Per Section 10723.8 (a) of the California Water Code, the City of Bakersfield , Kern Delta Water District, and Improvement District No. 4 of the Kern county Water Agency formed the Kern River Groundwater Sustainability Agency (KRGSA) for a portion of the Kern County Sub-basin (Basin Number 5-22.14, DWR Bulletin 118) within the San Joaquin Valley Groundwater Basin.

 

The Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA), passed in 2014, requires that all basins designated as high-or-medium-priority basins that are subject to critical overdraft conditions are to be managed under a groundwater sustainability plan (GSP) or coordinated GSPs (section 10720.7). The Kern County Sub-basin is a high-priority basin and is identified as having critical overdraft conditions. Information regard the status of groundwater basins is provided by the California Department of Water Resources (DWR).