For some San Joaquin Valley residents, drought’s effects not over

HANFORD - Knee-high tufts of grass dot the streets of Hardwick, a rural neighborhood near Hanford with a few dozen homes hemmed in by vineyards and walnut and almond orchards in California’s agriculture-rich San Joaquin Valley.

Nearby, the Kings River - swollen with rainwater and Sierra Nevada snowmelt - meanders through fields. Water is abundant in the river but it may not last.

Despite winter storms that have turned much of California’s parched landscape to vibrant green, the drought has yet to loosen its grip on thousands of residents in the valley. Many people must still use water stored in large tanks in their yard to wash dishes and bathe.

Scientists at Stanford University and NASA say excessive pumping of wells during the drought has tapped out some underground sources of water that will never recover.

At the height of the drought, nearly 2,400 wells dried up, affecting 12,000 people, state officials said.

The drought emergency remains in effect in Kings, Fresno, Tulare and Tuolumne counties, even after one of California’s wettest winters in years prompted officials to declare an end to the historic, five-year dry spell in nearly all of the nation’s most populous state.

David Miguel relies on water from a large emergency tank located just steps from the front door of his mobile home. A water delivery truck tops it off every few weeks.

“You can take a bath with it, do dishes - no problem,” said Miguel, 64, a retired farmhand who was raised on his family’s long-gone dairy operation in Hardwick. “I wouldn’t drink it.”

Miguel and his neighbor survive on trucked-in water and deliveries of bottled drinking water.

Keeping the emergency declaration in place in a few areas allows officials to prolong efforts to find permanent water supplies for desperate residents.

In parts of the San Joaquin Valley, underground aquifers - layers of earth saturated by water - collapsed from over-pumping during years of dry weather, according to scientists who studied satellite imagery to measure sinking land.

Throughout the San Joaquin Valley, the situation has left roughly 900 homes relying on storage tanks for residential water.

Emergency water tanks for residents have cost the state nearly $28 million since 2014, with more than half in Tulare County.

Calls for help have slowed significantly, said Susan Atkins of Self-Help Enterprises, a nonprofit organization that helps residents get tanks.

“But they’re still coming in,” she said about the calls.