trapped between the train and the platform. some passer buys pushed the train away helping free her legs. that's all of our time. "inside story" is reflect. ♪ california and the rest of the southwest are so short of rain, it isn't just making lawns brown and leaving boat docks high and dry, it is changing the earth's crust. it never rains in california. it's the inside story. ♪ hello, i'm ray suarez.

there wasn't enough snow in the mountains. there hasn't been enough rain in the months since. like a family that has lost its income now living on savings, california is drawing down water from its underground stocks at a worrying rate. the drought that hit hardest is now gripping much of the rest of the state in its severest form. more than one of every eight americans lives there. california's agricultural industry is very productive and depends on water brought in from other places to survive. can california stay on its current course? will nature force changes on the way of life of 38 million americans. since the beginning of 2013, close to 63 trillion gallons of ground water has been lost in western states because of drought. also according to researchers

there uc san diego and the u.s. geological survey, this tremendous loss has lifted the earth's crust by an average of about a sixth of an inch in the last 15 months. >> if you take weight off of a spring, the spring goes up. >> reporter: how much waterer is 63 trillion gallons? enough to cover the entire country west of the rockies with 4 inches of water. the severe drought in california is now in its third year, and the implications are serious for a state that produces half of all us-grown fruits, nuts, and vegetables. the university of california davis says the total economic loss has reached $2.2 billion this year. more than 17,000 seasonal and part-time jobs have been cut. and nearly 5% of all irrigated crop land is going out of

production in three key agricultural regions of the stated. >> send it down. >> reporter: it has become a ritual now for farmers toing hunt for water from reservoirs and wells. but this year's drought is different. some of the backup water supplies are drying up too. local drilling companies are saying they are booked for months, digging deeper into the earth's surface for water. >> this is the most repairs we have done in one season since i have been in business for 37 years. and it's a seven-day a week operation. >> reporter: before farm wells only went down a few hundred feet. now the drought is forcing farmers to reach past a layer of clay to the big aquifer. some crops can be more thirsty than you would realize.

take for example, almonds, more than 7% of the entire state's surface water goes to growing almonds. that's enough water to supply the daily needs of three-quarters of the whole state. >> it is clearly impacting effecting growing decisions, and we're seeing less crops being grown in california than we would traditionally see. in that is going to impact supplies, require more imports and lead to increased costs for consumers. >> reporter: the latest technique of deep aquifer drilling doesn't come without consequences. in some parts of the state, the land is actually sinking. >> i would love for the operation to continue. we have built it up from where my dad, grandfather and great grandfather had built it to, and i hope my sons and grandsons bill it to an even higher level.

>> reporter: in california 60% of the water now comes from ground water. but what if drought is the new normal? should a law to regulate ground water for the first time is currently being debated in the state legislate. ♪ we have long since become accustomed to california's role as the setting for natural disasters. much of the country west of the rocky mountains is now short of rain. whether we are entering an extended cycle, or just near term shortages, should we be using california as a model for imagining new normals. californians can cut back, but all of the people can't stop using water.

this time on "inside story," daniel sumner a professor at the university of california davis. peter glick is the president and cofounder of the pacific institute. and joan mar is the water supply manager for the santa clara water district. there have been droughts in california and the southwest again. there will be again. is there anything different about this one, different and perhaps more troubling? >> well, we do have droughts and floods normally. we have natural variability, but this is a bad one. this is the third year in a row of record-low water. the last 14 years have been dry, and that natural problem has been exacerbated by incredibly high temperatures and a growing population and growing demand for water, it's sort of a perfect storm in a way that i think is going to force us to

rethink the way we deal with water, not just in california but maybe in the u.s. as a whole. >> daniel do businesses and individuals behave differently if they think it's a short-term problem or a long-term one? >> yeah, they certainly do. in agriculture for example we have reports of farmers paying a thousand dollars per acre foot or more -- that's the amount of water that covers an acre of land a foot deep, that's a price that is unsustainable long term, but a farmer would be willing to do that if they think they can do it one year and keep the trees or fine -- vines alive. and muching out of the ground aquifer as you mentioned is something everyone knows is not sustainable in the long run. it's a short-term gap, and it's

like living on your savings for a while. you can't do that for very long, but sometimes you have to for a little while. >> savings are sometimes something that takes a family a long time to achieve and a very short time to spending. when we're talking about water that's in large underground deposits, if we use it up, in a heavy year like this -- heavy use year like this, how long does it take to recharge an aquifer? >> well, it depends on how much you use and how far it goes. we can recharge the ground water with -- with a few wet years, but there's -- there's a further difference this time around. by planting more trees and vines here in the central valley of california, we're actually much more efficient in our use of water, meaning we're applying

much less water and doing it in drips right on the roots, but very little of that irrigation water percolates down. so we bring the snowmelt out of this year and apply it as irrigation. half century ago when we were flooding these fields, flood irrigation was common. you recharged the ground water aquifers much more readily so ironically we're exacerbating our ground water shortage problems into the future. >> joan mar who are your customers and what has been different about this year and last year? >> we serve the south bay area, so we serve the economy of silicon valley. we serve about 1.8 million residents of the county, and we have a portion that is agricultural. i will say going into this year,

we actually -- our ground water reserves were well in the normal range, and that's because we planned for multi-year droughts like this. so we have brought back water from a ground water bank in current county last year, and recharged that in 2013 so we were able to have good ground water reserves this year. we have been managing our ground water base infor decades now to have a sustainable supply for the people in this country, and also to forstall the kinds of problems they are seeing in the central valley. many people don't realize in the last century, downtown san jose used to be 13-feet higher. but the ground water basin was overdrafted. and the ag community took that

problem to heart, and they formed the santa clara county water district to manage that ground water and provide for the future of santa clara county. without that we wouldn't have silicon valley today. >> you had water and rights to water that was somewhere else, and you don't have to read much about the way that californians use and store and create water for california. so we have at some point -- like, for instance, we have a kind of musical chair problem, where everyone is circling the chair with the expectation of access to a certain amount of water, but because they are somewhere else, it actually isn't enough if everyone wants their allocation somewhere else. >> well, we certainly have that already. >> i'm sorry david daniel

summer? >> i was just going to say we are already there, and i think joan can probably explain that pretty clearly. >> joan mar. >> yes, about 55% of the water in santa clara county comes from the sierra. 40% flows through the delta. our allocations this year were very, very low 5% on the state project, and only 50% for the urban needs on the federal project. so those supplies obviously they are constrained in years like this. what we're seeing, though, for the future, and i think many of the urban water districts in particular are developing integrated water-supply packages. you can't just rely on one single source. you have to have multiple sources of supply that you are developing. >> after a brief break we'll be

back with more "inside story," we'll continue our look at the challenges pressed on california by the severe drought gripping the state. what effects are water shortages having on one of the world's largest economies?

i think that al jazeera helps connect people in a way they haven't been connected before. it's a new approach to journalism. this is an opportunity for americans to learn something. we need to know what's going on around the world. we need to know what's going on in our back yard and i think al jazeera does just that. you are watching "inside story" on al jazeera america, i'm ray suarez. the california drought this time on the program. recent estimates put possible job losses from drought into the tens of thousands.

the water crisis threatens the enormous agriculture industry and many others. joan mar i know about as much about farmer as most people who grew up in brooklyn do, but it seems to me that growing a plum or almond is a fairly water-intense thing, and since that happens where you live and you are the water manager, have you simply had to tell people no or price your water in a different way to force people to use less? >> no, we're not doing that this year. we rely on the ground water base in. we put the water into the ground and they pump it out. so we do artificial recharge of the ground water base in. in other parts in the san joaquin valley where it is all delivered on the surface, those kinds of cut backs are heavily impacting the ag compeconomy mo.

>> peter glick has california made it this long with a pump as you please policy towards ground water? >> we have a bigger problem than just the drought. even in a good year in california now we don't have enough water to go around. we don't have enough to meet everybody's needs for water. and i they is posing long-term challenges. we have a short-term challenge with the drought, and a long-term challenge with the way we measure and allocate water. we're going to have to rethinking rethinking a -- rethink agriculture, and the opportunities opened by the drought for some of those conversations, i think there are opportunities, but it's not clear that we are really yet taking the drought and these longer-term challenges seriously. >> people who have seen pictures

of fields bursting with cabbages and lettuce and strawberries, probably don't realize that none of those things get watered by rain. much of the state is air rid isn't it? >> yes. we get our rain in the winter months. and then when we have a drought the reservoirs go low, and the soil gets dry, and we overpump our ground water. but we overpump our ground water even in a normal year. we don't recharge that bank account that we were talking about earlier. we're going to have a pretty good agriculture year this year. there will be some losses, some job losses, but next year if it's dry, i think all bets are

off. >> daniel sumner, i was reading up on attempts to cope this year-round california, and came across the example of a lawn in long beach, california. a thousand square feet of lawn, said this story, uses 21,000 gallons of water, and the homeowner would pay $86 for that privilege. is $86 a substantial enough sum to cause a home owner to think about the viability of a 50 by 20 lawn. >> i wouldn't have any idea. it depends on the home owner. i can tell you here in davis, california, right in the middle of the valley, what has caused most of the lawns to be dry in my neighborhood, they are now brown, and that's a badge of

honor. it shows you are contributing where you can. so i think it's more a matter of that kind of influence. and of course, people shifting towards a different kind of landscaping. within agriculture, of course it's a different choice. even there the price of water has gone up, and the unreliability of water has become manifest. we have seen underground drip systems, farmers spends thousands of dollars to install an underground system to deliver a few drops of water right to the root of a tomato plant to use much less water. so we have made lots of innovations in that sort of way. the value of a drop of water has gone up enormously in california, but as peter says that doesn't solve the problem. it's not just less water, it's to the extent that water comes more as rain and less as snow,

or the snow melts earlier, more of that water goes out through the golden gate, et cetera. about half of the water that falls on the state is used for environmental or ecological purposes. back when i was a kid we might have called that waste. but now we know it's feeding the wetlands and providing services to fish and other things, and that's about half of the a water. we have built laws and regulations -- some people think not enough -- to provide more water those services. so agriculture of the total amount of water would be about 40%, environmental purposes about 50%, and all of the rest, urban and industrial, and the lawn you were mentioning, is maybe 10%. >> in porterville, california, residents can no longer get water from their taps because

the wells have run dry. and a water tank filled with thousands of gallons of non-potable water helps them flush their toilets. when we come back we'll talk about what a longer term plan will do to industries and the way we run our lives. vé

>> welcome back to "inside story" on al jazeera america. i'm ray suarez. california's drought this time on the program, and it's not just california. next time you are sitting at the computer, search lake meade images, and you'll be able to sample big pictures of a lake that looks like a slowly draining bathtub. daniel sumner because sit a regional drought, am i right in assuming that california can't

rely on its neighbors for help with this one? >> that's right. almost all of the water used in california falls on california as snow or rain. we get a little water out of the california that goes into the far southern agriculture, and a bit of water into the metropolitan, but most of the water -- almost all of the water here in california is in the form of snow or rain here. historically that was sufficient. there was never really enough. there has been water fights for decades. but it was sufficient to get by. and for a growing and vibrant economy. >> peter glick right now there's debates in the legislature about what to do, there is a measure going on the ballot in november, what do these things provide for and are they the right medicine?

>> the drought has opened the door to a much more engaged conversation about water in general. we have a long-term problem of dealing with comprehensive more sustainable water management. there is a ballot measure that is a bond that has been put on the ballot in the fall that is going to provide money for some infrastructure for wastewater treatment and reuse for stormwater capture, a little bit of money, although not enough for ecosystem restoration, but that is not until november. and that will not make a difference in the drought. it may make a difference in the long-term strategies we pursue, and there is discussion about a ground water bill. we overpump our ground water unsustainable. the legislature is discussing this week the potential for

implementing some comprehensive ground water reform. >> joan you told us about putting water into the ground to farmers can pull it out, what would that mean for you? >> the ground water legislation is trying to provide the kinds of statutory authorities that our district as a special district has had for decades now. so we're very much in favor of, you know, ground water man -- it is best managed at the local level. but you have to provide the local authorities to do it, and the state has to provide the right incentives for the local agencies to take that responsibility. >> somewhat kind of measures have you been holding back on? things that you might need to use if things get worse? are there things that you might have to put in place next year

that you have been reluctant to do so far? >> you know, one measure that we are looking at more seriously if the drought continues in 2015 is implementing more tiered rate drought pricing mechanisms for ground water users, and one of the things that we're somewhat hampered by is state legislation. it's the cost of service models that we're not allowed to collect or charge more than what it costs us, of course, to manage the ground water basin. in years like this, where you need a response there the community, you need a response from water users, you know, it -- there's -- it becomes more complicated to implement the -- those cost of service provisions, and at the same time send the right signals in that year that you need people to reduce water. ultimately the investments we're going to need to handle drought

are huge. they are recycled water investments, getting people to take out those lawns for example, we're providing rebates of $2 a square foot for that -- that resident who had a thousand square foot lawn. you know, we need to take these steps long term, but it becomes a little more complicated to actually implement the prize -- pricing mechanisms. >> peter if the skies open up and it starts to rain will californians not take some of the measures that you are hoping for. >> yes, of course. in the wet years we forget all about the dry years. there is the opportunity -- the door is open for reform and a change in the conversation. we have floods and droughts, that's part of nature, but if

next year is wet, some of these reforms may not happen. if it's dry we're going to have to do much much more. >> thank you all for joining us. that brings us to the end of this edition of "inside story." the conversation continues. we want to hear what you think about the issues raised on this or any day's show. if you are watching in california how do you change the way you use water in your own lives. send us your thoughts on twitter. we'll see you for the next "inside story." in washington, i'm ray suarez. ♪

>> i understand kids learn in different ways. lilly is the head of 3 million educators, a supporter of teacher tenure and an out spoken critic of standardized testing? >> what we are seeing now is absurd. what if is, is looking at this whole human child and saying, all i have to know about this kid is a reading and a math cut score. did you hit the score, or didn't you? she is taking