The aquifers beneath California’s Salinas Valley irrigate some 300 square miles of the most productive farmland in the United States, growing half or more of the nation’s lettuce, celery, and broccoli, along with 150 other crops worth nearly $4 billion annually. Hundreds of unregulated irrigation wells drilled over the last century, however, have jeopardized Monterey County’s green gold, drawing seawater into the aquifer that threatens to contaminate both agricultural water and drinking water in the lower Salinas Valley. Conflicts over water between farmers and municipal water suppliers are predicted to only grow in a hotter, drier world.
