A river could run through it

Let me be the 1,000th person to say this/write this/ ask for this: Let’s get water back in the river if it’s the last thing we do.

Talk about a legacy project. Talk about a Hail Mary. Talk about threading the needle wearing a pair of barbecue mitts.

There are a million reasons not to and another million reasons why it won’t happen (drought, prior water rights agreements, needs of farmers) but one reason why it should: This place gets better, looks better and lives better with water flowing through the middle of town.

Approach Bakersfield from any direction right now. It’s not pretty. The landscape is dry, brown and if it weren’t for the leaves changing colors, it looks like the wrong side of the moon. Water softens that look and gives people something to cheer about.

Legacy projects like the bike path have transformed Bakersfield in the past. When Rich O’neil, Bill Cooper and their band of merry pranksters started making “trouble” in the 1980s through the Kern River Foundation, some people thought they were crazy, presumptuous and environmental lunatics.

The old guard was more prone to say, “You want pretty, you want protections, visit the coast or mountains. However, here at home, we prefer more of a wild west approach to open land and public projects that might contribute to the quality of life.”

Cooper, O’neil and countless others persisted and look what the Kern River Foundation has accomplished: Built equestrian hitching posts along the river. Planted thousands of trees. Constructed the first leg of the bike path in 1987 from Beach Park to CSUB.

Now, the bike path runs almost 40 miles — from Lake Ming and is heading for Buena Vista Lake. People love it and use it like it might be gone tomorrow. Go there on the weekends and watch the families, walkers, runners and cyclists traipsing to and fro.

The bike path is also ammo for people when they’re defending Bakersfield to out-of-town friends and family: “We have a great bike path. What do you have?”

Panorama Park on the bluffs is Exhibit No. 2 and also attracts hordes of runners, walkers, strollers and now bocci ball players. This was then-supervisor Pauline Larwood’s idea and what a legacy it has become.

Where else can you sit on a park bench and admire the Kern River Oil Field while having a private reverie about the meaning of life?

Water running in the riverbed would be another legacy project. Couple that with our great bike path, equestrian trails and a community thirsty for water and you’d see people swimming, splashing and delighting in the river. It wouldn’t matter if it was two feet deep and running down the middle of the riverbed, which it may have to do in order not to waste inordinate amounts of water.

If we can’t pull it off, how about a Christo-like project where we mount rippling blue aluminum foil that looks like water and extends the entire length of the dry river so we can fake ourselves into thinking we have water in the river?

There are countless obstacles. We’re in a drought (with big water years, there’s excess water to run down the river), farmers require water and it’s probable all of the water that gets diverted through the concrete canal that runs parallel to the river has been allocated, claimed and there’s no more.

However, there’s something called the public trust doctrine that says that “the people of the State have a paramount interest in the use of all water of the State and that the State shall determine what water of the State, surface and underground, can be converted to public use or controlled for public protection.”

In short, the public has a voice and the public’s interest might be benefitted by water running down the riverbed so the town doesn’t look like the second coming of Tombstone.

This is tricky, it’s challenging. If you want to read a more in-depth explanation of water and the Kern River, pull up any of Lois Henry’s columns in The Californian (and visit her nonprofit news site SJV Water) because she actually knows what she’s talking about.

However, if there’s a way, there has to be the collective will within the community that says this is important. If we can thread the needle when the needle becomes available, let’s get ready to do some threading.

I’m an unabashed capitalist, but is it possible improving the look of the city is as important as growing it? Is Bakersfield a better place in which to live with a million people or better with slightly less people and a river?

As Norman Maclean said at the end of “A River Runs Through It:” “Eventually, all things merge into one, and a river runs through it. The river was cut by the world’s great flood and runs over rocks from the basement of time. On some of the rocks are timeless raindrops. Under the rocks are the words, and some of the words are theirs. “I am haunted by waters.” Many of us are too. If you’re interested in joining the effort, visit bringbackthekern.org.