It has been 50 years since former leaders of Bakersfield sent in motion a series of events to get the Kern River back to our city. The work they started isn't done, but with your help, we can get there very soon. We can't afford to wait even another 5 years - we need the river back now. Please find 2-3 friends who would be interested in having a flowing river and ask them to sign this petition.
For more details on what happened in 1970, keep reading below.
On September 28th, 1970, the City of Bakersfield City Council voted to file a lawsuit against Tenneco West Inc. to gain control over the city's water future. Tenneco West Inc. was the corporate heir of the businss empire of California land baron James Haggin, and thus it had inherited rights to a significant portion of Kern River water. In the early 70s, the city of Bakersfield had no rights to Kern River water. Although residents of the city of Bakersfield were making use of Kern River water when the Miller Haggin agreement was made in 1888, the city of Bakersfield was not represented, and thus, the city had no rights to the Kern River's flows.
In the 1960s, rumors started to stir that Tenneco West might be interested in selling their water rights, and that they might sell Kern River water to the highest bidder in Southern California. Knowing the effects water diversions and limited groundwater recharge were having on the City's rapidly dropping aquifer, the City Council knew they needed to try and force Tenneco to sell the water for local public interests, rather than allowing them to sell and export the water elsewhere.
The September 28th vote eventually led to the purchase of rights to more than 125,000 acre feet of Kern water annually. That's enough water to sustain the flow of the Kern River at a minimum of 173 cubic feet per second for an entire year - which is a lot of water. For perspective, if you have been in the Kern Canyon recently, that's about how the flow that has been coming through the canyon for the last week or so.
To finance the Tenneco West water rights purchase, the city entered contracts with local irrigation districts to sell the water until 2011, at which point much of the water was supposed to return to the Kern River channel in the city. After nearly 10 years, the city is still unable to do that, which is why we need more names attached to this petition to pressure policy leaders to change the status quo. Bakersfield needs more flexibility with the water it already owns so it can Bring Back the Kern!
As a reminder, this water is owned by the City of Bakersfield but will likely continue to be used by agriculture after it flows through the city's riverbed. It's in Bakersfield's best interest to have a thriving river and a thriving local agricultural economy - extra water and the jobs associated with it should still flow to agriculture, but only after the Kern comes back to Bakersfield and water decision making freedom returns to Bakersfield's leaders. Shouldn't the fate of this resource that the public already purchased be decided by publicly elected officials?
For more details on why the Tenneco West water isn't flowing in the Kern River through Bakersfield right now, click on this article link to read more.