By Desiree Salas (media@latinospost.com) | First Posted: Aug 20, 2015 06:57 AM EDT

The Golden State has been afflicted by a drought for four years now, and more consequences of declining water supplies have started manifesting.

Some areas in the Central Valley in California is reportedly "sinking by as much as 1 in. per month," Time said. This is due to significant groundwater pumping, which was done to combat the effects of the drought.

While sinking land is a natural occurrence and has happened in the state "for decades," it has never done so at such a quicker rate. According to U.S. Geological Survey hydrologist Michelle Sneed, the sinking is "among the highest rates ever measured in the entire world," as noted by CBS News.

The higher rate of groundwater consumption has been pegged as the culprit to the faster subsidence, or land sinking, rate.

"California's farmers are pumping groundwater as fast as they can in order to keep their crops alive during a drought that has left them high and very dry," the news source said. "But when this much water is pumped out of the aquifer below ground, the clay between the pockets of water collapses and the ground starts to deflate like a leaky air mattress."

"The sinking is buckling the walls of irrigation canals, damaging pipes, creating giant sink holes and cracking homes," it added.

With such a rapid subsidence rate, major infrastructure in affected areas are at risk of being damaged or compromised.

"The Russell Avenue Bridge at the Delta-Mendota Canal has dropped so much, the water will soon flow over it instead of under it. Fixing the damage could cost more than $100 million in tax dollars," CBS News reported.

Some wells have reached a depth of 2,500 feet, which can be comparable to the height of two Empire State Buildings. Water collected at that depth is said to be "thousands of years old."

"It's desperately needed because more than half the country's fruits, vegetables and nuts are grown in California," the news agency said.

"We are pumping at historic levels," said California Department of Water Resources chief Mark Cowin, as quoted by Yahoo! News.

"Groundwater acts as a savings account to provide supplies during drought, but the Nasa report shows the consequences of excessive withdrawals as we head into the fifth year of historic drought," he said in a statement, as relayed by The Guardian.

NASA had studied the subsidence via images taken from airplanes and satellites over a period of time. The data collected showed that "land near the city of Corcoran sank 13 inches in eight months, and part of the California Aqueduct dropped eight inches in four months last year," according to Yahoo! News.

The subsidence have already "destroyed thousands of public and private groundwater well casings in the San Joaquin Valley." Long term, the land sinking can permanently lower the underground aquifier's storage capacity.

In response to this, the Department of Water Resources has set up a $10 million program that will assist affected counties in developing or supporting conservation plans.

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