Lois Henry

Kevin Moreno holds a sign asking motorists to honk in support of the Kern River. He attended a hearing Oct. 13, 2023 in Kern County on whether to grant an injunction that would cut back diversions from the river.

Judge orders Bakersfield to keep water in the Kern River

Lois Henry

In what one attorney called a “moment of truth” for the City of Bakersfield, a judge ordered the city to keep enough water in the normally dry Kern River to protect fish populations.

Gerald Wenstrand, left, and Ray Etcheverry, look at a creek caused by seepage from the Isabella Auxiliary Dam, running through Wenstrand's land. The dam is in the background.

Local News

Army Corps was unprepared for amount of seepage from Isabella Dam that is now swamping residents

Lois Henry

Landowners and residents who live in front of the Auxiliary Dam at Lake Isabella are being swamped by “seepage” coming through the earthen dam that is ruining septic systems, causing sinkholes, clogging the area with weeds and breeding swarms of mosquitoes.

Aerial view of the Corcoran levee, holding back water from spilling into nearby farmland.

Environment

Corcoran is raising its levee, again. But the ground is sinking.

Lois Henry

Subsidence – caused by too much groundwater pumping – is causing a recurring, multimillion dollar headache for local flood officials.

A chart comparing the water content of California's snowpack in different regions.

Environment

The big melt: San Joaquin Valley eyes historic snowpack with trepidation

Lois Henry

A new bulletin from the Department of Water Resources estimates how much water is expected downstream as the snow melts.

A farm shop is surrounded by a vast sea of water after flooding.

Environment

State water resources chief in the Valley to assess flood response and whether state intervention is needed

Lois Henry

While DWR Director Karla Nemeth and her team are hearing from counties about needed resources, they are also assessing the state’s authority to intervene, if needed.

A swollen Kings River threatens a parking lot in 2019.

Local News

Storm could 'push the limits' of San Joaquin Valley’s flood response systems

Lois Henry

Flooding hot spots – and some new ones thanks to subsidence – could be swamped.

A Mountain snowpack analysis using LIDAR and imaging spectrometry.

Environment

High tech snow flights to cover most of California’s watersheds this year

Lois Henry

The information gleaned from the aerial surveys will give water managers a much clearer picture of what to expect when spring runoff begins.

A swing hangs from a dry tree along the empty Kern River.

Environment

City of Bakersfield sued over 'dewatering' of Kern River

Lois Henry

Several public interest groups sued the City of Bakersfield Nov. 30 alleging the city has been derelict in its operation of the Kern River by diverting most of its flows to agriculture and other uses leaving a dry riverbed through the heart of town.

The lake at the Park at River Walk is drying up as Bakersfield cuts off flows due to drought.

Environment

Going, going….water at some of Bakersfield’s most popular parks is almost gone

Lois Henry

The City of Bakersfield Water Resources Department has cut off flows to city-owned recreation and water recharge facilities to hold on to what little surface water it’s receiving from the dwindling Kern River for drinking water.

Water gushes into a standpipe from an agricultural well in Kings County in this 2021 photo.

Environment

Ag well permitting process still causing confusion in Kern County

Lois Henry

Since Gov. Newsom's emergency drought order on March 28, Kern County hasn’t issued a single agricultural well permit. Frustration in the ag community is at a boiling point.