Water News - Page 2 of 42 in California's San Joaquin Valley

VIDEO: Understanding the Kern River, east to west

November 7, 2022

• by Lois Henry

Water on the Kern River works hard from start to finish. In this Law of the River video, we continue our journey down the river starting at Truxtun Avenue and Coffee Road in the heart of Bakersfield. The Kern River is mostly dry through Bakersfield as its waters are moved to farms, drinking water plants…

dams

Proposed Central Valley dam likely to move forward after judge’s ruling

November 5, 2022

• by Jesse Vad and Rose Horowitch, SJV Water

Both sides of a controversial proposed Central Valley dam hailed a Nov. 3 court ruling kicking back the project’s environmental documents as a success. A Stanislaus County Superior Court Judge ruled there was insufficient information about a road relocation that is part of the proposed Del Puerto Canyon Reservoir project, which would sit just above…

Drinking Water • Drought

State bails out Coalinga for water costs

November 3, 2022

• by SJV Water

The City of Coalinga got word Nov. 2 that the Department of Water Resources would pick up the entire $1.2 million tab for supplemental water the city was forced to buy after drought cut its federal supplies to the bone. DWR press release below: DWR Provides Funding to City of Coalinga for Emergency Water Purchase State…

Drought • Federal System • Groundwater • Personalities • SGMA

Change is coming to the Westlands Water District board. What will it mean for the future of the sprawling district and its controversial general manager?

October 27, 2022

• by Lois Henry

The makeup of the Westlands Water District board will change this election – shifting power to a coalition of growers with a list of new actions, at the top of which appears to be ousting longtime General Manager Tom Birmingham. “There needs to be a change of leadership, that’s a foundational issue,” said Sarah Woolf,…

Drought

Coalinga to keep taps flowing but at a hefty price – nearly $2,000 an acre foot

October 27, 2022

• by Jesse Vad, SJV Water

The City of Coalinga is shelling out $1.138 million to keep taps flowing this year. The city finally found water it could afford and is buying 600 acre feet of water from Patterson Irrigation District at about $1,900 per acre foot. The deal was finalized and announced Oct. 26. The water was desperately needed as…

Drought • Policy • SGMA

VIDEO: Frustrated San Joaquin Valley farmers take grievances to Sacramento

October 27, 2022

• by Jesse Vad, SJV Water

A group of farmers, mostly from Madera, protested on the steps of the capitol in Sacramento against what they feel has been extreme mismanagement of the state’s water resources. The protest comes as groundwater managers in the Madera subbasin are wrestling with how to adhere to a state mandate to bring its aquifer back into…

SGMA

More Kern County water districts split with larger authority

October 26, 2022

• by Rose Horowitch, SJV Water reporting intern

Two more members of the Kern Groundwater Authority (KGA) announced that they will form their own groundwater sustainability agencies, continuing a pattern of members distancing themselves from Kern County’s largest groundwater agency. The Shafter-Wasco Irrigation District and North Kern Water Storage District will each form their own GSA, it was announced at the Oct. 26…

Rivers

VIDEO: How the lower Kern River is divvied up

October 23, 2022

• by Lois Henry

Flows on the lower Kern River are split up among a hydra of canals starting just west of Hart Park. We talk with local experts who explain who owns those canals and where the water goes under the Law of the River. There’s a lot to learn so we’re splitting the lower Kern into two…

Drought • Rivers

Putah Creek’s experience suggests getting water back in the Kern River could be a “slam dunk”

October 22, 2022

• by Lois Henry

If water rights on the Kern River were challenged in a public trust lawsuit, those rights would lose water, according to a legal expert on the public trust doctrine. Even when water rights go back more than 100 years, which is the case on the Kern River, the public trust doctrine holds sway. “It’s not…

Drinking Water • Drought

Water debt doubles for residents of tiny, impoverished west Fresno County towns

October 20, 2022

• by Jesse Vad, SJV Water

Water debt has ballooned to nearly double what it was last year in Cantua Creek and El Porvenir, two small towns in western Fresno County where nearly half the residents live in poverty. The towns were supposed to be getting water from two new wells by now but the project hasn’t been completed so they’ve…

NEWS