By Elizabeth Zach, RCAC staff writer

For nearly 20 years, California’s Central Valley residents have grappled with arsenic in their tap water at levels that can cause cancer and other diseases. Now, researchers are suggesting that the state’s ground is sinking, and that this could be exacerbating the arsenic levels.

According to the United States Geological Survey, groundwater levels in California have fallen up to 200 meters during the last century’s droughts. The Central Valley is both the state and country’s main agricultural source, and farmers are drilling deeper for more water to sustain that. This causes the ground to sink.

This change in pressure can pull arsenic out of the underground layers of clay and into the groundwater, according to a new study.

“When we’re overdrafting the aquifer,” Dr. Scott Fendorf, professor of earth science at Stanford University and a co-author of the study, told The Guardian, “the two things happen simultaneously.”

To read more, go here: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/jul/18/california-central-valley-sinking-arsenic-water-farming-agriculture?mc_cid=ca3bb35c4e&mc_eid=ca994af90e