Through dry years and wet – and multiple lawsuits – retiring Bakersfield City water leader met challenges cheerfully
Art Chianello, who has led Bakersfield’s Water Resources Department through two of the state’s worst droughts and one of its wettest years on record, is retiring at the end of September. Most municipal water departments are fairly quiet operations. As long as water comes out of taps, not many people pay attention. But the Bakersfield water department is in the unique position of also tracking and managing flows on the Kern River – a highly contentious piece of water – which it partly owns.