California’s leaders, legislators and agencies, along with their Federal counterparts, are not addressing the State’s severe water shortages.

In a recent study, NASA scientists found that a previously unmeasured source—water percolating through soil and fractured rock below California’s Sierra Nevada mountains—delivers an average of 4 million acre feet (5 cubic kilometers) of water to the state’s Central Valley each year. This underground source accounts for about 10% of all the water that enters this highly productive farmland each year from every source (including river inflows and precipitation).

The California Central Valley encompasses only 1% of U.S. farmland but produces 40% of the nation’s table fruits, vegetables, and nuts annually. That’s only possible because of intensive groundwater pumping for irrigation and river and stream flow captured in reservoirs. For at least 60 years, growers have been pumping more water from aquifers than can be replenished by natural sources, causing the ground level to sink and requiring wells to be drilled deeper and deeper.

The California Water Boards has established a policy where “Landowners whose property is within an unmanaged area and contains an operating ground water extraction well must report the volume of groundwater extracted from the well. The groundwater extraction volume must be reported as a monthly total. In addition to pumping volumes, reports must include the location of the well and the place and purpose of use of the groundwater.” Fees are also charged based on well and water amounts used and whether the well is metered. Well metering may be mandatory depending on usage.