Happy 50th “Kern Riversary!” 1970 vote brought river into public hands
Fifty years ago this week, the Bakersfield City Council committed an audaciously historic act. On Monday evening Sept. 28, 1970, council members decided to sue Tenneco West for a slice of the Kern River. “The shock was great to many, but from that day forward we had their attention and cooperation,” states the “Kern River…
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Proposed $171 million Central Valley groundwater bank faces TCP contamination
A Kern County groundwater bank proposal just at the starting blocks has been hit with 1,2,3-TCP contamination. Irvine Ranch Water District and Rosedale-Rio Bravo Water Storage District had just begun the environmental review process for their joint banking project this past April when TCP reared its head. “It doesn’t appear TCP is an existential threat…
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Proposed single delta tunnel could cost $15.9 billion
A single tunnel proposed to take water under the sensitive Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta and deliver it to farms and cities in the south could cost $15.9 billion, give or take, according to an initial assessment discussed at the Delta Conveyance Authority meeting on Thursday. This is a scaled down version of a proposal under Gov….
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Valley farmers look to Kern River tributary to replenish groundwater
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May storms give state contractors 5% boost
Department of Water Resources press release: SACRAMENTO, Calif. – The State Water Project (SWP) now expects to deliver 20 percent of requested supplies in 2020 thanks to above-average precipitation in May, the California Department of Water Resources (DWR) announced today. An initial allocation of 10 percent was announced in December and increased to 15 percent…
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Dry year, not politics, behind 15-percent water allocation
Water may be highly political but dry is dry. And California is exceedingly dry this year, Department of Water Resources Director Karla Nemeth told SJV Water in explaining the state’s low 15-percent allocation for farms and cities that rely on water from the State Water Project. Given the results of Thursday’s final snow survey in…
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State’s low water allocation prompts frustration, suspicion
Is the State Water Project’s extremely low water allocation based on California’s fickle climate? Or politics? A growing chorus of frustrated water managers are wondering. After a dry January, the Department of Water Resources announced it would only be able to deliver 15 percent of contracted water amounts to farms and cities. That number hasn’t…
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New state water regs cause angst on all sides
A new set of water regulations aimed at protecting California’s native fish came down from the state earlier this week to near universal condemnation from both agricultural and environmental water folks. The regulations are contained in a 143-page “incidental take permit” issued by the Department of Fish and Wildlife that lays out when — and…
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March storms leave so-so snowpack in the north and a cliffhanger on the San Joaquin River
March wasn’t exactly miraculous this year but it did OK by California’s snowpack, bringing it from a dismal 40-ish% of average up to above 60% of average in the northern Sierras. The bump wasn’t so great in the southern Sierras where snowpack is still at 40% to 46% of average for the Kaweah, Kern and…
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The atmospheric river is flowing
The storm finally arrived in Bakersfield early Tuesday evening. The storm was expected to bring significant rainfall to areas in the San Joaquin Valley after a dry January and even drier February, according to the National Weather Service’s Hanford office: You need to login to view the rest of the content. Please Login. Not a…
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Maven's Notebook is an excellent daily accounting of California water happenings statewide.
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