All of the drama and vitriol of a long-running groundwater feud in the high desert played out before the Kern County Board of Supervisors – albeit in muted form – on Monday as supervisors considered whether to support a pair of bills aimed at clarifying and limiting the courts’ role in specific water lawsuits.
The lengthy meeting, at times, strayed into the sort of finger pointing that has become common during meetings of the Indian Wells Valley Groundwater Authority. But no one publicly called facts they disagreed with “horse s—” or accused anyone of slander, as has happened at authority meetings.
The bills also attracted some of the county’s heaviest hitters, including representatives from Wonderful, Grimmway, Bolthouse, the Kern County Farm Bureau and the oil industry to urge supervisors against support. Assemblymembers Jasmeet Bains and Stan Ellis were also on hand to speak against support for the bills.
Both bills deal with groundwater adjudication lawsuits in which a judge determines how much groundwater is available in a basin, who has rights to it and how much each rights holder can extract…