| More NewsLetter from Loyd Wiens, Los Padres Streamkeepers to State Water Resources Control Board regarding Kern River: Calls de-watering criminalKathryn M. Gaffney, P.E. Pursuant to my earlier comments, shown below, has a Clean Water Act Section 401/404 Water Quality Certification been completed as related to the dewatering of the Kern River through Bakersfield? Has compensatory mitigation in the form of the creation of other wetlands, stream enhancement, restoration or set-asides been provided in the local area for any impacts created to this river and its habitats? If not, why not? If not completed or provided, these are clear violations of the Clean Water Act, CEQA and NEPA. Has an analysis of the impact(s) caused by this dewatering to the water table and water resources in the Bakersfield area, and currently-existent public and private water sources and wells ever been conducted by SWRCB and State Water Rights, in cooperation with the State Dept. of Health Services, Calif. Fish & Game, the US Army Corps of Engineers, the Kern County Water Agency, Kern County Environmental Health and the US Fish & Wildlife Service? President Clinton's Clean Water Action Plan is shown at http://www.epa.gov/history/topics/cwa/03.htm . This plan called for more than 100 major new actions to restore and protect water resources, including restoring and protecting Watersheds, and:
Info on the Clean Water Act, Water Pollution Prevention and Control can be seen at http://gsa.gov/pbs/pt/call-in/factshet/1298a/1298afact.htm . The entire text of the law may be found at http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/unframed/33/ch26.html. Additionally, Fish & Game Code section 5937 was the primary violation ruled on by the courts in California Trout, Inc. v. SWRCB at 207 Cal.App.3d 584 (1989) and California Trout v. Superior Court at 218 Cal.App.3d 187 (1990). It is clearly apparent that the rulings in these cases are applicable to the Kern River situation, and without a doubt establish certain legal precedents that are being violated by the dewatering of the Kern. Previous discussions regarding those cases confirmed that the current Kern River situation and others in the Central Valley are virtually identical. As such, your agency and others are in violation of the rulings issued in these cases that established the expected level of behavior of public water agencies.
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