Where farms formerly stood in California, a vast lake is now the centre of attention.
Where farms formerly stood in California, a vast lake is now the centre of attention.
It is getting close to Lake Tahoe‘s size and has a marine sound. Its wind-driven waves are surprisingly warm and velvety. On the vast brown and green flat of California’s Central Valley, Tulare Lake appears to go on forever, shimmering like a massive blue mirage.
The lake, which is Ice Age-era, first surfaced in the basin that formerly housed the largest freshwater body west of the Mississippi River three months ago. After being dried out by people, it has occasionally tried to reemerge, though rarely with the same vigour as after this winter’s storms.
One of the greatest and most important sections of cropland in the country was consumed by the water that coursed into the lake bed over a few months, roughly the time it takes to produce a tomato. 30 square miles at first, then 50. Then 100. and more.
Currently, at the start of summer, Tulare Lake is roughly 168 square miles and is so large that it is best monitored by satellites. It is trapped by thousands of acres of clay soil and the absence of a natural exit. It was initially sparked by sheets of rain across riversheds that flowed through the Sierra Nevada that were intensified by the climate, and it is now being fueled by the melting snowpack that accumulated in the mountains to near-record levels.
Roadblocks and detours are all along its coasts. It is polluted by chemicals, dung, and diesel. Power poles and palm trees protrude from the water’s surface. Dragonflies are brought by day. Mosquitoes arrive at dusk. Bird flocks are moving in, including chattering red-winged blackbirds, wrens, ducks, and egrets.
The majority of the lake’s bottom is made up of tomato and cotton fields, where abandoned cars rust and catfish lurk beneath the waves of floating algae.
“I’ve never seen something of this magnitude,” said airboat driver Jeffrey Coughlin as he manoeuvred his bayou-style boat through the debris-filled water on a recent weekday. “The destruction that has struck some of these low-income individuals, farms, and homes.”
Nearly every technique in California’s extensive repertoire has been employed by state water engineers to preserve as much of that water as possible and divert it to other uses. Models indicate that the lake’s growth may have finally peaked.
However, the phenomena that is still around looks to be a formidable long-term visitor in California’s agricultural region. Mr. Coughlin has been transporting personnel from the Pacific Gas and Electric Co., which has been meticulously retrieving buried electrical transformers from the lake bed. Mr. Coughlin typically works in the San Francisco Bay, about 230 miles to the northwest. On a recent day, he was accompanied by a constable from the Kings County Sheriff’s Office, which is now planning to purchase an airboat due to the revival of Tulare Lake.
Sgt. Nate Ferrier, who, like most people in the area, had not yet travelled far from the shoreline, said, “It’s a lot bigger than I anticipated.” He has spent the previous few months urging the people to respect the “Do Not Enter” signs and remain away from the lake, like the majority of law enforcement.He claimed that while most people have complied, it isn’t always simple. According to Sgt. Ferrier, Tulare Lake has been a danger and, for many farmers, an economic catastrophe. But in other ways, he continued, it’s also “freaking cool.”
Selfies taken in Tulare Lake, for example, have grown popular with couples watching the sun set and daring individuals wading into the hazardous water. Some people have attempted to drive through it, only to have to swim to shore or be rescued. Recently, two journalists paddled across in a kayak to test whether they could paddle from Bakersfield to the San Francisco Bay.
The Kern, Tule, Kaweah, and Kings rivers, which feed the basin, are ready to receive the 2.5 million acre-feet of winter water that is still frozen and ready to melt. The amount of snowmelt that may be diverted to other areas and how quickly it descends determine the size of the lake.Before water reaches the lake bed, reservoirs have already begun to catch it.
Some of it is being stolen to irrigate orchards and farms. Groundwater that was recently depleted by drought and excessive pumping is being progressively replenished by moving some of it to areas where it can soak into the ground. Some disappears.
Additionally, to support water supplies for Los Angeles and other areas, tens of thousands of acre feet of water from the Kern River have been redirected via a canal to the California Aqueduct for the first time since 2006.
Fortunately, there aren’t many people living close to Tulare Lake. Large farming businesses own the majority of the land in the lake bed, which is used for agriculture. Corcoran, the largest community in the local basin, has collaborated with county, state, and federal agencies to strengthen the surrounding levees that safeguard its 22,500 residents. State officials said in late May that Corcoran and two smaller towns, Allensworth and Alpaugh, appeared to be safe.
