Lois Henry

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

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

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 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.

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.

The environmental group American Rivers lists “excessive water withdrawals” as the main threat to the lower Kern, which is dry in all but the biggest water years as it cuts through the heart of Bakersfield.

The cancer-causing chemical 1,2,3-TCP has been found in several large groundwater banking operations in Kern. A recent feasibility study says cleanup could cost up to $465 million.

An archeologist with the Tejon Tribe has been working closely with the City of Bakersfield and the two Kern County water districts behind the project to make sure the “significant” Native American sites on the ranch are protected.

Managers for all the deficient subbasins will now have six months to address plan deficiencies as outlined by the state and resubmit them to DWR for another review. If the plans are rejected at that time, the state Water Resources Control Board could take over the subbasins and manage groundwater directly, or take other, more punitive actions.

Water Board hearings on the Kern River are wrongly shutting out public interests and need to change focus, according to a Bakersfield advocacy group.