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audio, stills, text and or video: Go to zReportage.com to see more - Way Of Life Withers In California’s Parched Citrus Belt : California is facing one of the most severe droughts on record. The 2014 snowpack was one of the three lowest on record and the worst since 1977, when California's population was half what it is now. New NASA drought maps show groundwater levels across the U.S. Southwest are in the lowest two to 10 percent since 1949. In the Tulare Lake Basin, where much of America's citrus is produced, a human and economic crisis is accelerating amid California's historic drought. Towns that rely on groundwater for drinking are turning to emergency supplies for survival. Californians have been pulling more water from the ground than nature or man has put back for decades. But the over pumping has escalated during recent years of drought. More than 20,000 acres of San Joaquin Valley orange groves could be toppled by this summer due to lack of water. Over half of the dry wells are in Tulare County, where hundreds of residents have gone without running water and are relying on emergency supplies.
© Renee C. Byer/Sacramento Bee/zReportage.com via ZUMA Press
Way Of Life Withers In California’s Parched Citrus Belt April 27, 2015 - Orange Cove, California, U.S. - One orange remains after Justin Brown had to bulldoze down his citrus trees in Tulare County due to the water shortage. In April, the Orange Cove Irrigation District, the major provider for the eastern San Joaquin Valley's citrus belt, severely curtailed water deliveries. Farmers, who require 2.5 acre-feet of water to produce an acre of oranges, were used to getting 1.4 acre-feet of that from federal supplies, reducing their need to pump well water. This year, the water district's distribution of leftover federal water reserves amounted to an average of .012 acre-feet. Growers seeking additional emergency supplies were charged up to 1,500 dollars per acre foot for what cost 90 dollars a few years ago. Within days of the district's announcement, farmers began bulldozing healthy orange groves.
© Renee C. Byer/Sacramento Bee/zReportage.com via ZUMA Press
Way Of Life Withers In California’s Parched Citrus Belt April 27, 2015 - Orange Cove, California, U.S. - Citrus grower ANDREW BROWN,39, worries that his well to his home seen in the background will go dry. Last summer, the well supplying one of Brown's orchards - and his house - abruptly stopped pumping as his wife and kids were using the shower, doing laundry and watering the lawn. He abruptly ordered that the yard go dry and imposed 'draconian' household conservation rules. The well sputtered back to life, as Andrew also paid peak rates for emergency surface water for his 100 acres of citrus. He anxiously drilled four test wells - at depths of 115 feet, 130, 140 and 150. All came up dry.
© Renee C. Byer/Sacramento Bee/zReportage.com via ZUMA Press
Way Of Life Withers In California’s Parched Citrus Belt April 27, 2015 - Orange Cove, California, U.S. - A 14-year-factory employee, LAURA GONZALEZ can fill 700 citrus boxes a day, at the Cecelia packing house. Gonzales, who gets paid by the number of orange boxes she speed packs from the conveyer, is seeing her earnings plummet. Because of the drought they are growing smaller oranges and it takes longer to fill up the boxes. In past years., Gonzales has earned as much as 680 dollars a week working 35 hours. Recently, she has been earning 280 dollars a week in 30 hours.
© Renee C. Byer/Sacramento Bee/zReportage.com via ZUMA Press
Way Of Life Withers In California’s Parched Citrus Belt April 27, 2015 - Monson, California, U.S. - Ignacio Avila's grandchildren RENAE AVILA, 4, center, and twins DANAE AVILA, 6, left, and DENALIE AVILA, 6, right, play on a swing set in his yard. Avila says he uses recycled water for his cactus and as a result has no more lawn or garden. 'This place was so beautiful, like a park, just green, green, green,' Avila said. 'Now it's a desert.'
© Renee C. Byer/Sacramento Bee/zReportage.com via ZUMA Press
Way Of Life Withers In California’s Parched Citrus Belt April 27, 2015 - Monson, California, U.S. - IGNACIO AVILA still has water but it's cloudy and not drinkable so he has to filter his water. The local district helped install the water purifiers because some wells are contaminated with nitrates or an agricultural fumigant banned in 1977. As a result they depend on the county truck which drops off 18 boxes of six one-gallon water jugs twice a month that they store in a shed behind the house.
© Renee C. Byer/Sacramento Bee/zReportage.com via ZUMA Press
Way Of Life Withers In California’s Parched Citrus Belt April 27, 2015 - Orange Cove, California, U.S. - Last month, JUSTIN BROWN has struggled with stress since he was forced to bulldoze the orchard that his grandfather and great-grandfather planted in 1956.
© Renee C. Byer/Sacramento Bee/zReportage.com via ZUMA Press
Way Of Life Withers In California’s Parched Citrus Belt April 28, 2015 - Monson, California, U.S. - After working in the grape fields RAMON JIMENEZ, 46, climbs on the roof of his house with his two grandsons CARMELO MENDOZA, 8, right, and LUIS MENDOZA, Jr.,7, left, to pour water in a container that connects to a garden hose that flows to their shower head so he can take a shower. He built the makeshift shower in hopes to catch rain water but since suffering the lack of rain he has been bringing recycled buckets of water from the fields every night.
© Renee C. Byer/Sacramento Bee/zReportage.com via ZUMA Press
Way Of Life Withers In California’s Parched Citrus Belt April 28, 2015 - Monson, California, U.S. - MARIA JIMENEZ, 54, carries her grandson EZEQUIEL CHAGOYA, 1, past an overflow of empty jugs of water in a sink that has no running water. A pot sits on the left that she used to transport heated water to bathe him. Jimenez also explained she uses the jugs to help flush the toilet for her grand children.
© Renee C. Byer/Sacramento Bee/zReportage.com via ZUMA Press
Way Of Life Withers In California’s Parched Citrus Belt April 28, 2015 - Monson, California, U.S. - As the sun sets in Tulare County CARMELO MENDOZA, 8, left, and LUIS MENDOZA, Jr., right, bicycle between a fallow field and lush field. They have been living without running water for the past two months. Their grandmother Maria Jimenez said they used to farm tomatoes in the fallow field.
© Renee C. Byer/Sacramento Bee/zReportage.com via ZUMA Press
Way Of Life Withers In California’s Parched Citrus Belt April 28, 2015 - Monson, California, U.S.- Due to escalating gas bills and lack of running water to wash dishes MARIA JIMENEZ, 54, center, is resigned to cooking in her microwave and using plastic utensils, cups, bowls and plates to conserve water and gas as she makes ramen noodles for dinner for her family including daughter MONICA MENDOZA, 28, left, and grandson CALEB GUTIERREZ, 3, right.
© Renee C. Byer/Sacramento Bee/zReportage.com via ZUMA Press
Way Of Life Withers In California’s Parched Citrus Belt April 28, 2015 - Monson, California, U.S. - JOSE LUIS SALDANA, left, and his family of six have lived in Monson, Calif., for the past 12 years. He is helped by daughters ELISA SALDANA, 8, left, and JULISSA SALDANA,13, right, to empty water he brought home after working in the fields. They have been living without running water for the past two months and depend on a portable toilet that his landlord Servando Quintanilla supplied in background. None of the residents without running water are paying rent.
© Renee C. Byer/Sacramento Bee/zReportage.com via ZUMA Press
Way Of Life Withers In California’s Parched Citrus Belt April 28, 2015 - Monson, California, U.S. - Former farm laborer and foreman BEN LUENGAS, 83, holds a picture of his home he has lived in since 1975 showing off the beautiful garden he had before his well ran dry last summer. He and his wife LALA, 73, were without water but a nonprofit has supplied them with a temporary water tank so they still have running water inside their house. They were concerned because it was running low and although they had been promised the non-profit would come refill the tank they hadn't. Previously they spent four months without running water.
© Renee C. Byer/Sacramento Bee/zReportage.com via ZUMA Press
Way Of Life Withers In California’s Parched Citrus Belt May 6, 2015 - Monson, California, U.S. - As he stores emergency one-gallon drinking jugs of water on his front porch, LUIS MENDOZA, 29, uses a plastic fork and paper plate to conserve water from washing dishes. Many families have resorted to similar living conditions in the drought stricken valley.
© Renee C. Byer/Sacramento Bee/zReportage.com via ZUMA Press
Way Of Life Withers In California’s Parched Citrus Belt May 6, 2015 - Monson, California, U.S. - JOANNA PEREZ, 7, throws empty water jugs in her father Baldomero Perez's car. Every evening her father comes home from working in the fields and goes to his sister's home to take a shower and fill the water bottles. His family is one of five struggling without running water for the past two months in the small farm patch community.
© Renee C. Byer/Sacramento Bee/zReportage.com via ZUMA Press
Way Of Life Withers In California’s Parched Citrus Belt May 6, 2015 - Monson, California, U.S. - MADISON WARDLOW, 4, waters dead plants with recycled water from a gated home she lives in with her grandparents. 'I don't understand why those trees are green and these plants aren't growing. I'm trying to save these plants so they can have beautiful flowers,' explained Wardlow. Last summer the water perished for the Luegas family with the choking sound of the motor for their 75-foot-deep family well.
© Renee C. Byer/Sacramento Bee/zReportage.com via ZUMA Press

Renée C. Byer

Renée C. Byer born in Yonkers, New York. ZUMA Press Contract Photo-Journalist. Senior photojournalist at The Sacramento Bee since 2003. Worked on dozens of Reportages for ZUMA Press's award winning online magazine zReportage.com and been featured in DOUBletruck Magazine. Byer’s ability to produce photographs with profound emotional resonance and sensitivity earned her the 2007 Pulitzer Prize for Feature Photography for 'A Mother's Journey' as well as honored as a 2013 Pulitzer finalist. Renée work is published in books, magazines, newspapers, and on websites worldwide.:576


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