It may sound like an end-times warning for California about the existential risk of building megadevelopments in places where water is scarce — but in one Central California community, the worst fears of running out of the precious resource have become a reality.

And, even in a best-case scenario, there seemingly is no solution except for one that is both temporary and unfathomably expensive.

Diablo Grande is a planned community in the foothills of Stanislaus County, about 30 miles southwest of Modesto. The community was initially approved for construction on 29,000 acres in the early 1990s and was dreamed up as a massive project featuring thousands of homes, half a dozen golf courses and even a hotel. A scaled-back version of the plan was ultimately built — featuring 600 homes and a since-shuttered golf course — and the grand vision of Diablo Grande never came to fruition.

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Why? Even in its earliest days, environmental impact studies voiced concerns about water scarcity that led to the development forming its own water service entity, the Western Hills Water District, to supply it with the necessary resource in 1992.

Since 2000, that water district has relied on water pumped from the Kern County Water Agency some 200 miles south.........

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