Kern County has collected $4,076,000 from oil permits issued since the start of the year as part of its strategy to help disadvantaged communities with failing water systems.<\/p>\n
But it can only actually spend $9,592 of that, so far.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s because, until oil companies begin the drilling process \u2014 known as spudding in \u2014 the $9,732 water fee charged as part of county permits doesn\u2019t technically belong to the county, explained Planning Director Craig Murphy.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s held in trust while the oil company works to get its permits from CalGEM (California Geologic Energy Management), and then get all its equipment, financing and people in place,\u201d Murphy said. \u201cOnce they notify the county that they\u2019re activating the permit, that triggers the money to be transferred into the Disadvantaged Communities Water Relief Fund.\u201d<\/p>\n
So far, only one of the nearly 400 permits issued since January has been activated, Murphy said.<\/p>\n
Because the county takes $140 off the top for staffing and administrative costs, the full amount in the fund is $9,592.<\/p>\n
Murphy said there isn\u2019t a threshold amount that needs to be in the fund before the county begins doling it out, but he acknowledged $9,592 certainly isn\u2019t yet enough.<\/p>\n
The county is still working out exactly how communities, water districts and others can access the fund, once it grows.<\/p>\n
But it does have some of the basics worked out.<\/p>\n
Planning will work with the Public Health Department to identify disadvantaged communities \u201cin the Central Valley portion of Kern County\u201d that could be eligible for the money. A year-end report and public hearing, required as part of the ordinance, will detail exactly how much money has come in each year and how applications for the funding were handled, Murphy said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re excited to work with communities that really need this assistance,\u201d Murphy said. \u201cBefore this ordinance, there were no requirements for the oil industry to do anything like this.\u201d<\/p>\n
The ordinance that created the permit fee allows the money to be used for a wide range of projects including construction, technical assistance, consolidation and more. It can also be paired with grants or other funding sources. That includes the state\u2019s SAFER (Safe and Affordable Funding for Equity and Resilience) program.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe welcome any new resources to help with water mitigation,\u201d said Tom Collishaw, president of Self-Help Enterprises, a Visalia nonprofit that provides emergency water and long-term solutions for valley residents whose homes go dry either from drought or well failures.<\/p>\n
He said Self-Help is \u201canxious to hear more\u201d about how the Kern fund will work.<\/p>\n
Particularly as the future of state SAFER funding after next year is up in the air.<\/p>\n
Collishaw said the Legislature had until Monday to find a new source for SAFER funding after it was all but cut from its original source, the state\u2019s cap-and-invest program.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are concerned that the commitment the administration and Legislature made to this important work and the human right to water seems to be failing lately,\u201d Collishaw said of SAFER funding. \u201cBecause unless that commitment has to have money behind it, otherwise it\u2019s an empty promise.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lois Henry is the CEO and editor of SJV Water, a nonprofit, independent online news publication dedicated to covering water issues in the San Joaquin Valley. She can be reached at lois.henry@sjvwater.org<\/a>. The website is sjvwater.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kern County has collected $4,076,000 from oil permits issued since the start of the year as part of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":449964,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[151,153,152],"class_list":["post-449963","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bakersfield","tag-bakersfield","tag-bakersfield-headlines","tag-bakersfield-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/449963","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=449963"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/449963\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/449964"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=449963"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=449963"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=449963"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}