More than 3,000 fish have been found dried up and dead along a five-mile stretch of a California river after waterflow was abruptly cut off.
CSUB Biology Professor, Rae McNeish, and her students have counted a shocking 3,033 dead fishes over a course of seven days – a feat that sparked an investigation from the Fish and Wildlife Department, according to KGET.
The once-flowing Kern River in Bakersfield – located 100 miles northeast of Santa Barbara – has run dry after the city’s water allotment was used up in August and the precious liquid is now going to water districts, which divert it to canals, the local outlet reported.
Bonnie Compton, who lives in a tent with her husband along the river, told the Los Angeles Times.
‘They’re killing the fish. They’re killing our wildlife. Everything’s dying.’
The once-flowing Kern River in Bakersfield – located 100 miles northeast of Santa Barbara – has run dry after the city’s water allotment was used up in August and the precious liquid is now going to water districts, which divert it to canals
Fish and Wildlife Services are now investigating to see if Bakersfield has has broken the law, as under Game Code 5937, the city is required to provide enough water for the fish to survive in the river, CSUB Professor Antje Lauer told KGET.
‘We want our river back,’ Environmental Advocate, Kelly Damian, told The Times. ‘It is not an easy task. We are up against a lot. We’re up against climate change, a vast network of canals. We’re up against a highly financed industry, but really the most difficult thing that we are up against is an old way of thinking.’
City Attorney Ginny Gennaro is directing outraged citizens to go bother North Kern Storage Water District and Kern Delta about the waterflow as they control it.
‘I would encourage you to go to Kern Delta, they have public meetings and tell them about why you want water in the river,’ she said, according to KGET.
Damian said the real reason the river has run dry is because ‘there are five different entities that own rights to the Kern River water and none of them let their water run through the riverbed.’
The water districts allegedly routes the water away from the river to support the flourishment of crops and almond trees, according to KGET.
Councilmember Bob Smith said the city ‘ran what water we had, what water we have rights to, as long as we could,’ according to The Times.
CSUB Biology Professor, Rae McNeish, and her students have counted a shocking 3,033 dead fishes over a course of seven days – a feat that sparked an investigation from the Fish and Wildlife Department
Fish and Wildlife Services are now investigating to see if Bakersfield has has broken the law, as under Game Code 5937, the city is required to provide enough water for the fish to survive in the river
Councilmember Bob Smith said the city ‘ran what water we had, what water we have rights to, as long as we could’
In a September 3 press release, Bakersfield said it would be ‘reducing water flows’ to the river to allow for infrastructure work.
Since July, McNeish and her students have been studying the Kern riverbed, and they have watched pools of water dissipate in dry, cracked earth.
‘We’re all very surprised at how quickly things changed,’ she told the Los Angeles Times. ‘It’s really sad to see.’
Bring Back the Kern and the Kern River Parkway Foundation, among others, sued the City of Bakersfield in 2022 as they wanted the city to study river operations under the Public Trust Doctrine, according to SJV Water reporter Lois Henry.
The doctrine states that the state’s natural resources have to used to the highest beneficial use, which includes protecting the environment.
In 2023, fish were seen back in the river that began running again and a preliminary injunction mandated Bakersfield keep enough water in the river to support the fish under the Game Code 5937.
The water district appealed the decision and a hearing is scheduled for later this year, SJV Water said.
Since July, McNeish and her students have been studying the Kern riverbed, and they have watched pools of water dissipate in dry, cracked earth. ‘We’re all very surprised at how quickly things changed,’ she said
The appeal froze the judge’s order that sufficient water flow had to be provided to the river to keep the fish alive, according to The Times.
As the water continues to evaporate, local activists and students are concerned by the decay and death they’ve seen.
‘I was tearing up the first time that we started seeing the fish flopping,’ student Alexandra Brown, who has helped study the river, told the Los Angeles Times. ‘There was nothing we could do.’
Brown, who grew up in Bakersfield, remembers seeing the riverbed both wet and dry throughout her lifetime, and really enjoyed how ‘beautiful’ it was ‘when you get to have a flowing river and see how much is supported by that,’ she told The Times.
‘Now it’s like hardly anything is left alive,’ she said. ‘That there has been so much death is very, very disappointing, considering how full of life this was.’
McNeish’s group noticed the water had begun retreating in late August before completely drying up five miles of the river, and it continues to retreat.
Compton, on the other hand, believes local officials are trying to push away homeless people by taking their water source.
‘This is public ground, and they’re taking the water away from the public,’ she told The Times. ‘We want the water back.’
