LOIS HENRY: Water districts sue state board
| Saturday, Jun 05 2010 02:28 PM
Editor's note: This article was first published on 6/5/2010. Water districts opposing the city of Bakersfield's efforts to get water in the Kern River filed a lawsuit Wednesday against the State Water Resources Control Board over its decision that water is available on the Kern River.
This is the districts' second attempt to nullify the board's historic February order finding that the Kern is no longer "fully appropriated."
The board focused on flood waters in their February decision, but also said it would decide whether water forfeited by one local ag district was also up for grabs.
Bakersfield has applied to get some of that forfeited water and run it down the dry river bed.
While the opposing water districts all applied for the forfeited water as well, they now want a court to rule there is no loose water available.
Specifically, the districts say the state board erred by focusing on flood waters, which they say weren't a subject of the initial water application process.
This is the same argument the board rejected last month when it denied the group's petition for reconsideration of the February order.
The coalition of districts, known as the "North Kern group, " is made up of North Kern Water Storage District along with the City of Shafter, Buena Vista Water Storage District, Kern Water Bank and Kern County Water Agency.
They are also asking that the court hold up the State Board's process, which would delay an already lengthy process of deciding if water is available and then doling it out.
At the same time, North Kern -- which sued Kern Delta Water District more than a dozen years ago resulting in the forfeited water and landing the issue in the state board's lap -- is still attempting to negotiate with Bakersfield to solve the issue locally.
It's unclear what effect this latest suit will have on those negotiations, but Councilmember David Couch seemed a bit more than annoyed by the filing, calling it a "giant waste of money, time and effort."
"I'm growing a little tired of this, " he said. "I've seen this movie three or four times and it always ends the same. They lose and then they sue again."
