Too little or too much, there’s always controversy brewing over Kern River water
It may seem like a no-brainer to enthusiastically allow the Kern Water Bank Authority to take up to 300,000 acre feet of flood water off the Kern River and store it underground as water managers scramble to find homes for this year’s epic runoff. But, alas, nothing is simple with water. The water bank’s April 13 application for a temporary permit from the state Water Resources Control Board raised eyebrows almost as soon as it was filed. The 32-square mile water bank, which has 7,000 acres of recharge ponds, is currently taking 1,500 cubic feet per second of river water. But that water is being purchased by the bank’s participants, mostly from the Kern County Water Agency (see sidebar).