Avid cyclist and angler Jonathan Vegas was thrilled last fall when he read that a local judge had issued an order requiring the City of Bakersfield to store enough water in the Kern River to support the population. of fish.
“It’s my dream to be able to leave my backyard, travel two miles and fish right in town,” said the construction worker at SJV Water. “How awesome is that?”
Therefore, he was disappointed when he saw that the water in the river to the west of the town was gradually decreasing. At this point, he said, by the time the Kern River reaches Enos lane, the braided currents have almost stopped and leave only a few shrinking pools and dead and dying fish as he shows in a video he shot on Feb. 11.
Vegas said it wasn’t clear to him until then that the injunction issued Oct. 30 by Kern County Superior Court Judge Gregory Pulskamp only affected six city-operated weirs from Hart Park to the McClung weir, three miles west of Allen Road.
But the river stretches beyond that point, all the way to Interstate 5 and, historically, north to old Tulare Lake in big water years.
“I’d like to see enough water to hit the bottom of the river, not necessarily deep, but just enough for fish and wildlife,” Vegas said.
The order stems from a lawsuit filed by Bring Back the Kern, Water Audit California and several other public interest groups, against Bakersfield for how it operates the river. The lawsuit seeks to have the city study its river operations along with the effects of those operations on the environment and public recreational access.
As that lawsuit continues, massive runoff from last year’s storms has revived the river, including fish populations. The plaintiffs sought an injunction to keep the fish alive, which was granted on October 30.
The injunction does not say how much water should be kept in the river, leaving that issue to be negotiated by the city, the plaintiffs and other parties in the lawsuit, including agricultural water districts with rights and contracts in river water.
Until those negotiations are complete, the city announced it will store enough water in the river so that 5 cubic feet per second reaches the McClung weir.
But residents like Vegas, and the plaintiffs, feel the water isn’t enough.
“This goes to show how inadequate the 5 cfs that ‘flowed’ into McClung was,” Attorney Adam Keats wrote after watching the Vegas video. Keats stands for Bring Back the Kern.
Although the plaintiffs named only six specific weirs in their lawsuit, Keats said the obligation, as outlined in Pulskamp’s order, was to keep enough water in the river to keep the fish in “good condition.” as required under the California Fish and Game Code. 5937.
That means beyond the McClung weir. And if there were other weirs past McClung lowering the river, 5937 would apply to those structures as well, Keats wrote.
“We certainly need to look at including this part of the river in our discussions with the city going forward and possibly the litigation as well,” he wrote.
