The Kern River has long been a dry riverbed in downtown Bakersfield. A group of residents is pushing to bring back a flowing river.
The Kern River cascades from the Sierra Nevada in a steep-sided canyon, coursing through granite boulders, and flows to the northeast side of Bakersfield. There, beside cottonwoods and willows, the last of the river collects in a pool where dragonflies hover and reeds sway in the breeze.Decades ago, the Kern flowed all the way through Bakersfield. But so much water has been appropriated and diverted in canals to farmland that the river has vanished in the city, leaving miles of dry riverbed.
Activists with Bring Back the Kern and other environmental groups see an opportunity to secure water for the river as the State Water Resources Control Board considers a long-standing dispute over water rights. One morning last week, Rodriguez walked to a forested nature preserve beside oil fields, where the river pushes against a weir and much of the water is diverted into a wide canal. He said he thinks it’s wrong that the water has long been treated as a commodity and taken away, choking off the river.
That waterfall, which once poured into the river from a side creek, was obliterated during road construction long ago. The site of an adjacent Indigenous village, Dominguez said, is now fenced off in an olive orchard. “All of that water is taken out,” Dominguez said. “It’s very devastating, not only for us as people, but two lakes have been destroyed, including all the tributaries.”
“I come here when I want to clear my head,” Dominguez said. “It just kind of like loosens everything in you.” “The river’s legs have been cut off, and we need to heal it,” Dominguez said. “We need our water back.”Bill Cooper grew up knowing a very different Kern River. In the 1950s and ‘60s, there was always water in the river in Bakersfield, even during peak irrigation season in the fall. He and other kids rode horses along the river.
Pumpjacks in the Kern River Oil Field can be seen in the background from the Rocky Point weir, the second point where water is taken from the Kern River and diverted into the Carrier Canal at the Panorama Vista Preserve in Bakersfield. With climate change pushing temperatures higher and intensifying droughts, the river advocates say, restoring the river takes on even greater importance.
The Kern River is a “poster child,” Keats said, and there are many other rivers and streams throughout California in the same situation.On the west side of Bakersfield, the river sits dry next to the lawns and bike path at River Walk Park.
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