I'm not a water expert but I know that living in a desert or 'semi-arid' area as we do plentiful water is not supposed to be natural to this area. On the other hand I remember from, was it the forth grade?, that Captain Baker had to drain the swamp so he could have a field that became this town. It makes sense since the Kern is a fairly big river with no outlet to the ocean. 

This all happened before over half a million people, a couple million acres of farming and lots of industry.

I remember fondly when there was water in the river at beach park every summer. It really does add a bit to the sense of quality of life here. It is unfortunate that more practical factors must prevail. While our farmers have on the whole cheaper access to water than farmers anywhere on earth we all benefit from this due the the thriving agri-business in Kern County. Any surplus of water exists only on paper. We are in the middle of a multi year drought. If the population or the business community doesn't need water that is in the reservoir this year we will need it next year. I also remember years when we couldn't even wash our cars or water our lawns. 

If you really think about it except for beach park and oildale, where do we really see the river anyway? Habitat is one thing, a few billion mosquitoes is another. The only pressing need for water in the lower river is to replenish the aquifer. Since that is not taken seriously, or the salinization of the land problem either, farmland will soon disappear as will much of the population. Then there will be enough water to go wading under the bridge at 24th st.

"The only pressing need for water in the lower river is to replenish the aquifer. "

That is the question that we need to look to.

water in the river ?? yup we need more west nile skeeters...might help cut back on the population explosion we have been having..not to mention people will be leaving in droves once the epidemic gets started...sure be the answer to our water shortage problems..

us old farts too settled in to move out of the area will just have to purchase our cans of OFF by the truck load and make sure the screens are on tight.....hell whats another year or two more or less of life in this heat..

fyi avon skin so soft works pretty good too..

Brian, the desert is on the other side of the mountains. As you pointed out, Bakersfield is swamp-land historically.

Swamp, bog, wetland... call it what you will (and most people don't care about the Koeppen climate scale). Point is if it weren't for the dams and weirs, no one would be calling this area a desert. It would still be hot with low precipitation, but not a desert like the Mojave. Also, should I point out that certain areas of Hawaii are also rated BSh (hot semi-arid steppe) on the Koeppen scale yet no one is calling it a desert either?

Interesting opinions.  I'll be watching to see how the experts comment on this subject and if they line up with the water powers.

If you want to see pictures of how it used to be here bo to my new blog.  I have a book with a picture of a flood in Bakersfield but it didn't  scan well.  Besides, that wold be a copyright infringement.  (cough)

How very nice for you Observer. Most people NOT in your field really don't care about the climate scale though. And Bakersfield hugs the Kern River. If not for the weirs and the dam, there'd be whole areas of the city up to their proverbial ankles in water. It might be BWh on the scale, but I'm not talking about climate scales. I'm talking about what the common man would use to describe the area as it was before the Europeans came and reclaimed it. "Desert" would not exactly be the first label that would spring to mind to the common man upon seeing Bakersfield as it was. "Marsh", "swamp", "bog" and so forth however would be. It might not jive with your scientific scale, but that's your issue, not mine.

Also, there is no C in my name.

Yeah, release the water and give those illegals a place to bathe and swim for the love of God!

Someone turned off my favorite shower on the bike path between Yokuts Park and Gosford :(  Me and a lot of my homeless friends used that to rinse off after we received our entitlements, celebrated with some Cobra beer and peed ourselves because they don't provide proper toilets on the riverbed.  Oh, the humanity!

The dam at Lake Isabella was constructed by the Army Corps of Engineers primarily as a flood control project.  Spring floods were rather common in the Bakersfield area prior to it's construction.  Certainly we had water in the Kern River then. LOL

Doesn't seem like many are interested in this topic as evidenced with the lack of comments.