Mighty Kern River belongs to our entire community
In many ways, the starkly empty riverbed that winds through the center of Bakersfield defines this community: Substantial in potential, unrealized in actuality.
The bone-dry Kern River channel introduces America to a city that outwardly appears devoid of vitality. Travelers on Highway 99 who cross over the empty trough at the city's approximate center point cannot be even slightly tempted to stop, stay, play and spend. Nothing to see here.
The place once known as Kern Island because of the abundance of water that cascaded down from the Sierra is today a dutiful servant of industry, a casualty of water politics.
But we've been longing to change things for years. When the Greater Bakersfield Vision 2020 project convened a decade ago -- bringing together 13,000 ordinary local citizens who allowed themselves to dream about what their city could be -- one of the fondest collective hopes was that the Kern River might again flow through the center of Bakersfield. To that end, we supported the governor's $23 million Kern River Restoration Project. We placed high-density development and recreational amenities along the usually-barren riverbed, and beside our downtown canals. In some cases, we acted as if there were actually water there.
Talk about hope.
But now, unexpectedly, we find ourselves at one of those rare crossroads where harsh, immutable reality is suddenly flexible. The State Water Resources Control Board is about to consider a draft recommendation finding that the Kern River is not fully appropriated. In other words, that not all of our water is legally spoken for. The City of Bakersfield has applied for permission to channel this newly available water into the lower Kern River.
That's not merely a great idea, it's the fulfillment of a wish many have had for a long time.
Some may be under the impression that allowing the Kern River to be the Kern River would somehow be wasteful. Nothing could be further from the truth. In addition to the symbolic and aesthetic benefits of a "wet" river, a permanent, year-round flow of water would restore our depleted aquifers -- the underground "rivers" that supply groundwater wells. What was once a "mound" of underground water has become a trough as the recharge basin has depleted from lack of river water. As outlying groundwater has begun flowing in toward the river channel, water users have been forced to dig deeper wells. Some wells have simply dried up.
Well-users, therefore, would benefit. But so would many others. A flowing Kern River would be a major boon to businesses situated on or near the riverbank, perhaps including recreation companies not yet imagined.
Kern County growers have been innovators in the science of irrigation, developing methods that the world has admired and studied. Growers have switched to techniques and crop varieties that are best suited to the southern valley's climate and resources. They are to be commended.
But if a share of the Kern River belongs to the community, the community should have it -- and not just on principle. We need it.
If ever a city was ready, willing and enthusiastic about the possibility of restoring a flowing channel of water to a strikingly desolate riverbed, Bakersfield is that city.
For more information about how to get involved in the "Take Our River Back" campaign, log on to Bakersfield.com/river.
