Siona Harper Huyck knows her bid for a seat on the Kern County Water Agency in this November’s election is a long shot.
The education and health consultant doesn’t have much experience in water, for starters.
And she’s up against incumbent Royce Fast, a fourth generation Rosedale-area farmer with nearly 30 years serving on water boards, including 12 at the agency.
“I fully understand that water is a steep learning curve,” she said during a recent interview. “But I am a pretty tenacious person.”
Since she filed for the District 6 seat, which covers northwest Bakersfield up to 7th Standard Road and east to Highway 204, Huyck has been cramming on all things water from the Kern River to groundwater banking.
“I’m really fascinated by how this public resource has been privatized,” she said.
Her main goals are increasing transparency and inclusivity according to her campaign website.
Huyck, who appears on the ballot as Siona Harper H., had originally hoped to run for a seat on the Board of Education, but realized she didn’t live in the required district.
“The seat for the water agency was open, so I decided to run,” she explained.
But her quest is about more than one particular board or seat, according to her Facebook page.
She is the first trans woman to run for local office in Kern County, according to an Aug. 29 post.
“Whether we win or lose – we have made history in our neck of the woods!” she posted.
For her opponent, the focus is water policy, he said.
“My biggest priority is SGMA,” Fast said, referring to the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act, which will limit pumping and likely result in the loss of one-third – or 300,000 acres – of Kern’s currently productive farmland.
“This is very serious and it’s important for the whole county, not just farmers. It’s a tough issue.”
When asked if SGMA had overshadowed the agency’s focus on the Delta Conveyance, a tunnel proposed to bring Sacramento River water under the ecologically sensitive Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta rather than through it, Fast said “No.” That issue is still a big one that agency board members must stay on top of.
“It’s a very good ecological project, in my opinion,” he said. “Whether it’s affordable, I can’t say.”
The $20 billion (some say it will be significantly more) cost of the proposed tunnel will be borne by State Water Project contractors. As the second largest SWP contractor in the state, the agency has a pivotal role in the Delta Conveyance.
Cost and other details aside, Fast said the Delta Conveyance embodies the agency’s core mission, to plan for Kern County’s future water needs.
“If that project is built, it won’t be for me,” he said. “I’ll be long dead before water comes through it. It’s about providing for future generations.”
That’s why the Kern County Water Agency was formed back in the 1960s, he said of its humble beginnings to administer the State Water Project contract on behalf of its 13 agricultural water district members.
Since then, the agency has become one of the most powerful water boards in Kern that also wields a lot of clout statewide.
Locally, the agency provides wholesale supplies to water purveyors serving large sections of east Bakersfield. It owns rights to high flow water on the Kern River. It is one of six entities that control the massive Kern Water Bank. And it is one of three members that govern the Kern River Groundwater Sustainability Agency, which monitors water tables and can set pumping limits.
The agency also controls the movement of significant amounts of water into and out of the county through its Cross Valley Canal, which can move water east and west from the California Aqueduct, connecting to numerous other canals all the way to central Bakersfield.
The agency is partially funded through property taxes, which is why agency board members are elected by all voters in their Divisions.
Agency directors serve four-year terms.
