"It just strikes me that we really are in a crisis situation," board Vice Chair Dorene D'Adamo said after hearing hours of testimony from farmers, water managers, residents and lawyers.
State officials cited deficiencies in local groundwater management plans including chronic declines in aquifer levels that they estimate could put more than 550 domestic wells at risk of going dry during drought.
D'Adamo said the damage that rapid land subsidence is causing along parts of the Friant-Kern Canal is disturbing and needs to be addressed.
As large amounts of groundwater are extracted, layers of sediment and clay can collapse and cause the land surface to subside. In one area of the Tule subbasin west of Tipton, state officials said, the ground has sunk more than seven feet since 2015.
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