The severity of the current drought is intensifying groundwater pumping and drawing down aquifers. This in turn has prompted a renewed effort to manage and regulate groundwater statewide. There are now two bills pending in the California legislature that would mandate the regulation of underground water resources for long-term reliability. Nowhere is the groundwater crisis more deeply felt than in the Central Valley. Rural residents and farmworker communities have already experienced problems obtaining clean water for home consumption. Now that crisis is becoming even more acute. Vic Bedoian reports from Fresno.