(jy DIVISION OF WATER RESOURCES 



The earliest r.ight is that of the Kern Island Canal, with an appropria- 

 lioii of :{00 t'libic feet per second as of JMiinary ], 1870, while the 

 dates of the original appropriations of the other canals range from 

 LS70 to 1876. 



Deliveries are made by the utility companies under rules and regu- 

 lations established by the Railroad Commission of California in its 

 Decision No. 21973. Under these rules, deliveries are made to definite 

 unit areas in limited rotation periods and the maximum amount 

 delivered per acre during any rotation iieriod is definitely fixed. The 

 canals and laterals to the heads of the consumers' ditches are main- 

 tained and operated by the canal companies. The records of deliveries 

 are for the points where the water leaves the companies' canals and do 

 not give the actual deliveries to the land. 



A summary of data relating to date of organization, principal crops 

 grown, areas irrigated, average amount of water diverted, amounts of 

 water delivered, charge for water, and average annual costs per acre 

 is given in Table 42. Attention is called to the fact that the average 

 annual costs of water per acre a,s given are not necessarily the total 

 average annual costs to the area served, as supplemental water is sup- 

 plied to some of these areas by private pumping plants. This is 

 particularly true of the areas served by the Central, and East 

 Side Canal companies and the Kern River Canal and Irrigation Com- 

 pany. There are no definite data available showing the extent of pri- 

 vate pumping for a supplemental supply under any of the canals. 



The costs of water to the farmers under these companies bear no 

 definite relationship to the costs of operating the canal systems since the 

 present rates for water for at least the past 30 years have remained the 

 same. A petition is now before the Railroad Commission for an increase 

 in rates. 



Under public utility water companies, the right to water service has 

 a value to the lands served. This right to service is somewhat similar 

 to water rights represented by capital stock in mutual water companies. 

 No definite valuation is being placed upon the right to service and no 

 interest is being included on this value in the cost of water figures 

 given. For this reason, annual costs of M-ater under public utility 

 water companies are hardly comparable with annual costs under mutual 

 water companies w^here interest on the value of capital stock is included. 



Cost of Water to Irrigators in Kern County Served Exclusively by Farm 

 Pumping Plants. 



Table 44 gives the cost of watci- lo ii-rigators on seventeen farms 

 in Kci'u County having a combined irrigated area of 1907 acres which 

 is served by 27 farm pumping plants. I'ower company records indi- 

 cate ai)])roxima1ely 2000 electric ])um])iiig ]ilants were ojierated withiu 

 the county in 1929. The first three farms listed in the table are located 

 south of Kciii Ivivrr, jibove the Ea.st Side Canal, while the others are 

 scattered over llie nuiin ]iumpiug area uorth of the river, extending 

 from Ro.sedale to w<'^t ol' I'ond Tiejir tlie north boundary of Kern 

 County. 



The recent rapid increa.se in pum])ing south of Kern River, in the 

 I'ueiia ^'ista Lake, and near liuttonwilhiw. is of particular interest. 

 Before tlie introduction of gravel-envelope wells in these areas, irriga- 



