I Suppose That's A Problem

This is one of those things I just don't have any good sense of. A lot of people say, essentially, that you just have to curtail agricultural water use and all will be well. Probably mostly true! But all they're doing is attempting to modestly curtail residential water use, so...

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.

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.