Application to Appropriate Water

Application to Appropriate Water

The Bear Valley CSD is seeking to divert 450 acre-feet annually (afa) of seasonal water to storage in four onstream Ponds for the recreational use on all Ponds and for the irrigation of nearby Urban Parkland. The Bear Valley CSD and its Environmental Committee (CSD/EC) operates and maintains all services and facilities for the Bear Valley Springs (BVS) planned community in the Tehachapi Mountains in Kern County, California. A key part of BVS's recreational facilities are the four Ponds, which collect water from the tributaries of Sycamore Creek. The Ponds in BVS's Lower Valley impound seasonal water that has drained from BVS's Upper and Middle Valleys. Water from the BVS area flows through the four Ponds and exits the BVS region through Sycamore Creek towards Buena Vista Lake (an alkali-sink at the southeastern end of the San Joaquin Valley). The Sycamore Creek watershed normally dries up during the summer. However, the four Ponds and Sycamore Creek in the Lower Valley have been maintained during the Summer months with purchased water, groundwater, and irrigation runoff since 1973. The Applicant's Bear Valley Springs Environmental Impact Report and Specific Plan (1973) (EIR/SP) describes the habitats, biota, and environmental setting of the entire Bear Valley Springs (BVS) region in great detail. However, the project are associated with this water right Application encompasses a much smaller area that consists of the relatively level and urbanized BVS's Lower Valley. The BVS's Lower Valley includes the four storage Ponds, their streams, Urban Parkland (parks, golf course, greenbelts), and low-density urban buildings on large one to ten-acre lots. These Ponds, streams and Urban Parkland comprise the project area for this Application.

Kern