Fresno Bee calls uproar about Kern Water Bank near Bakersfield, Calif., CHINATOWN II
Diane Hardisty
Examiner
09/05/2010
Mark Grossi, a reporter at The Fresno Bee has likened the flurry of lawsuits over the underground storage of water in Kern County, west of Bakersfield, Calif., to Los Angeles’ purchase of water rights decades ago in the Owens Valley. Greedy landowners sold the rights and Owens Lake dried up, as did most of the land around it.
"Chinatown," the classic 1974 movie, starring Jack Nicholson, Faye Dunaway, and John Huston, depicted the intrigue and corruption surrounding the purchase that left a large portion of the eastern slope of the Sierra Nevada Mountains dry as a bone. The film was released by Paramount Pictures.
Oddly another “Paramount” plays a leading role in what Grossi suggests is “Chinatown II” -- the state’s transfer of the Kern Water Bank into the control of a few large corporate landowners, including Beverly Hills billionaire businessman Stewart Resnick’s Paramount Farms, one of the largest corporate farms in California.
Lawsuits by Northern California water interest, environmental groups, northwest Bakersfield residents whose water wells have dried up, and several local water agencies called the transfer corrupt because it allowed a few large landowners, including Paramount and Tejon Ranch, to make a fortune selling and pumping water at the expense of neighbors and other water users in the state.
Representatives of Paramount Farms and Tejon Ranch deny the charge. William Phillimore, Paramount’s executive officer in Bakersfield and chairman of the Kern Water Bank Authority, noted that the controlling interests have invested $30 million in improvements since the transfer.
The lawsuits claim Paramount Farms controls 58 percent of the water bank through property ownership in Westside Mutual Water Co. and Dudley Ridge Water District.
A spokesman for Tejon Ranch, which is proposing to build a large residential and commercial development in the mountains between Bakersfield and Los Angeles, responded that his company only controls 2 percent of the water bank.
The lawsuits, however, contend Tejon, as a majority landowner in the Wheeler Ridge-Maricopa Water District, controls 24 percent of the water bank. The lawsuits also claim development of Tejon Mountain Village depends on water from the underground bank. Tejon denies the claim.
Here’s the link to the Fresno Bee story.
As all sides have come out swinging over the Kern Water Bank, the Kern County Water Agency has agreed to give a one-day briefing on Saturday, Oct. 9, to area residents who wonder: “Where Does My Water Come From?”
