A field that has long grown tomatoes, peppers, and onions now looks like a wind-whipped ocean as farmer Don Cameron seeks to capture the runoff from a freakishly wet year in California to replenish the groundwater basin that is his only source to water his crops.
Taking some tomatoes out of production for a year is an easy choice if it means boosting future water supplies for his farm about 35 miles southwest of Fresno. He’s pumping 300 acre-feet a day—enough to supply hundreds of households for a year—from the gushing North Fork of the Kings River onto former vegetable fields and others dotted with pistachio trees, which can withstand heavy flooding….