Don’t blink: There’s water in the Kern River but not for long

Water is again running in the Kern River through Bakersfield, four months after it suddenly went dry at the end of August, 2024, leading to a massive fish die off.

But it will only last through January 20, according to Bakersfield Water Resources Director Kristina Budak.

“Water is being released from Isabella Dam as part of Power Flow operation requirements. It is anticipated to last through approximately January 20, 2025,” Budak wrote in an email.

Southern California Edison’s Kern River No. 1 power plant, a few miles east of the mouth of the Kern River Canyon, has rights to the first 412 cubic feet per second of river flow, as long as that amount or more is coming into Isabella Lake. It runs the water through its turbines then releases it back to the river.

Typically, though, the bulk of that water doesn’t make it all the way down the river through Bakersfield as a large share is taken out of the river bed by the Beardsley Canal, a few miles east of town.

The Beardsley was shut down at the first of the year for annual maintenance, according to Dave Hampton, General Manager of North Kern Water Storage District, which owns the Beardsley.

With one of the city’s main treatment plants also offline for maintenance, according to Budak, the water being released by Edison is flowing all the way to the Bellevue Weir near Stockdale Highway.

The water was a welcome sight to river advocates who were appalled by the loss of animal life when the river went dry last August.

Still, knowing the flows are so short-lived, some were concerned about another fish die off.

“There will not be that many (deaths), but still, this is ethically unjustified,” wrote Antje Lauer, a biology professor at California State University, Bakersfield, in an email. “I believe that the repairs on the weirs do not include any fish ladders to help some of them to retreat with the water.”

The environmental impacts of such river operations is the focus of an ongoing lawsuit against the City of Bakersfield by local group Bring Back the Kern and Water Audit California. The next hearing in that lawsuit is scheduled for Dec. 8, 2025.