Lawyers fighting for more flows in the Kern River got the green light to question a noted river historian and author per a court ruling issued recently.
Financial support for the controversial Delta Conveyance Project has been eroding among Kern County agricultural water districts over the past year and lost another significant chunk when the Wheeler Ridge-Maricopa Water Storage District opted recently to cut its contribution by nearly 97% —…
It’s usually the other way around.
The Arvin-Edison Water Storage District accepted $230 million to settle its lawsuit against Dow Chemical and Shell Oil for allegedly contaminating its groundwater with 1,2,3-trichloropropane and jeopardizing its lucrative groundwater banking program with a southern California drinking water agency.
Briefs and replies are piling up in the Kern River case pending review by the state Supreme Court.
The groundwater in parts of western Kern County is salty and, generally, considered a bit crummy, longtime farmer Brad Kroeker admits.
LOIS HENRY: Water moves: Bakersfield water chief to retire and private water company gets new leader
Two key leadership positions in Kern County and San Joaquin Valley water circles are in the process of changing.
One of several “causes of action” was cut out of the ongoing Kern River case in a ruling issued Thursday by Kern County Superior Court Judge Gregory Pulskamp.
Directors of the Kern County Water Agency selected Tamara Johnson, a longtime California Water Services manager, to fill a vacant board seat, despite an outpouring of support from agricultural water districts for another candidate.
About 30 ranchers and residents sat quietly in the Cuyama Valley Family Resource Center recently, hanging on every word from Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge William Highberger as he succinctly laid out the history, the status and the substantial stakes of an ongoing groundwater adjud…
The specter of California’s strict but confounding conflict-of-interest law prohibiting public officials from profiting from their own agencies came up recently in regard to the Kern County Water Agency hiring its former board president as its general manager.
It could cost $27 million, or more, to revamp and reopen the Kernville hatchery as a Kern River rainbow trout breeding facility, according to a report commissioned by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife.
The Kern County Water Agency hired its own former board president as its new general manager Thursday at an annual base salary of $525,000.
Several flood safety projects in the San Joaquin Valley will get $21.5 million in state funding, half of what proponents had hoped for.
The only San Joaquin Valley water storage project to qualify for Proposition 1 funding recently got another $22 million from the California Water Commission.
A pair of bills that arose out of the ongoing fight over groundwater in eastern Kern County’s desert have come to very different conclusions — one awaiting Gov. Gavin Newsom’s signature and the other tabled indefinitely.
It took half a dozen attempts but Kern water managers finally came up with a groundwater plan that met with state approval.
A California Fish and Game commissioner urged staff on Thursday to look for ways to better protect the upper Kern River watershed and fishery as part of the ongoing relicensing of Southern California Edison’s Kern River 3 (KR3) power plant near Kernville.
Rural Kern County residents have a higher likelihood of drinking water tainted with unhealthful levels of contaminants than their southern California neighbors, thanks, in part to Kern’s hodgepodge of small, under-resourced water systems, according to a report from the Luskin Center for Inno…
Kern farmers will likely avoid state sanctions thanks to the latest revision of the region’s groundwater plan that substantially increased drinking water protections and eventually gained state approval — with some required tweaks.
The state is poised to spend a little more than $7 million to get the fish hatchery near Kernville back up and running in order to protect the endemic Kern River rainbow trout.
Kern River case so far 2022: Lawsuit filed by Water Audit California, Bring Back the Kern and other public interest groups against city of Bakersfield for “dewatering” the river. 2023: Preliminary injunction mandates Bakersfield keep water in the river for fish. April 2025: Injunction overtu…
Plans to keep dwindling Kern River rainbow trout populations from dipping into endangered species territory are detailed and exacting.
For the first time in more than 100 years, the Kern River is headed back to the California Supreme Court where justices may overturn or uphold an order mandating flows be kept in the riverbed through Bakersfield.
The Kern County Water Agency is asking the 5th District Court of Appeal to order the Kern County Superior Court to remove Judge Gregory Pulskamp from the long-running Kern River case.
Six rafting enthusiasts held a grueling protest Sunday to draw awareness to what they say are inadequate flows in a 16-mile stretch of the Kern River because of Southern California Edison’s diversions to its Kernville power plant, Kern River 3.
The Kern County Water Agency is poised to cut off the only water source for a 600-home development in Stanislaus County as of June 30 unless residents there agree to a 200% increase in water rates, jacking up their bills to $600 a month.
In a comment letter to the state Water Resources Control Board, one of the plaintiffs in the ongoing lawsuit over Kern River flows alleges information has been withheld from the region’s groundwater plan to the detriment of the river.
A move to boot Kern County Superior Court Judge Gregory Pulskamp off the long-running Kern River lawsuit was denied, according to a ruling issued Tuesday by the assistant presiding judge of the court.
One new legal filing and a raft of letters have been sent to the California Supreme Court alternately praising and decrying the recent 5th District Court of Appeal opinion that overturned a local court order that had kept the Kern River flowing, at least for a few months.
The Kern County Water Agency filed a motion May 30 seeking to remove Kern County Superior Court Judge Gregory Pulskamp from the long-running Kern River lawsuit saying it believes he is prejudiced against the agency.
Gene Bogart, who ushered in an era of new projects for the city of Bakersfield’s water department, died May 31. He was 78.
The public is invited to two virtual workshops this week and next to learn more about the Kern subbasin’s proposed groundwater plan.
The Kern County Water Agency named two longtime employees to run the powerful entity after the board let its general manager go just one month before his contract was set to expire.
Boaters and anglers trying to get greater flows on the upper Kern River have been frustrated by what they feel is an absolute betrayal of the river ecosystem by the one state agency they hoped would be their strongest ally — the California Department of Fish and Wildlife.
Early bird Memorial Day weekend traffic barely slowed as it passed the small group of media and Kern County Sheriff’s Office personnel gathered Friday under two sad and cautionary signs at the mouth of the Kern River Canyon.
The Kern County Water Agency fired its general manager after only five years in the top spot at one of the most powerful water entities in the county and the state.
I didn’t know what to expect when Chipman Junior High school teacher Michael Hutson asked me to attend the school’s “Water Wise Kern County: Use, Management and Planning” event on Monday.
Groups trying to bring water back to the dry Kern River bed through Bakersfield have petitioned the California Supreme Court to review an appeals court decision that knocked down an order that had kept flows going for a few months last year.
All of the drama and vitriol of a long-running groundwater feud in the high desert played out before the Kern County Board of Supervisors — albeit in muted form — on Monday as supervisors considered whether to support a pair of bills aimed at clarifying and limiting the courts’ role in speci…
Bakersfield residents still reeling from a notice that their sewer fees were proposed to go up by more than 300% will likely get another notice in the mail next week of a proposal to boost their water rates by nearly 51%.
In a wide-ranging ruling that could have larger implications for public interest lawsuits throughout California, the 5th District Court of Appeal reversed a preliminary injunction that had required water in the Kern River through the heart of Bakersfield.
The Kern County Water Agency voted Thursday to pony up its $32.6-million share of planning and pre-construction costs for the so-called delta tunnel after its member districts gave a somewhat grudging go-ahead.
Justices with the 5th District Court of Appeal peppered attorneys with questions about the application of state water law and the fight over Kern River flows during arguments Thursday in Fresno.
A bank is suing large San Joaquin Valley grower John Vidovich for more than $105 million in allegedly defaulted loans and is demanding the foreclosure and sale of large swaths of farmland, solar sites, a nut-hulling facility and the SunnyGem almond processing plant in Wasco.
Residents who get their water and sewer services from the Bakersfield city system could see major rate increases starting as early as July.
Groundwater regulation and its impacts on farming dominated panel discussions at Thursday’s Water Association of Kern County’s annual Water Summit.
Members of local group Bring Back the Kern are planning a march in the dry riverbed on March 15 to show support for keeping flows in the Kern through Bakersfield before a hearing at the Fifth District Court of Appeal.
Construction on a key weir in the Kern River at Coffee Road got underway Feb. 20, more than two years after the Bakersfield Water Resources Department was first awarded grant funding to replace the aging structure.
The state Water Resources Control Board voted Thursday to give Kern County water managers more time to continue refining plans for how they will bring the critically overdrafted subbasin into balance by 2040.
