permits Archives - SJV Water

Valley agencies in a race against winter and a fast-approaching state deadline to repair flood damage

September 22, 2023

• by Lisa McEwen, SJV Water

All across Tulare County, the race is on to repair flood-damaged infrastructure before an anticipated El Niño winter and an even more looming expiration of Gov. Gavin Newsom’s executive order that relaxed permitting for levee work and debris clean up. The work has lagged, though, as creeks and rivers are still flowing or the ground…

Floods • Uncategorized

Red tape kept Bakersfield from clearing Kern River channel for years

April 19, 2023

• by Lois Henry

It isn’t just water that’s been barreling down the Kern River in this historic water year. Trees, shrubs, trash – even old appliances – have come swirling down the river bed, plucked out by heavy equipment and piled on the banks in massive heaps. City of Bakersfield crews, along with other agencies, worked round the…

Drought • Rivers

State laws hamper flood flow storage but one San Joaquin Valley water district cut through the red tape. Can others follow?

January 14, 2023

• by Lois Henry

It seems like such a no brainer: Grab the floodwater inundating California right now and shove it into our dried up aquifers for later use. But water plus California never equals simple. Yes, farmers and water districts can, legally, grab water from the state’s overflowing rivers, park it on their land and it will recharge…

Drought • SGMA

Ag well permitting process still causing confusion in Kern County

June 22, 2022

• by Lois Henry

Kern County hasn’t issued a single agricultural well permit since early April and frustration in the ag community is at a boiling point. Ag well permitting slowed to a crawl up and down the San Joaquin Valley after Gov. Newsom issued an emergency drought order on March 28 that added an extra layer of scrutiny…