Dec. 20, 2009
A battle is brewing among some of Kern County’s heaviest hitters, but you probably haven’t heard about it because it’s underground.
I mean, really, it’s under the ground — as in groundwater.
Don’t hit the snooze button just yet, because if it weren’t for the giant sponge full of water we’re all sitting on, good old Bakersburg wouldn’t exist as we know it.
Shortly after the present drought settled in, around 2007, the City of Bakersfield and two ag water districts noticed a sharp drop in groundwater levels west of town.
The drop coincided with increased groundwater withdrawal by the massive Kern Water Bank, which occupies 32 square miles mostly west of Highway 43 and north of the Kern River all the way to the California Aqueduct.
Members of KWB include the Kern County Water Agency’s Improvement District 4 (ID4), which supplies drinking water to a large swath of town, and a number of other districts, most of which are associated with Paramount Farming (owned by multigazillionaire Stewart Resnick).
In the world of water banking, KWB is the biggest gorilla in the house.
Then there’s the City of Bakersfield, which has a 2,800-acre water bank tucked up along the southeastern edge of KWB property, just west of Stockdale Highway. Rounding out the cast are Rosedale-Rio Bravo and Buena Vista water storage districts, which are not water bankers, but rely on groundwater near KWB.
So, back to that giant sucking sound, which Rosedale-Rio Bravo, Buena Vista and the city fear is the sound of their groundwater being pumped away by KWB.
There’s no doubt groundwater levels are dropping all over the valley as the drought continues, and all the players listed above agree it’s happening here too.
But the city is wondering why the sudden, steep drop is already greater than the one we experienced in the mid-1990s after five years of drought.
“These are huge drops,” city Water Resources Manager Florn Core told me. “We’ve never seen this before and we don’t know why it’s happening.”
Things still aren’t so bad that he’d recommend rationing, however, as many other California cities have done — even though he has said the city will begin discussions to look at developing tiered water rates to “encourage” people to conserve. (But that’s another rant.)
Among Core's concerns is whether these groundwater drops could permanently
damage the aquifer. If too much water is sucked out, the land could
compress and that storage space would be lost forever.
Jim Beck, Kern Water Agency general manager, and Jonathan Parker, KWB general manager, assured me there’s no chance of that.
Measurements, they both said, show there has been no subsidence because of groundwater recovery operations.
They, like anyone in the water business, are concerned about dropping groundwater levels, but there is no cause for alarm, they said. It’s just the drought.
“The only way to stop it is to stop pumping,” Parker said. “If we do that, with the drought and lack of state water, participants don’t get water, including ID4, which is the water wholesaler to the City of Bakersfield.”
Core said ID4 supplies only a fraction of Bakersfield's water needs.
Things got downright down and dirty over this issue in February 2008 when Rosedale-Rio Bravo and Buena Vista commissioned a report that said, among other things, KWB was taking more water than it needed, it was degrading water quality in the aquifer and — here come the fightin’ words — that it hadn’t put as much water into the bank as it had claimed.
Not true, Parker said. “This is water that otherwise wouldn’t be here and was brought here specifically for this purpose.”
I asked how much water KWB needs and Parker said that depends on participants’ requests. He did say that, other than one district in Kings County, all KWB-recovered groundwater stays in Kern County.
The Rosedale/Buena Vista report called for KWB to change its operations or prove that it wasn’t causing these problems. That 65-plus page report begat a 44-page response report (plus appendices) from KWB and a flurry of memos and letters back and forth.
Tempers flared, but not to lawsuit level (at least not yet). Concerns are still high, however, said Core and Eric Averett, General Manager of Rosedale-Rio Bravo.
Side note: Averett was the longtime manager of ID4 for Kern Water Agency until taking the reins of Rosedale-Rio Bravo about two years ago.
“The water in the project area (KWB) is below our levels, so the gradient changes and our groundwater moves toward the project,” he said. “We’re still trying to seek some course of action that would allow the project to operate and us to feel comfortable that they’re operating within acceptable parameters.”
Does that mean KWB is operating in an unacceptable manner now, I wondered?
“Let’s just say we’re very concerned with continued operation at its current level.”
I asked Core what the next step was and he said the city will be meeting with Kern Water Agency after the first of the year.
Some uncomfortable questions could come up. Such as: Can any water bank, no matter how large, truly sustain “hardened” water needs such as orchards and vineyards (or, ahem, cities like Tejon Mountain Village?) considering drought and state water uncertainties?
And, how much sway will Mr. Richy Pants Resnick have on these discussions when his lands don't even overlay the groundwater basin?
Hmmm. We should all keep an ear to the ground on this one.
Opinions expressed in this column are those of Lois Henry, not The Bakersfield Californian. Her column appears Wednesdays and Sundays. Comment at people.bakersfield.com/home/Blog/noholdsbarred, call her at 395-7373 or e-mail lhenry@bakersfield.com
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