In our last update, we shared with you the news that our petition was shared with the State Water Resources Control Board at their October 20th meeting by a group of people who gave public comment to the board. In that same meeting, the water board also made a key decision regarding another California river- the Fresno River.

The Fresno River flows through Madera and has a similar problem to the Kern; it's dry much of the year. Also like the Kern, it has a number of ongoing water rights disputes that local stakeholders have been unable to resolve on their own.

The Water Board officially voted to resolve these Fresno River water rights issues by putting the Fresno River on their agenda. This is historic, as it's the first time in nearly 40 years that the water board has actually decided to intervene in ongoing water rights struggles over a river.

This matters for the Kern because now that the board has broken with its precedent of deferring and delaying on key decisions affecting CA rivers, we can ensure that the Kern is the next river they intervene on. Just as the board realized that the ongoing conflict over the Fresno River needed to be resolved, with your continued support, we can pressure the water board to resolve the outstanding water rights issues on the Kern River. 

See the linked article for more details and please share this petition with your friends, family, coworkers, social media contacts, etc. We added over 700 signatures in the last 10 days - let's keep the momentum going!