New York Times </span></div><div class="yiv9810322923story-body-text">So far, the over-pumping of groundwater has helped farmers manage through three parched growing seasons.</div><div class="yiv9810322923story-body-text">They were forced to idle only about 5 percent of the state’s irrigated land last year, though the figure is likely to be higher in 2015. The farmers have directed water to the highest-value crops, cutting lesser crops like alfalfa.</div><div class="yiv9810322923story-body-text">They have bought and sold surface water among themselves, making the best use of the available supply, experts like Dr. Sumner say. And the farmers’ success at coping with the drought has meant relatively few layoffs of low-income farmworkers.</div><div class="yiv9810322923story-body-text">Still, costs are up and profits are down for many farmers and the thousands of small businesses that depend on them, spreading pain throughout the Central Valley and beyond. “It’s been a tough couple of years, and it’s just getting tougher in rural parts of California,” said Dave Kranz, a spokesman for the California Farm Bureau Federation, a growers’ organization.</div><div class="yiv9810322923story-body-text">Because groundwater has helped keep production up, replacing a large proportion of the surface water farmers have lost, the drought has not led to big price increases at the national level, even for crops that California dominates.</div><div class="yiv9810322923MsoNormal"><span class="yiv9810322923visually-hidden">Photo</span> </div><div class="yiv9810322923MsoNormal"><img border="0" width="180" height="375" id="yiv9810322923Picture_x0020_1" src="cid:image006.jpg@01D0702B.F9F3E640" alt="http://static01.nyt.com/images/2015/04/06/us/06AGRICULTURE/06AGRICULTURE-master180.jpg" data-id="50ad82c0-2d41-5f64-40f8-0df3e35c410a"></div><div class="yiv9810322923MsoNormal"><span class="yiv9810322923caption-text">Ten-day-old cornstalks on a farm in Zamora.</span> <span class="yiv9810322923visually-hidden">Credit</span><span class="yiv9810322923credit"> Max Whittaker for The New York Times </span></div><div class="yiv9810322923story-body-text">Once the drought ends, a growing population and a climate altered by human-caused global warming will continue to put California’s water system under stress, experts say. A major question is how to manage the groundwater to get Californians through dry years.</div><div class="yiv9810322923story-body-text">Meeting that goal may have as much to do with how surface water is managed as with how much is pumped from the ground.</div><div class="yiv9810322923story-body-text">Several California experts used the metaphor of a bank account to describe the state’s groundwater supply. Deposits need to be made in good times, they said, so that the water can be withdrawn in hard times.</div><div class="yiv9810322923story-body-text">Yet for decades, California farmers have been overdrawing many of the state’s water-holding formations — its aquifers — even in years when surface water for irrigation was plentiful, the equivalent of overdrawing a checking account.</div><div class="yiv9810322923story-body-text">That will need to change, the experts said, with pumping being limited or even prohibited in wet years so that the underground water supply can recharge. Some land may need to be flooded on purpose so the water can seep downward.</div><div class="yiv9810322923story-body-text">The need for groundwater recharge may ultimately limit how much water farmers can have from the surface irrigation system, even in flush years — the same way that deposits in a bank account limit how many fancy dinners one can eat. Yet in a state where irrigation rights have been zealously guarded for generations, such limitations may not go down easily.</div><div class="yiv9810322923story-body-text">“It would be silly to think you are not going to have any fights,” said Denise England, the water expert for Tulare County, toward the southern end of the Central Valley. She cited an aphorism of the West: “Whiskey’s for drinking, and water’s for fighting over.”</div><div>John Schwartz and Nelson D. Schwartz contributed reporting.</div><div><i>The Parched West: Articles in this series are exploring the impact of the drought that has hit states from the Pacific Coast to the Great Plains.</i></div><div class="yiv9810322923story-print-citation"><i>A version of this article appears in print on April 6, 2015, on page A1 of the New York edition with the headline: Beneath California Crops, Groundwater Crisis Grows. </i></div><h2>Related Coverage </h2><ul type="disc"><li class="yiv9810322923MsoNormal" style="color:blue;"><span class="yiv9810322923MsoHyperlink"><span style="text-decoration:none;"> </span></span></li></ul><div class="yiv9810322923MsoNormal" style="margin-left:.5in;"><span style="color:blue;"><a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/03/us/californians-concerned-that-efforts-to-conserve-water-will-not-help-much.html"><span style="text-decoration:none;"><img border="0" width="75" height="75" id="yiv9810322923Picture_x0020_11" src="cid:image007.jpg@01D0702B.F9F3E640" alt="Some Californians have cut down on watering their lawns, and others have decided to forgo greenery for native plants." data-id="7f2380ac-e68e-5af6-35f9-7a9379016350"></span></a></span><span class="yiv9810322923MsoHyperlink"><span style="color:windowtext;text-decoration:none;"></span></span></div><h2 style="margin-left:.5in;"><span class="yiv9810322923story-heading-text"><u><span style="color:blue;"><a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/03/us/californians-concerned-that-efforts-to-conserve-water-will-not-help-much.html">Californians Who Conserved Wonder if State Can Overcome Those Who Didn’tAPRIL 2, 2015 </a></span></u></span><span class="yiv9810322923MsoHyperlink"></span></h2><div class="yiv9810322923MsoNormal" style="margin-left:.5in;"> </div><ul type="disc"><li class="yiv9810322923MsoNormal" style="color:blue;"><span class="yiv9810322923MsoHyperlink"><span style="text-decoration:none;"> </span></span></li></ul><div class="yiv9810322923MsoNormal" style="margin-left:.5in;"><span style="color:blue;"><a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/01/us/amid-drought-california-agency-will-withhold-water-deliveries.html"><span style="text-decoration:none;"><img border="0" width="75" height="75" id="yiv9810322923Picture_x0020_10" src="cid:image008.jpg@01D0702B.F9F3E640" alt="State reservoir levels are lower in California than they were at this time in 1977, the last time the state endured a drought this severe. " data-id="630eead9-349d-af18-abe8-23f56288758d"></span></a></span><span class="yiv9810322923MsoHyperlink"><span style="color:windowtext;text-decoration:none;"></span></span></div><h2 style="margin-left:.5in;"><span class="yiv9810322923story-heading-text"><u><span style="color:blue;"><a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/01/us/amid-drought-california-agency-will-withhold-water-deliveries.html">Parched, California Cuts Off Tap to AgenciesJAN. 31, 2014 </a></span></u></span><span class="yiv9810322923MsoHyperlink"></span></h2><div class="yiv9810322923MsoNormal" style="margin-left:.5in;"> </div><ul type="disc"><li class="yiv9810322923MsoNormal" style="color:blue;"><span class="yiv9810322923MsoHyperlink"><span style="text-decoration:none;"> </span></span></li></ul><div class="yiv9810322923MsoNormal" style="margin-left:.5in;"><span style="color:blue;"><a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="http://www.nytimes.com/video/us/100000003577285/californias-extreme-drought-explained.html"><span style="text-decoration:none;"><img border="0" width="75" height="75" id="yiv9810322923Picture_x0020_9" src="cid:image009.jpg@01D0702B.F9F3E640" alt="http://static01.nyt.com/images/2015/03/17/multimedia/cadrought-by-the-numbers/cadrought-by-the-numbers-thumbStandard.jpg" data-id="12964896-6204-feaf-561b-e0ebe60347c0"></span></a></span><span class="yiv9810322923MsoHyperlink"><span style="color:windowtext;text-decoration:none;"></span></span></div><div class="yiv9810322923MsoNormal" style="margin-left:.5in;"><span class="yiv9810322923visually-hidden"><u><span style="color:blue;"><a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="http://www.nytimes.com/video/us/100000003577285/californias-extreme-drought-explained.html">video </a></span></u></span><span class="yiv9810322923MsoHyperlink"></span></div><h2 style="margin-left:.5in;"><span class="yiv9810322923story-heading-text"><u><span style="color:blue;"><a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="http://www.nytimes.com/video/us/100000003577285/californias-extreme-drought-explained.html">California’s Extreme Drought, ExplainedAPRIL 1, 2015 </a></span></u></span><span class="yiv9810322923MsoHyperlink"></span></h2><div class="yiv9810322923MsoNormal" style="margin-left:.5in;"> </div><ul type="disc"><li class="yiv9810322923MsoNormal" style="color:blue;"><span class="yiv9810322923MsoHyperlink"><span style="text-decoration:none;"> </span></span></li></ul><div class="yiv9810322923MsoNormal" style="margin-left:.5in;"><span style="color:blue;"><a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2015/04/03/us/california-drought-how-to-save-water.html"><span style="text-decoration:none;"><img border="0" width="75" height="75" id="yiv9810322923Picture_x0020_8" src="cid:image010.jpg@01D0702B.F9F3E640" alt="http://static01.nyt.com/images/2015/04/03/us/DROUGHTLISTYSHOWER/DROUGHTLISTYSHOWER-thumbStandard-v2.jpg" data-id="013d4296-5d28-f220-2d1a-664c8aca9031"></span></a></span><span class="yiv9810322923MsoHyperlink"><span style="color:windowtext;text-decoration:none;"></span></span></div><h2 style="margin-left:.5in;"><span class="yiv9810322923story-heading-text"><u><span style="color:blue;"><a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2015/04/03/us/california-drought-how-to-save-water.html">How to Save Water: The California WayAPRIL 2, 2015 </a></span></u></span><span class="yiv9810322923MsoHyperlink"></span></h2><div class="yiv9810322923MsoNormal" style="margin-left:.5in;"> </div><ul type="disc"><li class="yiv9810322923MsoNormal" style="color:blue;"><span class="yiv9810322923MsoHyperlink"><span style="text-decoration:none;"> </span></span></li></ul><div class="yiv9810322923MsoNormal" style="margin-left:.5in;"><span style="color:blue;"><a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2015/04/01/us/water-use-in-california.html"><span style="text-decoration:none;"><img border="0" width="75" height="75" id="yiv9810322923Picture_x0020_7" src="cid:image011.jpg@01D0702B.F9F3E640" alt="http://static01.nyt.com/images/2015/04/01/us/water-use-in-california-1427934486099/water-use-in-california-1427934486099-thumbStandard.jpg" data-id="00e7a3be-f6af-7de2-cce4-704a5567e8d9"></span></a></span><span class="yiv9810322923MsoHyperlink"><span style="color:windowtext;text-decoration:none;"></span></span></div><div class="yiv9810322923MsoNormal" style="margin-left:.5in;"><span class="yiv9810322923visually-hidden"><u><span style="color:blue;"><a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2015/04/01/us/water-use-in-california.html">interactive </a></span></u></span><span class="yiv9810322923MsoHyperlink"></span></div><h2 style="margin-left:.5in;"><span class="yiv9810322923story-heading-text"><u><span style="color:blue;"><a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2015/04/01/us/water-use-in-california.html">How Much Water Californians Use at HomeAPRIL 1, 2015 </a></span></u></span><span class="yiv9810322923MsoHyperlink"></span></h2><h6> The Parched West</h6><div class="yiv9810322923summary" id="yiv9810322923nytd-series-summary">Articles in this series will explore the impact of the drought that has hit states from the Pacific Coast to the Great Plains.</div><ul type="disc" id="yiv9810322923nytd-series-list"><li class="yiv9810322923MsoNormal" style=""><a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/05/us/california-drought-tests-history-of-endless-growth.html"><span style="text-decoration:none;"><img border="0" width="75" height="75" id="yiv9810322923Picture_x0020_6" src="cid:image012.jpg@01D0702B.F9F3E640" alt="http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2015/04/05/us/05DROUGHTtop/05DROUGHTtop-thumbStandard.jpg" data-id="8f7e48e8-f8d9-d289-5d48-54b98ed3551b"></span></a></li></ul><h2 style="margin-left:.5in;" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1428342436740_64885"><u id="yui_3_16_0_1_1428342436740_64884"><span style="color:blue;" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1428342436740_64883"><a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/05/us/california-drought-tests-history-of-endless-growth.html" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1428342436740_64882">California Drought Tests History of Endless Growth<span class="yiv9810322923pubdate">April 5, 2015</span></a></span></u><span class="yiv9810322923MsoHyperlink"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri", "sans-serif";font-weight:normal;"></span></span></h2><div class="yiv9810322923MsoNormal" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1428342436740_64874"><br></div></div></div></div><br><br></div> </div> </div> </div> <style><!--
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