KDWD Newsletter March 26, 2024

Kern River Status Update

On March 19th the Kern Delta Water District Board of Directors set the State Water Tolls for the 2024 irrigation season. Rates shown below were made effective March 1, 2024 and reflect no increase over the 2022 approved rates. All District Water Tolls can be viewed on our website here. Prorations for all service areas will be made available as the season progresses and once the runoff forecasts become more definitive. West side Service Areas will see a blended utility/state rate by Service Area once prorations are finalized.

2024 State Water Tolls

     (per acre foot)

  • Kern Island West of 99: $90.00
  • Kern Island East of 99: $88.00
  • Eastside: $116.00
  • Farmers: $87.00
  • Stine: $87.00
  • Buena Vista: $84.00

Last week the Department of Water Resources updated their March 1 B-120 forecast. Utilizing automatic remote sensors, and approximately ten days of forecasted precipitation from the California-Nevada River Forecast Center and the Center for Western Weather and Water Extremes. The 50% exceedance (which assumes normal precipitation for the remainder of the year) increased slightly, showing 410,000 acre-feet of runoff for the Kern River during the months of April through July. This is about 90% of the long term historical average for the Kern River.

At the end of last year water applications for 2024 went out to all water users. All growers are required to review these applications to ensure the information we have on file is correct. A fillable form version of the cover page can be found on our website here (Simply complete, print, and include with your application). If you have any questions do not hesitate to reach out to our Operations Department at (661) 834-4653 and speak to Antonio. We ask that growers complete the applications and submit them as soon as possible as the water applications are essential to ensuring appropriate prorations when applicable.

To help visualize the current state of the River, the District is providing this graph that compares flow rates for the two-year periods of 2022-2023, the current period of 2023-2024, as well as other two-year periods in which the second year follows a significantly above average for the Kern River. The flows for this year are estimates only and subject to revision.
Below is a list of upcoming meetings that may interest our growers. The information presented at these meetings may directly affect agricultural practices and costs.

Upcoming Meetings:

Kern River Groundwater Sustainability Agency
First Thursday of the month at 10:00 AM
The next meeting will be on April 4
City of Bakersfield Water Resources Department
1000 Buena Vista Drive, Bakersfield CA 93311
Large Conference Room
Kern River Watershed Coalition Authority
First Thursday of the month at 1:00 PM
The next meeting will be on April 4
Rosedale-Rio Bravo WSD
849 Allen Road, Bakersfield, Ca 93314
Kern Groundwater Authority
Fourth Wednesday of the month at 8:00 AM
Next Meeting: April 24
To Be Determined