NEWS

The state hearing on whether there is “loose” water on the Kern River got started Thursday and was quickly snared in a thicket of procedural issues, arcane water rights and water diversion practices. After two very full days of testimony and legal wrangling, the upshot is that there is no upshot, just yet. Administrative Hearing…
by Lois Henry
Dana Munn, a fixture in the Kern County water world, has taken an early retirement from Shafter-Wasco Irrigation District due to medical issues, he announced Tuesday. Though his retirement date hasn’t been set, it is considered imminent, according to the irrigation district. The district is hoping to find a retired water manager to take over…
by Lois Henry
Is there water available on the Kern River and, if so, how much? Parties to the long-running river dispute will finally get a hearing by the State Water Resources Control Board on those questions, at least. The big question — who should get the water? — will have to wait. Still, this is the first…
by Lois Henry
The personnel deck of who’s who in Kern County water has shuffled recently at several agricultural water districts. The Rosedale-Rio Bravo and North Kern water storage districts both recently named new general managers. And the newly formed Westside Water Authority, made up of four different ag water districts, also brought on a new general manager….
Longtime family farmer Laura Cattani was appointed to the board of the powerful Kern County Water Agency during a special meeting on Monday. She is the second woman to serve on the board of directors in the 60-year history of the agency. Cattani will bring much needed diversity to the board, several directors said during…
Date: Feb. 9, 2021 From: Bring Back the Kern. Andres Amador, an artist well known for large scale, temporary art installations across the US and the world, is coming to Bakersfield this week to create an installation on the canvas of the dry Kern Riverbed. Titled “Flow,” the installation is meant to evoke the smooth…
by Lois Henry
It’s hard to say what spurred “confidential mediation” over the Kern River that began last week. Could it be the relentless “Bring Back the Kern!” campaign by a group of young, Bakersfield residents? Could it be a sentence in a recent letter from the State Water Resources Control Board that said, in part, it “will…
A plan to bring water from the South Fork of the Kern River through Isabella Lake and down 60 miles to farm fields west of Bakersfield was unanimously approved by the Rosedale-Rio Bravo Water Storage District board of directors on Tuesday. If the environmental documents supporting that plan survive what is sure to be a…
by Lois Henry
KGET Ch. 17 Anchor Jim Scott in Bakersfield invited SJV Water back for more water talk this week. The show, Kern County In Depth, airs THIS Saturday (Feb. 1) at 6 p.m. on Channel 17. SJV Water Editor and CEO Lois Henry talks with Rosedale-Rio Bravo Water Storage District General Manager Eric Averett and Kern…
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