Long-Lost California Lake's Flooding Is 'Life-Changing' Problem

• Tulare Lake, a lost lake in California, has been refilling due to torrential rain.
• The resultant flooding has caused a potential agricultural crisis by making it difficult for farmers to access their land and endangering crops.
• California is also expecting El Niño, which could lead to another wet winter later in the year and extend the flooding.
• Residents are attempting to contain the flooding, but the effects could last for years if it is not stopped.

Torrential rain has resurrected Tulare Lake, a lost lake in California, and it could take farmers years to recover from the subsequent floods, causing a potential agricultural crisis.

California recently emerged from a years-long drought after an excessively wet winter brought more than a dozen atmospheric rivers—and substantial rain—to the state. The storms have nearly eliminated the entirety of the state's drought, but now the state faces a new problem: too much water. Tulare Lake in the southern San Joaquin Valley was drained roughly a century ago and quickly became a haven for farming. Now, the lost lake is refilling and its impact on farmers in the area could raise prices around the world.

AccuWeather meteorologist Paul Pastelok told Newsweek: "We are in a period of inflation, so a lot of our products already have heightened prices. We are talking about some expenses—like almonds and pistachios—that cost a lot of money already. It's going to affect the whole world. It's going to be very expensive, and also life-changing for people that live down there."

Tulare Lake dried up roughly a century ago as a result of dams. When the weather is dry, canals and levees divert water from reforming in the lake. The last time the lake resurfaced was in 1983 when above-average snowpack melt filled 130 square miles of the lake's basin. The lake, when full, was the nation's largest lake west of the Mississippi River, roughly four times the size of Lake Tahoe. When the lake was supplemented by snowpack melt from the Sierra Nevada mountains, it spanned up to 1,000 square miles and fed several rivers, according to an article by Sacramento media outlet CalMatters.

In 1983, it took two years for farming to resume, but now the ground is considerably lower because of decades of pumping groundwater to combat drought and the snowpack melt expected to be much higher than the 1983 flood.

The flooding isn't expected to stop soon, even if the rain stops falling. The snowpack in the southern Sierra Nevada mountains boasts an astronomical 60 inches of liquid, which is 300 percent above average, according to United States Department of Agriculture Meteorologist Brad Rippey. As the snowpack melts, water will continue to flood the Tulare Lake basin.

"It's a bowl," Pastelok said. "It's like a tub where the spigot keeps running, and we keep watching it fill and we can't turn the water off."

Usually, the basin offers ideal growing conditions for hot-weather crops like pistachios, almonds and tomatoes, but many crops will be lost if flooding continues.

"Pastures and dairies have been flooded and cattle have been moved," Rippey told Newsweek. "Orchards and fields have been submerged. Trees in orchards that spend time with their roots underwater will soon be lost and will need to be replanted, causing a years-long gap in production for those fruit and nut crops."

The area, which boasts of a $2 billion agricultural industry according to an article by The New York Times, has much to lose if flooding continues. In 1983, the flooding caused damage equivalent to $300 million.

Residents in the area are already trying to stop the flow of water, with some even attempting to repair breached levees by stemming the gap with a truck and then filling the truck bed with dirt.

"I have never seen this type of #flood control measure before!" a California farmer tweeted in March alongside a video. "Here is how some farmers deal with a breach in the Tulare Lake bottom. I assume they will pile some additional dirt on."

Many of the farmers in the area are considered low or moderate-income, according to Pastelok, so they might not be able to afford to stay in the area for years before the lakebed is drained. They may have to flee the area, leaving a void in the area's farming industry.

Along with farming, there are concerns that people could lose their homes to the flooding and the impacts could last for years after the water recedes.

"A big concern with the newly formed lake is water contamination from a variety of sources, including fuel, oil, and landfill/waste material," Rippey told Newsweek. "When the water finally recedes, soil testing will be required before agricultural activities resume."

Meteorologists are forecasting the return of El Niño later this year, which could lead to another wet winter for California later in 2023, prolonging the problems.