Many people must still use water stored in large tanks in their yard to wash dishes and bathe.
The drought emergency remains in effect in Kings, Fresno, Tulare and Tuolumne counties, even after one of California’s wettest winters in years prompted officials to declare an end to the historic, five-year dry spell in nearly all of the nation’s most populous state.
"I wouldn’t drink it."
Miguel and his neighbor survive on the trucked-in water and deliveries of bottled drinking water.
In parts of the San Joaquin Valley, underground aquifers — layers of earth saturated by water — collapsed from over-pumping during years of dry weather, according to scientists at Stanford and NASA who studied satellite imagery to measure sinking land.
Emergency water tanks for residents have cost the state nearly $28 million since 2014, with more than half in Tulare County.
Randy Herman, a long-distance trucker with a family, says it’s obvious to him that his community is a long way from rebounding from drought.
After his well ran dry, he connected to a large water tank before finally hooking up to the community well.
"I don’t think the drought’s over.
In this photo taken April 10, 2017, is David Miguel at his home in the community of Hardwick in the San Joaquin Valley where drought has yet to loosen its grip on some residents near Hanford, Calif. State officials lifted the drought emergency for much California, but thousands of people like Miguel still live on water tanks because their wells ran dry.