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| Tuesday, Jan 29 2008 6:15 PM
Last Updated: Tuesday, Jan 29 2008 6:17 PM
Rivers help define the cities they flow through, and in many cases the cities also define the rivers. St. Louis, Cincinnati, Sacramento -- all are situated on rivers of historical import and aesthetic character.
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Bakersfield, by comparison, has the Kern River -- or, more accurately, it has the Kern Riverbed.
Now, thanks to a recently settled lawsuit, Bakersfield may soon be able to enjoy the many benefits of a river. A wet river.
But we have to speak up, and quickly.
Californian columnist Lois Henry has stumbled upon a rare opportunity for this community to weigh in on the possibility of a flowing, trans-urban Kern River. In April 2007, a judge hearing a 12-year-old lawsuit between two local water districts found that one of the districts had forfeited its rights to some Kern River water. He said the Kern might no longer be "fully appropriated," meaning some water might be available to a water district that did not previously have a recognized claim to it. He said it was up to the State Water Resources Control Board to decide.
The City of Bakersfield filed an application, asking that it be awarded this "spare" water. The city said it would run that water down the natural channel of the Kern River.
As Henry suggests, the people of Bakersfield can help the water board decide. We agree. There's nothing like a rush of water coursing through the city. It's life, it's energy, it's peace.
It's also groundwater storage. The riverbed is the center of Kern's vast aquifer, the source of our drinking water. By recharging that aquifer with a living, meandering Kern River, we would have considerably cleaner drinking water coming out of the tap.
The city has calculated that as much as 110,000 to 120,000 acre-feet of water a year may become available. That's enough for nine or 10 months of water in the Kern River in all but the driest years -- a far sight better than the two months' worth of water we've been getting in average water years.
Bakersfield deserves to reclaim its long-lost status as a river city. Write to the State Water Resources Control Board in support of the city's application. But hurry. The water agency is only taking comments through Thursday.