BAKERSFIELD, CA — The Rosedale Rio Bravo Water Storage District began receiving the overflow from the Friant Kern Canal more than a week ago. Because of that, the water is flowing into recharge ponds off Allen Road and the Westside Parkway and filling them up for the first time since November 2020.
Zach Smith is the water district's Operations Manager. The current inflow is being dispersed across some 2,000 acres of recharge ponds. Smith says the recently completed Houghton Weir is helping to measure and manage the flow through Rosedale.
Trent Taylor, the Water Resources Manager, is still eyeing what he hopes will be a big spring runoff.
"We desperately need as much water as we can put into the groundwater table for not only our own landowners but for the county as a whole," said Taylor. "We are ready and willing to take as much water as we can put in. I think I speak for all of the water districts locally."
"One of the biggest impacts is going to be that snow water content that is up in the mountains for that springtime runoff that will hopefully push us into a more average water year, which as those in the water industry know, there is no such thing as average," he explained.
The Army Corps of Engineers has requested the operation restriction for Lake Isabella to be raised to 361,000-acre-feet so that engineers can monitor the performance and safety work. Eventually, the lake will return to the pre-construction volume of nearly 570,000-acre-feet when sufficient rain or the melting snowpack occurs.
"All of the irrigation districts are up and running," said Mark Mulkay, the Kern River Watermaster, as he explained that there is water in all of the canals. "We are using what we can and capturing what we can."
For now, the water districts will be cleaning up what's coming in and spreading water everywhere they can.
