BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KERO) — As a result of the ongoing drought, the City of Bakersfield has taken additional measures to conserve water, including removing water from Truxtun Lake and allocating it to local water treatment plants, leaving the lake with a noticeable odor of dead fish.
For days, the water levels at the Truxtun Lake have been decreasing. The lake is now nearly dried up, and it's been nearly five days since the city began cleanup efforts.
According to city officials, water has been prioritized to treatment plants for drinking, showering, restaurants, cleaning, and other needs. However, this reallocation of water left a lot of dead fish in the area, and the smell is pervasive.
Dr. Ravi Patel from the Comprehensive Blood and Cancer Center on Truxtun Avenue says the smell has become a disturbance for some of the chemotherapy patients at the facility.
"It's a tough situation," says Patel. "Some of the dead life has been removed, so it's getting a little bit better, but it's still present. The city has been working hard to try and see how to correct it, but for the patients it's a difficult situation, because most of the patients who come here are coming for chemotherapy, and as we all know, chemotherapy has the side effects of nausea and vomiting, and that can be triggered by a variety of things, but importantly, smell."
The city says water resources maintenance crews tilled the lake bottom Friday afternoon, overturning the fish into the soil. They expect any remaining odor to "dissipate" as a result of these mitigation efforts.
The city says it hopes conservation and future rainfall over the fall and winter seasons will help provide higher water levels and reduce the loss of wildlife.
