Water Agency Plans Huge Pumping Program
The Antelope Valley’s largest water purveyor, facing a fifth year of severe drought, is planning a massive program of new ground water pumping to make up for a threatened shortfall in state water deliveries to the area.
The action by the board of the Antelope Valley-East Kern Water Agency comes despite growing concern that existing ground water pumping already is causing the earth to crack and sink in some high desert areas, including Edwards Air Force Base. By a 4-0 vote Tuesday night, the water agency’s board decided to try to buy nearly 10 billion gallons of ground water--up to 30,000 acre-feet--this year.
The agency hopes to buy the water rights from farmers west of Lancaster and Palmdale who have their own wells. That amount would represent about two-thirds of the 47,000 acre-feet of water delivered by the agency in 1990.
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