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11/ the /920s, Central Valley fanners were aNe to tap water hundreds of feer helow the swface q{ter the deep-wellturhine pump was im'el1led awl ruml areas received e1a'tricity. The Celllraf Valley remains the state's !lugestllser of groundwater today. The pumping led to overdraft conditions and as the water table dropped farther still and groundwater became more difficult to recover, thousands of farmers in the San Joaquin Valley - some of fhem having nurtured orchards and vineyards with well water - stood to lose their investments. Delivering water to these growers was the reason for federal investment in the Central Valley Project (CVP), which was designed to capture Sierra runoff for valley farmers whose operations had grown too big for their aquifers. Although CVP water was delivered in the 1950s, the overdraft continued and water levels in the San Joaquin Valley fell in some places by as much as 400 feef (see page 11). In southern California, groundwater pumping helped fa fuel the birth of the modern metropolis. Here, too, over-pumping was a problem, causing, in coastal areas, sea water to be pulled into fresh water wells. In the 1940s when it became clear that demand was exceeding supply in many southern California groundwater basins, officials turned to court adjudi- cations (see page 8) fa determine wafer rights and yields. In the San Joaquin Valley, groundwater levels began to rise as CVP water was joined in the 1960s by irrigation water delivered through the State Water Project (SWP). The great resiliency of the Central Valley aquifers was demonstrated in fhe lafe 1970s and again in the 1980s when the recharged under- ground basins helped offset drought-induced suriace water delivery cutbacks. While natural precipitation and runoff led to some groundwafer recharge, by the 1970s, some of the state's regions already had decades of experience with artificially recharging groundwater. Reservoirs and seepage basins were constructed to coHect and slow the runoff and encourage percolation. In 1950, California pumped 50 percent of all of the groundwater used in the nation - a statistic that reflects the rapid development of agriculture in a region requiring irrigation, as well as minimal restric- tions on how much water property owners could pump. While surface water development has curbed the demand on aquifers, California still accounts for 20 percent to 25 percent of the nation's ground- water usage. California and Texas - the second largest groundwater-consuming state in the nation - are the only two states without comprehensive, statewide groundwater regulation or permitting of pumping. "