BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KERO) — The city of Bakersfield reduced flows to the Kern River on Sept. 3 to repair the weirs along the river, but environmentalists say that resulted in hundreds of dead fish.
- Video shows dead fish in the dry Kern River
- The city of Bakersfield reduced flows to the Kern River on Sept. 3 to begin repairs on the weirs along the river.
- California State University Bakersfield biology students and professors says the reduced flows led to hundreds of dead fish.
If you’re taking a walk or a bike ride along the Kern River you may not give this weir by the Stockdale bridge a second thought, but the city of Bakersfield plans to upgrade it, and that’s caused concerns for some local environmentalists.
Along the Kern River Parkway trails lies an unsuspecting battle for water.
“You see the deeper areas. There was a lot of water. Now, there’s only water over here,” Antje Lauer, a biology professor at California State University Bakersfield, said as she walked through the dry river bed of the Kern River.
The city of Bakersfield reduced Kern River water flows on Sept. 3 to perform repairs and maintenance to the weir near the Stockdale Highway bridge.
Lauer says as the water levels drop, the number of dead fish rises.
“Fish don’t cry," she said. "They don’t scream, but if you see them in shallow waters, gasping for air, it’s like heartbreaking.”
Lauer says she partnered with her colleague Rae McNeish and her research class to document impacts on wildlife.
“We have documented multiple mass fish death events since Aug. 28,” McNeish said in the city council meeting on Wednesday.
McNeish says since the city reduced flows, they found more than 3,033 dead fish in the river bed.
“3,000 fish dead in the river is a failure on our part, and I think we can do better,” Ward 1 City Councilaman Eric Arias said.
In late October, the Kern County Superior Court granted a preliminary injunction prohibiting the city of Bakersfield from diverting too much water out of the river, but the 5th District Court of Appeals put that injunction on pause, meaning the city must abide by their current contracts with the agriculture districts.
“At this point the reality is, and if I could just put it bluntly, the city has no water to run through the river,” Christian Clegg, the city manager for the city of Bakersfield, said at the city council meeting.
The city ran its share of the water through the lower Kern until August so they were already out of water by the time they announced they would reduce flows.
Still, Lauer wishes the city would have handled the reduction differently.
“If there would have been maybe a diversion, little canal or fish ladder for them, some of them may have been able to escape,” Lauer said.
23ABC's Dominique LaVigne reached out to the California Department of Fish and Wildlife about the situation.
They released this statement:
“California Department of Fish and Wildlife takes all instances of fish mortality seriously and is investigating what has occurred on the Kern River, we cannot comment further during the pending investigation.”
23ABC reached out to the city of Bakersfield for independent comment but did not hear back.
Lauer hopes to find common ground to keep the river and the fish alive while giving the farmers the water they need to produce their crops.
“It’s also about managing it correctly, and there is probably some room for improving water management here,” Lauer said.
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