Environment & Energy
Related: About this forumWhat will happen to a sinking California? Just ask San Luis Obispo
from Grist:
For those wondering why California is sinking, look no further than San Luis Obispo. Not too long ago in that idyllic Central Coast city, an overdependence on groundwater became a destructive and expensive problem that today could serve as a warning to cities and counties throughout the state.
In 1989, amid one of the longest droughts in California history, the citys water supply had reached a critically low level. Officials implemented mandatory water reductions of 20 percent for businesses and their 40,000 residents. And, for the first time in San Luis Obispos history, it began pumping groundwater. It drilled massive water wells. By 1990, the city was getting about 40 percent of its water from the ground.
Slowly, the earth began moving. The ground underneath buildings started to sink as the water supporting it was pumped to the surface. One family reported a quarter-inch crack that started in the kitchen floor and began creeping throughout the house.
The Bear Valley Center, a shopping center near one of the citys major extraction wells, began to bend into a V-shape as the land beneath it sank. It suffered from what geologists call differential subsidence, in which varying soil composites result in certain spots sinking faster than others. The middle of the shopping center was sinking quicker than the rest, and it was causing major problems. Sidewalks cracked and sloped back toward the building. Doors and windows in the shopping center became jammed in place. Business owners couldnt fully close their doors at night and were forced to use large chains and padlocks to secure their shops. ................(more)
http://grist.org/climate-energy/what-will-happen-to-a-sinking-california-just-ask-san-luis-obispo/
riversedge
(70,310 posts)Nihil
(13,508 posts)Both articles need to be read as they shed light on a really devastating
issue that is just being brushed under the carpet by the corrupt coalition
of water boards & agricultural corporations.
truebrit71
(20,805 posts)...
mackdaddy
(1,528 posts)The attached video is long, but is one of the best explaining Sea Level Rise by John Englander.
At about the 23 minute mark he talks about Sacramento, 80 miles from the Pacific is on a Tidal river, and is protected by hundreds of miles of levies, even more than New Orleans, and is at greater risk. With all the pumping of water in the farmland in the valleys around Sacramento (and it started fairly low in the first place), if these levies are topped it could flood hundreds of square miles of farmland with seawater.
Kind of the worst case scenario, Lower the land at the same time the sea is rising.