4/22/26 Will the Kern River Flow Again? Taxes, AI & Valley Water Talk

The Moneywise Radio Show and Podcast Wednesday, April 22nd BE MONEYWISE. Moneywise Wealth Management I "The Moneywise Radio Show & Podcast" call: 661-847-1000 text in anytime: 661-396-1000 website: www. MoneywiseGuys.com facebook: Moneywise_Wealth_Management LinkedIn: Moneywise_Wealth_Management Guest: Lois Henry, CEO/Editor for SJV Water website: https://sjvwater.org/ The opinions voiced in this podcast are for general information only and are not intended to provide specific advice or recommendations for any individual. To determine which strategies or investments may be suitable for you, consult the appropriate qualified professional prior to making a decision. Lois Henry & SJV Water are not affiliated with nor endorsed by LPL Financial or Moneywise Wealth Management].

• 0:00Speaker 00

  Live from the basement inside the historic Woolworths Building in downtown Bakersfield.

• 0:05Speaker 01

  Call or text in at 661-396-1000.

• 0:29Speaker 02

  Securities offered through LPL Financial, member FINRA/SIPC. Investment advisory services offered through LPL Financial. LPL Financial and MoneyWise Wealth Management are independently owned and operated.

• 0:37Speaker 00

  Now, let's start the MoneyWise Show.

• 0:40Speaker 03

  And welcome to the MoneyWise Show. We are live from the basement of the historic Woolworths Building in downtown Bakersfield. For the next hour, you are on News Talk 96.1 and 1230 AM KERN, streaming live at MoneyWiseGuys.com. You can call or text into the show 24 hours a day at 661-396-1000. We are your hosts. I'm Sharad Waite and...

• 1:03Speaker 04

  Seth.

• 1:04Speaker 03

  Seth Perry. Great having you here. I feel like with just the rotation of hosts that we have, it's just enough to where it's exciting every time we get to do a show together. It's fresh. That's exactly right.

• 1:16Speaker 04

  I like it.

• 1:17Speaker 03

  Got some great headlines to cover today, some listener questions as well. Soon, we will have the area water expert on the show, Lois Henry, is going to be joining us. Got a lot to talk her about in terms of our water situation. But before that, Seth, how about we tackle these listener questions?

• 1:35Speaker 04

  Let's do it.

• 1:36Speaker 03

  Yeah. You have it there?

• 1:38Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 1:39Speaker 03

  Go for it.

• 1:39Speaker 04

  Number one. Come on.

• 1:43Speaker 04

  Let's do it. All right. This one is, this is a great one here because it's a, there's a whole lot going on. Let's see. "I know it sounds crazy, especially to MoneyWise, but my wife heard me talking to our oldest daughter and her words. Yeah, ask MoneyWise if that's a good idea," end quotes. "But with the high cost of things like gas, groceries, and daily things..." Now here's the question. Should people still be putting money into their 401K? Or is it okay to focus on just getting by right now? Just until you get back on your feet?

• 2:15Speaker 03

  Such a great question.

• 2:16Speaker 04

  Lots to unpack.

• 2:17Speaker 03

  Yes, thank you so much, listener. I love it when I hear, is it? What would MoneyWise say? And we do have experience in this and we deal with it every single day. Thousands of people over the last 20 plus years here in the valley. And now we have clients all over the country. This is one of the most common problems that savers face. How do you balance your needs now? Needs and wants now versus your needs and wants that you think you're going to have 20, 30 years down the road? It gets a little bit easier as we get older for us to wrap our heads around it. But when we're younger or for raising kids, it's the ultimate challenge as parents is to trying to get our kids to look ahead, look beyond the noise that you're seeing in the next few years.

• 3:00Speaker 03

  Look beyond just the time that you're in high school or in college. You've got to think about the time when you're going to be our age. When you are, you know, you're 10, 15 years away from what you would hope would be a retirement or a career change and you're nowhere near that. That's frightening. Like that's a, that's a, that's a concept that's very difficult for a lot of people to understand. And at the same time, Seth, how do you, how do you answer the question when somebody says, I don't know if I can afford to save. I know that I need to save. I don't have any in savings, but I've got these bills. How do I? How, how do you answer that? Where do you start?

• 3:41Speaker 04

  I always start by, well, let's, let's take a look at everything and, and talk about retirement last. Let's talk about your savings last. Why is it? I understand times are tight, gas, groceries, daily things. Everything's gotten expensive for everyone. However, a lot of people are managing through this, this difficult time and it's not going to get better. And other people's just continue to struggle. So, yeah, look at your, look at your bills. I would say, you know, are you on a budget? Do you know where your money goes each month? And if there's something you can, you can trim out so it's not so tight. You want to do that before you stop saving in a 401K. And then I would always say to a young person, you want to do everything in your human power to contribute

• 4:25Speaker 04

  because most all 401K plans are going to have some type of a match. It could be three or 4%. You don't understand, that is basically free money. You, you put a hundred dollars of check in, and if that happens to be 3% of your pay, the company's giving you a hundred dollars. You've instantly doubled your money.

• 4:41Speaker 03

  Right.

• 4:41Speaker 04

  Like, think about that.

• 4:42Speaker 03

  Right.

• 4:42Speaker 04

  Like, what investment is there a share that we offer where, hey, give MoneyWise 500% guaranteed 100% return the second you put your money in. It doesn't exist.

• 4:50Speaker 03

  Right, and exactly. And, and we talked about this on a show last week, I believe, where we were talking, somebody, there was a listener asking about the, the match, 401k match, and, you know, how, how much should you contribute? And we, we talked in depth about, well, take, get, get the free money. The minimum is get your free money.

• 5:10Speaker 04

  Add a minimum.

• 5:11Speaker 03

  Which is the match.

• 5:12Speaker 04

  Yep.

• 5:12Speaker 03

  A lot of people get hung up, well, then I have, if I have to pull it out, then I've got to pay taxes and an early withdrawal penalty and blah, blah, blah, blah. And our point is, even if you pay the penalties and the taxes, guess what? It's still free money.

• 5:24Speaker 04

  Pay penalty and tax on something that was given to you is better than.

• 5:28Speaker 03

  Yes.

• 5:28Speaker 04

  Always.

• 5:29Speaker 03

  Yeah, it's always better. Now, likely is that you'll be responsible enough that you'll be able to just keep that in the account, and then you'll, your, your 65-year-old self is going to thank you. You know, your future 65-year-old self will thank your 25-year-old self for put, for doing that. And so, obviously, if people, if you have a, if people have a good grasp of what they're spending, and they already know detail, they've got a, just a detailed spreadsheet, and they track it every, every month, or maybe it's an app on their phone. They know every dollar that's going out, and they're still struggling to save, well, you know, at one point, at some point, you can only do so much soul searching, right?

• 6:14Speaker 04

  Yep.

• 6:14Speaker 03

  Where you're looking at that list and you're going, okay, I've eliminated my cable or my, my apps.

• 6:18Speaker 04

  Yep.

• 6:19Speaker 03

  I've eliminated my, you know, name that subscription service, and they're still...

• 6:27Speaker 03

  Down to not being able to pay for their needs. Well, then yeah, you have no other choice. You have to stop.

• 6:34Speaker 04

  Or it could be an income problem. There is the option of can you pick up overtime at work? Can you get a new job? Can you see long term? Get into college if that might pay you a higher salary down the road? You know, there's lots of different things to consider.

• 6:47Speaker 03

  Yeah, I'm glad you brought that up, that that that concept of investing in your own human capital, in your own ability to make money is underrated. People do not understand how important it is just to get it, pay for. Even if you have to go into debt for that, as long as it's a proper certification or a proper degree or proper training.

• 7:10Speaker 04

  That's investing in yourself.

• 7:12Speaker 03

  You're investing in yourself.

• 7:13Speaker 04

  And in college, it gets a bad rap, you know, how expensive it can be in this and that. And I get it. It's very expensive. But you are investing in yourself. And when you look at the statistics, you cannot lie. A non-high school grad makes X amount, high school grad this much. And but the jump from a high school graduate to a four-year degree is really big.

• 7:33Speaker 03

  Yes.

• 7:34Speaker 04

  And then to have a master's degree in, you know, even in our local community makes, it makes a really big difference. But again, some kids just get in school. I know we're on a tangent, but some kids get in school and think, well, I'm just gonna stay in school forever. No, you have to work.

• 7:47Speaker 03

  Right.

• 7:47Speaker 04

  You gotta go find a job. You gotta network, man. It's so important. But yeah, great, great point for sure on this question.

• 7:53Speaker 03

  Yeah, very, very good. You know, if somebody is struggling to make ends meet, the answer isn't always just keep contributing or always just stop. You know, there is, as we're discussing here, some in-between. And there's some navigating through what you may, what may feel like to you, like a dead-end financial situation, even if you're in your, your 50s, 60s, and you haven't saved anything ever in your life towards a 401k, there's still hope.

• 8:20Speaker 04

  Hundred percent.

• 8:21Speaker 03

  There's, there's just hope for you.

• 8:22Speaker 04

  Hopefully, your mortgage will get paid off, close to or at, or in the beginning of your retirement.

• 8:27Speaker 03

  Right.

• 8:28Speaker 04

  A lot of people don't account for that. They've been paying 1,500 a month on a mortgage for X amount of years or a thousand a month.

• 8:33Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 8:33Speaker 04

  And that frees up that money. You know, that's income that you don't have to go earn.

• 8:37Speaker 03

  There are.

• 8:37Speaker 04

  Because your home's paid off.

• 8:38Speaker 03

  There's lots of pathways forward. This is, you know, an argument to working with a good financial advisor because they can, they can work as a therapist essentially to help you through your own mental blocks that you have with your relationship with money.

• 8:53Speaker 04

  And with this listener, you're the, you're the husband and wife. You brought this question in and so we just want to encourage you, share your finances. You don't have to share, you know, nitty gritty details or even savings or anything, but the more that you can expose your kids to, whether they're young, five or six years old, or they're young adults, late twenties, early thirties, the more that you can show them about your finances and just how things work, even if it's having them get online and pay your credit card bill and hopefully you're paying it off every month, but having them see, oh wow, I didn't realize, you know, how much some of these things cost and, you know, now I know how to do this. It's just giving them exposure, little things. Make your, make your kids order their own food at the restaurant. These are things that Perrys like to do.

• 9:35Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 9:35Speaker 04

  Just to get, and their communication skills are, are very high because of that.

• 9:38Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 9:38Speaker 04

  We're just forcing them to learn how to communicate.

• 9:40Speaker 03

  Yeah. And learn how to fail, right? They're going to embarrass themselves maybe the first time that they order that meal on their own.

• 9:46Speaker 04

  They just look at me and they see, they see my track record and they're like, oh man, this is just, our motto is, don't be as dad was. Don't do what dad did, right Steve?

• 9:55Speaker 03

  Well, it's still like, it's, you have to, you know, sometimes we just, we try to protect our, our kids a little too much. We see it in society.

• 10:05Speaker 04

  I'm reading a book right now about, and that was brought up last night in the book about how not to raise spoiled children and it's.

• 10:10Speaker 03

  Yeah. There is, there is something about that. You know, every generation says that about the younger generation though. They always say, oh, they're a bunch of softies, this younger generation. They, they're not going through what I had to go through.

• 10:20Speaker 04

  We're the old guys now or we?

• 10:21Speaker 03

  We're the old guys.

• 10:21Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 10:22Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 10:22Speaker 04

  I've been accused lately of being a, a Ken.

• 10:27Speaker 04

  On my family sometimes.

• 10:27Speaker 03

  Is that a, is that a bad thing?

• 10:29Speaker 04

  It's like the Karen. It's the male version of the Karen.

• 10:31Speaker 03

  But Ken was like.

• 10:32Speaker 04

  Get off my lawn, you know, that kind of thing. And there's this lady in our neighborhood and, and she's kind of pompous when she rolls around with her little dog and the dog drops on my grass. And I've seen little droppings. I don't know.

• 10:46Speaker 00

  Well, I get it. I guess I'm the old guy too, because like, I've spent a lot of time in my garden and I have a neighbor that does the same thing and.

• 10:55Speaker 03

  Now, this, uh, this animal has found a little part in my garden where he just goes potty every time he goes on a walk.

• 11:01Speaker 04

  Hmm.

• 11:02Speaker 03

  And it's bugging.

• 11:03Speaker 04

  It's salty, isn't it? The little things, right?

• 11:06Speaker 03

  I can hear myself and I'm like, yeah.

• 11:08Speaker 04

  The other pet peeve, way tangent, is when people don't pick up their feet when they walk, Steve. When people drag their feet and they're wearing sandals, nothing gets under my skin more.

• 11:15Speaker 03

  Knuckle draggers and dog poopers. You guys are old men for sure.

• 11:19Speaker 04

  Yes. All right, back to, back to the grind here. All kinds of questions in here.

• 11:23Speaker 03

  Well, our, this, back to this listener question. I know that this listener didn't say that their daughter was not wanting to save because of their outlook on the future. But I want to address that because it's one of the things that I definitely deal as, deal with as a parent. My, uh, my, my kids are older, they're out of the house. Um, so they're, they're all in their, in their twenties, you know, working towards their own independence and adulthood. But the most common frustration that I hear from them, and these are privileged kids, right? They, I mean, they, they, we were never super wealthy, but they didn't have, they never had a lack for things that they needed. But they find, all of them find themselves in a position right now where they're looking

• 12:04Speaker 03

  into the future and feeling like there is no, there is, what, what's the point of saving for something 30 years down the road when they can't even see a way forward for themselves in 10 years?

• 12:15Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 12:16Speaker 03

  And a lot of it is exacerbated by the advancement of technologies that are displacing jobs.

• 12:21Speaker 04

  Yep.

• 12:21Speaker 03

  And, and they're, them now feeling like, oh, this has been unleashed. I'm an engineer, my, the, my, the clock is ticking and my relevancy. And it, so why would I put, contribute to my 401K when there's not going to be a 401? Nobody's going to care about 401Ks when the robots are running everything, right? And that, I, I, I have to, I, I can push back on the air. With my kids, I'm a little softer, you know? I'm still very optimistic. I'm very optimistic about the future. Not that we won't have challenges, but we have to remind ourselves of this present day bias that we all have as humans where we tend to think the situation that we're in now is different and

• 13:04Speaker 03

  Worse than situations that everybody's had to deal with in the past. And that is just, gotta remind ourselves of what we've been through, especially as a country. We're fortunate to be in America where we have the natural resources. We still have the freedoms and the American dream, while it is dying slowly, is still there. Is still here more than any other place on the planet.

• 13:28Speaker 04

  Go get it.

• 13:29Speaker 03

  Yes, and there's no place on the planet like we have here in America where you can still make something of you. So you don't want to get into that negative mindset of doom and gloom because then it becomes a self fulfilling prophecy. And also, guess what? You're gonna sound like an idiot if you're talking to my grandpa who fought in World War II.

• 13:48Speaker 04

  Exactly.

• 13:48Speaker 03

  And had to jump out of an airplane and getting fired on by machine guns. Like, you're not doing that.

• 13:54Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 13:55Speaker 03

  You know?

• 13:55Speaker 04

  My wife's grandpa heating coals.

• 13:57Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 13:58Speaker 04

  To put at the foot of his bed.

• 13:59Speaker 03

  Right.

• 14:00Speaker 04

  So he keeps warm at night.

• 14:01Speaker 03

  Right.

• 14:01Speaker 04

  Because there was no gas heater. You couldn't go adjust the thermostat.

• 14:05Speaker 03

  Right. And then you had grandma who nearly died of head lice.

• 14:09Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 14:09Speaker 03

  You know, because we didn't have the antibiotics and the things to deal with these issues. And now it's like, we have so much privilege. We have so much, so many wonderful things going for us. Even on a global scale, the amount of wars and genocide that happens today versus just 50 years ago is unbelievably better.

• 14:35Speaker 04

  Yep.

• 14:35Speaker 03

  We are, if you look at what most people would call the metrics to a fulfilling life, life expectancy, infant mortality, a drop in violence, in crime, in war, in poverty, extreme poverty, we have been killing it as a species. As a global human race, we have been, we've cut world poverty in half in just 20 years. Nobody ever, 20 years ago, you know where we were sitting? We were, you know, we just had 9/11 or we were a few years into 9/11. We're still knee deep in the, in the war in Afghanistan and Iraq.

• 15:19Speaker 03

  And, and just the amount of pessimism that we were feeling just back then. Now, go back to World War II. I mean, the world was burning around us.

• 15:29Speaker 04

  The Great Depression.

• 15:30Speaker 03

  The Great Depression.

• 15:30Speaker 04

  People jumping out of buildings.

• 15:32Speaker 03

  Yes.

• 15:32Speaker 04

  Because they just lost their whole fortune and.

• 15:34Speaker 03

  Yeah, we had the 50% unemployment.

• 15:37Speaker 04

  Grandma triple shifting at the laundromat like.

• 15:39Speaker 03

  Yes. Yeah. And people only living into their 50s. You know, and normal life expectancy was in your 50s.

• 15:48Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 15:48Speaker 03

  You know, like, imagine that.

• 15:49Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 15:50Speaker 03

  And so, like, you have to be very careful about the way that you're framing the, the world around you.

• 15:57Speaker 04

  And what you're letting in.

• 15:58Speaker 03

  Yes.

• 15:58Speaker 04

  If you're just social media and just news, they have an agenda.

• 16:02Speaker 03

  Yes.

• 16:02Speaker 04

  One side or the other, they all have an agenda.

• 16:04Speaker 03

  Most of it is.

• 16:05Speaker 04

  Unplug and do your own research, do your own homework and invest in yourself like we're talking about. Really, not that you, you can do anything you put your mind to. No, if you're not that smart, you can't do certain things, but you could outwork somebody. And, and you could, you could go on and own a company doing whatever.

• 16:22Speaker 03

  Yes.

• 16:23Speaker 04

  If you have the work ethic, you can, you can control that.

• 16:25Speaker 03

  100%. There's, there, there, you have to, you know, give, give credit to the position that we are, we've been blessed with. Being born in North America, being, for us, being born in the Central Valley of California, which is the abundance of food.

• 16:42Speaker 04

  The US is so evil and bad, why is not everybody wanting to leave?

• 16:46Speaker 03

  Exactly. Yeah, we're still, we're still number one. Sorry, sorry, other countries.

• 16:51Speaker 04

  100%, you know?

• 16:53Speaker 03

  We're still number one. Yeah, there's so much to be, to, to, to focus on that you can, you can control a lot more than you realize. In terms of your, your overall outlook. There's my, I get on that soapbox every time.

• 17:04Speaker 04

  I love it.

• 17:05Speaker 03

  It's something that I'm always, I'm, I'm constantly battling with, with, and I know if I'm having this, this conversation with my kids, other people are doing the same thing. You know, as parents, we're, we're forced to, first of all, make sure that our financial house is in order. But then also, where's our future mind? If our kids are looking at us and we're going, yeah, we're doomed.

• 17:22Speaker 04

  That's the other thing is your kids are looking to you more as caught than taught. Remember that when you're talking about finances and the stresses of money and credit. If you're complaining about money all the time, that's not good.

• 17:34Speaker 03

  Nope.

• 17:34Speaker 04

  Figure it out, get on the right path so that your kids learn a different way to do things. That's what's. Yeah, that's our focus in our house is to kind of stop a lot of. Negative generational type activities and this, that and the other and make it different for our kids, which we are.

• 17:51Speaker 03

  There you go.

• 17:52Speaker 04

  Now, the goal is just don't spoil them, so.

• 17:54Speaker 03

  Uh, yeah, yeah, you don't want to spoil.

• 17:55Speaker 04

  Second one here.

• 17:56Speaker 03

  Little brats. Yeah, go for the second one.

• 17:57Speaker 04

  All right. Hey, call me nuts, but how far away are we of have just having the robots do everyone's taxes every year? Now it already has all the info needed lol. Just thinking it could be a win-win for everyone.

• 18:14Speaker 03

  Uh, yeah, you're not nuts, listener. It's already happening.

• 18:17Speaker 04

  I think taxes would be one of those things I'd be a little more concerned with as opposed to like us as advisors. I do see that, but, but they're still, like, I, I refer out and I use a professional here in town because, you know, it does take a lot of discretion and talking through things, but it could happen, just not anytime soon.

• 18:40Speaker 03

  I think it's already happening and I think it's going to be here quicker than we realize.

• 18:44Speaker 04

  I think so.

• 18:44Speaker 03

  And we have, yeah, for better, for worse. I'm not saying it's good or bad. I'm also very skeptical about us handing over everything to the government. You know, there's, I think the government's at an all time low in terms of trust, you know, that we have. And so I'm also very skeptical of that, but I'm also incredibly frustrated with the tax system that we currently have. How, how it's, it's definitely geared towards, you're fortunate that you can pay a professional to take care of that.

• 19:14Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 19:15Speaker 03

  Right, for you.

• 19:15Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 19:16Speaker 03

  And that affords you higher return, a higher refund, lower tax payout, just because you can afford to pay that bill.

• 19:24Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 19:24Speaker 03

  What about all those people who just, like, why are we forcing our citizens to have to hire a professional to do something?

• 19:31Speaker 04

  And what I, what really frustrates me too researching for this question, I had no idea like H&R Block and TurboTax, they lobby with the tax system, basically helping keep it complicated.

• 19:43Speaker 03

  100%.

• 19:44Speaker 04

  I didn't realize that. That's so slimy.

• 19:46Speaker 03

  Yeah, it is slimy. TurboTax got hit with a big, uh, that lawsuit a few years ago with TurboTax was about the fact that they were. He was kind of bait and switch, we're saying, we'll do it for free. But then you had all these other atoms, but if you want to follow your federal, we're gonna have to pay a little money. If you want to follow this, pay a little bit money. So people are like, well, I'm stuck already. So you're taking money out of their pockets that they already don't have money with. But there's countries around the world that are already automating it. There's robots that are already doing it. The UK and Denmark have been doing this for years. Why? Because just like the United States, it's information that the IRS already has. The IRS already gets the information from your W2s and your 1099s. Like, they have that. So why are they asking me for it?

• 20:29Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 20:30Speaker 03

  And so it can easily be automated. And I believe that right now, over the next couple of years, we're in phase one, where we're using the AI co-pilots to do almost everything.

• 20:42Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 20:42Speaker 03

  And H&R Block has that, or TurboTax, all of them, Intuit, QuickBooks, they're all offering AI assistants that are there that are amazing. I've used some of these, we use them in our industry. It's phenomenal. But eventually, our AI, the Agentic AI, our AI agents, are the ones that are gonna be filing our tax return.

• 21:04Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 21:05Speaker 03

  Now, it doesn't mean that the government's controlling your AI bot. You're still controlling it, but it's gonna be fully automated.

• 21:10Speaker 04

  That's what Elon must share. He wants everyone to have their own robot, which is the equivalent of 8 billion AI robots on the planet.

• 21:17Speaker 03

  Yeah, he claims that's the next biggest thing ever.

• 21:20Speaker 04

  Kids do, man. It's so sketchy.

• 21:22Speaker 03

  I wish we'd had that a few years ago.

• 21:25Speaker 04

  I wonder if that could be taken advantage of. Hey, little Timmy, sit with Robot Irene here.

• 21:29Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 21:30Speaker 04

  Robot Jack, and we're gonna go to the casino to hone.

• 21:33Speaker 03

  Yeah, just sit tight.

• 21:34Speaker 00

  I remember having one with my Nintendo and it was horrible. Do you remember that? They used to have the robot.

• 21:40Speaker 03

  Oh, yeah.

• 21:40Speaker 00

  They would play Nintendo with you. Yeah, and it was horrible.

• 21:43Speaker 04

  Gyro, is that what it's called? Gyroscope?

• 21:44Speaker 03

  Yeah, it was gyro.

• 21:45Speaker 00

  It would sit with you and you'd have had a cup holder and everything and...

• 21:49Speaker 04

  I did not. I must have missed that one. I was even a subscriber to the SNES, Super Nintendo Insainment System Magazine.

• 21:55Speaker 00

  Oh, I remember that. Oh, yeah.

• 21:57Speaker 04

  Those are probably worth money now, with Mario and everything.

• 21:59Speaker 03

  Did you get rid of it?

• 22:00Speaker 04

  I think I did. Unfortunately, I think I did. Those would probably be worth some coins.

• 22:04Speaker 03

  Yeah, yeah. So anyways.

• 22:06Speaker 04

  Buffalo Nichols or something.

• 22:07Speaker 03

  AI is coming in, you know, whether we like it or not. I, you know, I'm, I'm, I'm a fan of it being able to simplify our taxes. The tax we get, we get hooked in every four years, the presidential election, we get teased by somebody who says, oh, we're going to simplify the tax code. It's all going to be on a postcard.

• 22:24Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 22:25Speaker 03

  And you're going to be able to do it like that. And then it's always talk.

• 22:28Speaker 04

  That's what I love about MoneyWise too. We, we've adopted AI very quickly and it doesn't mean AI is doing our financial advising for us, but it's simplifying and creating processes and streamlining a lot of the mundane behind the scenes. So that we can spend more time with our clients, we can service more clients and we can dedicate more time to building their portfolios. And it's been told to me and I've heard it a million times, it's not that AI is going to replace your job. Down the road it may, but for now it's not that AI is replacing your job, but it's the person who knows how to use AI.

• 23:01Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 23:01Speaker 04

  Is going to replace your job.

• 23:03Speaker 03

  Yeah, that's it. That's the, that's the first step. Before the robot replaces your job, the person that makes the robot is going to replace your job. And the, uh, the, um, uh, yeah, you got, you got it, you got to, you got to just hang tight, you know, with there and, and understand that these types of innovations and technologies that come about are always going to be scary. There's always a double ed, there's always a double, another side to it. There's always like the light in the dark. And internet is a perfect example of that. Like, wow, this is amazing. We have all this information at our fingertips, which it is fantastic.

• 23:44Speaker 03

  You can communicate with anybody all over the world instantly and share your ideas and blah, blah, blah. Like, yeah, all these things are great. But then we also all know the very, very dark side of it. And we're trying to learn what that is right now with AI. And it's the first time that we've had in our generation, a technology that it could, is, is likely going to displace the way that we.

• 24:05Speaker 04

  I know some companies, I can't speak to exactly what I read, but some companies are putting the brakes on a lot of their projects. Because they see, hey, if X, Y, and Z happens and it figures such and such out, this will not end well. And so hopefully we keep making good, good decisions like that.

• 24:21Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 24:22Speaker 04

  For sure.

• 24:22Speaker 03

  Yeah, we got it. Yeah. Stay positive. Stay positive. You got to do what you can do. To control the things that you can't control. Don't go out, go down that rabbit hole of worrying about things that are completely out of your control.

• 24:36Speaker 04

  Great guest coming up.

• 24:37Speaker 03

  There's so much, yes. Lois Henry is going to be joining us. We're going to talk about water. Just recently, Lois wrote an article about the potential for the Kern River to flow through the city year round. So we're going to get the skinny on that. Remember, we're going to take a quick break. Don't go anywhere. We'll be right back.

• 25:00Speaker 03

  Thanks for tuning in. Here's your walk-on song for Lois.

• 25:05Speaker 04

  Whoa. Seth can sing.

• 25:10Speaker 03

  Joined by Lois Henry, CEO and editor of S J V Water. Lois, welcome back to the show.

• 25:16Speaker 05

  Hello.

• 25:18Speaker 03

  We were just, I just read your article that was in the, I think it was in the paper because you, it's not all on S V J, S J V Water.

• 25:27Speaker 05

  Everything is on S J V Water.

• 25:29Speaker 03

  Well, everything's on there, but also some of your stuff is, is put in the paper.

• 25:32Speaker 05

  Yes.

• 25:32Speaker 04

  It made quite a splash, too, I noticed.

• 25:34Speaker 03

  See, I told you, Lois, look out. The article that you just wrote gave me a lot of hope that we might see water flowing through the Kern year, through the year. And in a time when we have-

• 25:46Speaker 05

  I was pretty surprised.

• 25:47Speaker 03

  Yeah, because we have the worst, my understanding is we have the worst snowpack measurements that we have on, that we've had since records were kept.

• 25:57Speaker 05

  So that would be statewide.

• 25:59Speaker 03

  Statewide.

• 26:00Speaker 05

  Yes, statewide. So you have to remember that each river has its own watershed. And the way that these storms have been coming in, you, and in fact, this happened in like 2023 and it happened in 2017, the southern watershed got a lot of snow and a lot of high elevation snow. So we had in that warm spell in March, and this was all, I'm, you know, I'm not super smart, I'm just parroting what they said at the water board meeting. In that March heat, it, it heated up the snow at the lower elevations. And so a lot of that did melt off. But our core snowpack on the Kern River watershed is at 61%. And actually, that was even before these couple of storms that just came in just now.

• 26:45Speaker 05

  And so it might be a slight bit higher than 61%. And when I say 61%, it's 61% of average. So, you know, so we're 61% of average.

• 26:58Speaker 05

  The city has 77,000 acre feet stored in Lake Isabella already and will be also getting its water rights as that melt comes off. So I think they feel like they're in a pretty strong position, according to the hydroographer at the meeting, to guarantee a river through town. We're talking through town here. We're not just talking like, you know, at Hart Park, where it always is, but like sort of Manor to Enos is sort of the through town area. Now, I don't know, you know, it's not gonna, I don't think you're gonna be kayaking it. So Matt, Mary, you know, maybe. Don't get the kayak out just yet, but I think it's gonna

• 27:37Speaker 05

  be enough to be a noticeable river and they're gonna start at May 1st. And they guaranteed six weeks.

• 27:45Speaker 03

  Oh, six weeks.

• 27:46Speaker 05

  Guaranteed six weeks.

• 27:48Speaker 04

  That's the 4th of July at least.

• 27:49Speaker 03

  May, June, no, it's into June. Cause it'll be all of May and half of June is the guarantee.

• 27:56Speaker 04

  Right when it starts to get hot though, show off potentially.

• 27:59Speaker 05

  So they said, depending on how, you know, Mother Nature behaves.

• 28:02Speaker 04

  Why would they not wait until the heat of summer?

• 28:06Speaker 05

  I think they, I don't know. I didn't ask them that. Yeah.

• 28:09Speaker 03

  There is, you know, I go up to Lake Isabella frequently. We have a place in Alta Sierra. So I, I check on the lake regularly and we are fortunate because the, the, the, the dam has been redone and it's completed. So they can go full capacity now in that dam.

• 28:29Speaker 05

  536,000 acre feet.

• 28:31Speaker 03

  568,000, right?

• 28:33Speaker 05

  68,000, yeah.

• 28:34Speaker 03

  That's the full capacity. Right now, we're sitting at 357,000 acre feet currently. But from just looking at the lake, it's like, I've never seen it this high.

• 28:42Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 28:43Speaker 03

  Other than when we had the.

• 28:44Speaker 05

  2023.

• 28:45Speaker 03

  Yeah, 2023 was insane.

• 28:46Speaker 05

  When it was lacking at the top of the.

• 28:47Speaker 03

  Yeah, they totally filled it out and they had to get the, it was going through the spillover or whatever. And so it seems like now that there's so much more capacity that they can now fill the lake more, that they should be able to have more leeway going forward to release water like this.

• 29:02Speaker 05

  Well, okay, you have to kind of go back in time a little bit. This is, the dam is owned by the Army Corps of Engineers and it is a flood control dam. It's not a, it's not a recreation, storage, or water storage dam. I mean, we have those benefits, obviously, but it's first and foremost a flood control dam. So they set rules for that dam, like in, in November, I think it's by November 1st, the water interests, the river interests have to draw the dam down to what they call, there's, there's, there's top of conservation and bottom of conservation.

• 29:37Speaker 03

  Oh.

• 29:38Speaker 05

  They have to draw it down to 170,000 acre feet by November at some point. And that is in, because the Army Corps is anticipating it will get winter storms and they want to be able to control that water as it comes in. And you don't know by November what the winter's going to look like. So they have to draw it down. They always negotiate a little bit.

• 29:58Speaker 03

  I see.

• 29:59Speaker 05

  To get the river interests, the, when I say river interests, these are owners of the river portions down here and they're usually agricultural water districts. They try to negotiate to try and hold on to a little bit more, but

• 30:09Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 30:10Speaker 05

  Usually it's, you know, I think it's 170,000 acre feet is the drawdown portion and they usually get maybe up to 250. But they, you know, they're never going to get that much because the Army Corps is about safety. It's about flood safety. And, and so to your point, yeah, it would be great if they could fill it all the way up, blah, blah, blah. But it kind of depends on now what's in the watershed. And, you know, time will tell what's in the watershed.

• 30:32Speaker 03

  Yeah. Well, we, obviously, we, you've been an advocate for years to having water through our city. You've written, you've written about this for over 10 years. Let's go. How long have you been writing about this?

• 30:44Speaker 05

  Since 2007.

• 30:45Speaker 03

  Almost 20 years you've been writing about this and you've been at you've

• 30:50Speaker 05

  I used to be I used to be an advocate because I was a columnist. Now I'm just chronicling.

• 30:54Speaker 03

  Yes, but

• 30:56Speaker 05

  My 501(c)(3) does not allow me to advocate.

• 30:58Speaker 03

  Okay, then don't speak to us from your advocate position. Just speak to us from a human position. Are you still do you still are you would your hope still be that we have water running through the city?

• 31:10Speaker 05

  I think everybody's hope is that we have water running through the city and you know, I've been following this court case. Bring back the Kern sued the city of Bakersfield, which I can explain why they're the only defendant, but they are the only defendant in the case and their lawsuit is seeking to have the city study its river operations through the public trust doctrine and the public trust doctrine, you know, basically says the state owns all public resources, including water, and it has to be used to the highest, best and you know, widest beneficial use. And one of those beneficial uses is recreation or two of them, recreation and the ecosystem. So that's where they're trying to go. And I think, I mean, it's been interesting watching the judge in this case, Judge Gregory Pulskamp.

• 31:55Speaker 03

  Yep.

• 31:56Speaker 05

  I mean, when he issued the injunction a couple of years ago that required the city to put enough water, you know, past its wears to keep the fish that had appeared in 2023, to keep those fish in good condition. He, after studying, you know, all of the different motions and stuff, said, there's enough water for there's enough water to provide for the city for, you know, drinking water, which is one of the primary uses of the river. And there's enough water for agriculture and there should be enough water, the way that our system works, to have a little bit of a river.

• 32:27Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 32:28Speaker 05

  Because we can actually, I mean, this is a very highly plumbed

• 32:32Speaker 03

  Right.

• 32:32Speaker 05

  river. You can move it backwards. You can move it forwards. You can dump it in and once you go down the river sometimes and you're like, oh, it's dry, dry, dry. Wait, there's water. Oh, wait, it's dry again. How is this? You know, so it can be done. And I just, I would love to see. The river interests and the city and Bring Back the Kern, you know, various other public interest groups, Kern River Parkway Foundation, et cetera, they're all involved. I would love to see them come up with a deal. You know, instead of it, instead of it being a court ordered situation, you know, from outside, because now the Supreme Court is looking at this issue.

• 33:05Speaker 03

  The state Supreme Court, right?

• 33:06Speaker 05

  The state Supreme Court is looking at this issue.

• 33:07Speaker 03

  And that's where it sits right now, is this, is the city and Bring Back the Kern are waiting to hear what they, what that ruling is.

• 33:15Speaker 05

  Well, there's, there's two sort of plates spinning at the same time right now. The injunction that I mentioned against the city that, that was issued, it was appealed, it was overturned, then Bring Back the Kern has appealed that overturning to the Supreme Court. So that's a plate that's kind of spinning, you know, in the distance, waiting for the Supreme Court to hear that issue and then make its ruling. And then the underlying lawsuit that was filed is still technically moving forward. But it's been put off until February 2027 because...

• 33:47Speaker 03

  They want to know what this ruling is.

• 33:49Speaker 05

  Right.

• 33:49Speaker 03

  They're waiting to see what the Supreme Court has to say about it. Has that, had, that hearing already happened at the Supreme Court?

• 33:56Speaker 05

  No.

• 33:57Speaker 03

  Oh.

• 33:58Speaker 05

  Oh, my Lord, no. So they fully briefed because they have to brief it.

• 34:02Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 34:03Speaker 05

  Each side has to throw in their briefs and then do a reply brief to each side and then, you know, a reply brief to that reply brief, to the opposition brief, blah, blah, blah. And at some point, you know, it's like, okay, that's done. Well, now the, the period for the amicus briefs is open where somebody, you know, like the AG's office last time filed an amicus brief, like, okay, we're not a party to the lawsuit, but we think that this is important, that these topics be raised so we can file an amicus brief. So that's, and I don't know how long that lasts. And then after, after all, after that period is closed, then, then the, the gestation of, you know, like, when the court, because...

• 34:43Speaker 05

  These decisions made at this level are not like, oh, Perry Mason, you know, moment. We're all going to come in and argue it in front of the court. It's like these, the reason that these briefs and all this stuff comes in is so that the justices can read through it, read through the case law, you know, and they'll usually have made their decision before the oral arguments, but there will be oral arguments and by God, I'm going to be there.

• 35:01Speaker 03

  Oh, I was going to ask, so if there had been oral arguments, because you can get sometimes a feel for how the justices are leaning on this. It could mean a big deal.

• 35:09Speaker 05

  Oh, yeah.

• 35:09Speaker 03

  There's so many ways that this could all turn out, but Bakersfield definitely would be so much more attractive if we could figure out a way to have water flowing through the, through our river.

• 35:19Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 35:19Speaker 03

  It looks so demoralizing, you know, when you just see this dry riverbed all the time.

• 35:24Speaker 04

  Do you write on any of the, so this is, this is clean water discussion, but on the dirty water or the downstream, some of the things that are going on with sewer increases and this and that? Do you manage any of that?

• 35:36Speaker 05

  Do I manage?

• 35:37Speaker 03

  No.

• 35:38Speaker 05

  If I did, I wouldn't have done it the way the city did it, but.

• 35:40Speaker 03

  I know, I know Lois has, has written about this as well, right? About the.

• 35:44Speaker 05

  I was the first one to write about it.

• 35:46Speaker 03

  Yeah, you were like, there's some fishy going on with the, with this.

• 35:50Speaker 05

  Yeah, the sewer, the sewer rate. Okay, so it was actually March of 25, because I try and go to the city water board meetings. And these are like committee meetings, the, not every department has a board meeting, but the water department does. And so it's three council members. It's Bob Smith, Andre Gonzalez, and Manpreet Kar, who sit on that board and they usually, they're supposed to meet once a month and sort of just get an update from, from the water department about what's going on. And then they make, if there's something that has to be voted on, they'll make a recommendation to the city council. That's how this works, this board works. And so they don't meet all the time though. They, they sort of like six months will go by, then they'll meet twice, and then it's like every two months. I don't know, it's just crazy.

• 36:34Speaker 05

  But I happened to go to this meeting and they had talked about not just the sewer rate increase, but it, they also raised, agreed to raise rates for your water if you're in the city.

• 36:46Speaker 04

  Yep.

• 36:46Speaker 05

  I wrote about that too, because I thought it was pretty significant and that's, that actually came on the heels of another increase that they had. Already approved. And then they were like, well, it turns out that's not enough. So we need more money. So the city council just approved that and it sailed through, which I was like, we're talking like 60% increase over three years here. Wow, that's a lot.

• 37:04Speaker 04

  Wasn't the other one 300%?

• 37:06Speaker 05

  That's why that took the star position. Everybody paid attention to that because it's like 300% increase.

• 37:12Speaker 04

  But that other one was hiding in there too.

• 37:14Speaker 05

  Yeah, that other one was tucked in there and that got passed. But yeah, so the sewer rate increase, I mean, I don't dispute the fact that the sewer has been neglected and needs a lot of maintenance. And at the time, the Bob and Andre Monprie, they all, they all agreed unanimously that they would recommend to the city council that the sewer rate be increased by, or to hold a proposition to 18 election to increase it by 300%. But I thought it was funny when it came to the time for the council to vote on it and all these people had gotten wind of it and were protesting. Andre Gonzalez was like, kind of throwing the waterboard under the bus, like, oh, what? This is crazy. I was like, what? I was there when you were like all for it. Wait a minute.

• 37:58Speaker 04

  Waterboarding the waterboard.

• 37:59Speaker 05

  Yeah, it was a waterboard.

• 38:00Speaker 04

  So we did have a listener comment in and I don't, this is just hearsay. This is from a listener, but it says, "The sewer treatment plant south of Bakersfield, oh, yeah, yep, spent $50 million to put two big generators in a building to run the whole plant. The San Joaquin Air Quality Management District will not allow them to run the generators. They pollute too much and it's $50 million sitting idle, doing nothing. A waste of money."

• 38:25Speaker 05

  Oh, my gosh, I had no idea. No, I had no idea.

• 38:27Speaker 04

  Well, you just got a tip.

• 38:28Speaker 05

  Well, I cover water, so that's air quality, but I cover water.

• 38:31Speaker 04

  Oh, yeah.

• 38:33Speaker 05

  And we're talking the sewer, the sewer rate increases for the east sewer, but the south sewer.

• 38:38Speaker 04

  But maybe they're increasing because they just spent a bunch of money that's not getting used. Maybe on to something here, listener.

• 38:44Speaker 05

  Maybe, maybe. I'll, I don't know. There.

• 38:49Speaker 05

  The way that these sewer plants work is like they have to bond because they the rates were increased through a Prop 218 vote and so that I think don't you know hold me to this because I'm not an expert but I think those when you vote on that stuff it's very like project specific you can't just go we just did a Prop 218 and oh like look we're rolling in money we can just spend it on anything but that's a good tip about that that's a John Cox tip right there.

• 39:19Speaker 03

  Yeah you're right yeah that that could definitely be something John could could look into fifty million dollars if that's the case the the project for the the current upgrade for the sewer system is it do you remember how much is it 300 million?

• 39:33Speaker 05

  I don't know.

• 39:35Speaker 03

  Anyways that we just.

• 39:36Speaker 05

  It's massive.

• 39:37Speaker 03

  It's gonna be double they're gonna double the the prices over three years I believe so it's gonna hurt a lot of people.

• 39:43Speaker 05

  And that's at the city council tonight I think.

• 39:45Speaker 03

  Oh yes yes it is.

• 39:46Speaker 05

  The sewer rate increase for the for the East Bakersfield sewer the one we've been talking about the 300% one that's that's coming up tonight at the city council.

• 39:54Speaker 03

  I'm sure that'll be a fun meeting.

• 39:55Speaker 05

  Yeah it's the last chance people have to have to get their ore in the water.

• 39:59Speaker 03

  Well that's that's the other thing about this is the the way that it can get it cannot go forward is people are gonna have to mail in a letter and 50 just over 50% one over 50% is gonna have to send in a letter which is never gonna happen.

• 40:15Speaker 04

  Now can it can an email count?

• 40:18Speaker 05

  That's how Prop 218.

• 40:19Speaker 04

  An email count?

• 40:20Speaker 03

  No it's gotta be like a letter and you gotta you know.

• 40:22Speaker 04

  Smoke signal.

• 40:23Speaker 05

  Yeah. That's why Prop 218 I mean they they passed Proposition 218 back in the 90s because people the cities and municipalities were just sort of raising fees all over the place right it's not a tax it's a fee we don't have to actually vote on it because it's not a tax it's a fee and the legislature went no it's a tax people can't opt out of it you're charging it on their property taxes so it's a tax so you have to hold this special election and that's the way that you can actually get something passed is because it's an opt-in election you actually have to opt in to have your voice and people don't do that I mean I had. Written about this in March of 2025 and people were acting like, you know, I think it was like six months later when it came to the city council. They were like, what?

• 41:04Speaker 04

  What is this?

• 41:05Speaker 05

  It's like, well, it's kind of been around for a while.

• 41:07Speaker 04

  I can, I can be guilty of this, assuming, well, it's on the news. Other people are talking about it. They're going to write their letters.

• 41:13Speaker 05

  Yeah, right.

• 41:14Speaker 03

  They'll take care of it.

• 41:15Speaker 05

  Well, and it's also very confusing because the city provides sewer and water for kind of a, well, I know they provide water. Maybe it's not sewer, but it's, it's, it's difficult to keep track of who's doing your sewer and water. If you're in the city of Bakersfield, because Cowal Water also handles the billing for them.

• 41:34Speaker 04

  Right.

• 41:34Speaker 05

  So you get your bill and you think it's from Cowal Water, but you are really in the city's, um,

• 41:39Speaker 03

  Jurisdiction.

• 41:40Speaker 05

  Yeah. So it's really confusing.

• 41:42Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 41:42Speaker 05

  Lucky, lucky for them if they're, you know, if they're trying to do this, they're trying to rely on that to get, you know, this thing passed.

• 41:48Speaker 04

  What? The shout out you just got.

• 41:50Speaker 05

  No.

• 41:50Speaker 03

  What?

• 41:51Speaker 04

  If the river does keep flowing, what does that mean for everyday people here? Are we talking rec benefits, groundwater recharge, or does it create new challenges? Love, Louis.

• 42:00Speaker 03

  Oh.

• 42:01Speaker 04

  Thanks for doing the hard stuff that no one else will.

• 42:04Speaker 03

  Wow, look at that. Louis got a fan.

• 42:06Speaker 04

  If they, if they turn the spigot on, what does that look like? How much flow or is it like a little, cause sometimes they'll do it and it's like a little four foot wide, nothing.

• 42:15Speaker 03

  Right.

• 42:15Speaker 05

  Then other times it's. For Easter. I don't know if anybody noticed it.

• 42:17Speaker 04

  Oh, really?

• 42:18Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 42:19Speaker 04

  I didn't notice that.

• 42:20Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 42:20Speaker 04

  Now I noticed by, by where I live, there's some new real estate that's gone up over off of coffee.

• 42:27Speaker 05

  Okay.

• 42:27Speaker 04

  Some new real estate in the riverbed. And we were talking about that because, hey, uh, people set up their homes there and, and we're like, why would you set it up right in the sun? So they're going to probably get displaced.

• 42:38Speaker 05

  Are you talking about, are you talking about homeless people?

• 42:40Speaker 04

  Yes.

• 42:40Speaker 05

  Okay.

• 42:41Speaker 04

  Yep.

• 42:41Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 42:41Speaker 05

  The unhoused? Yeah, they're going to get dis- well, okay. So.

• 42:45Speaker 04

  You don't want shade? Like why? Right in the middle of the sand? It was hot. I, I don't know.

• 42:50Speaker 05

  Yeah, there were actually some in 2023. There are some really interesting because I was hiking up the river with Ray McNeesh from Cal State Bakersfield. She's a like she's Oh, yeah, I know Ray. A riverologist. I don't know. She's a biologist who specializes in rivers. I'm like, oh, a riverologist. And we came across some encampments that were on islands in the middle of the river that had their own solar panels. And I mean, it's like

• 43:13Speaker 04

  Charge phones and do all that. Honestly.

• 43:16Speaker 05

  Was talking to the guy, one homeless guy, and I was talking to him and he had an Apple Watch on. I was like, and I don't even have an Apple Watch.

• 43:25Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 43:25Speaker 05

  Anyway, okay, so what will it look like? I don't know because I don't know what the CFS is that they're planning to run down the river. CFS means cubic feet per second. And for people who don't know what cubic feet per second is, you can think of like a cubic foot is about the size of a basketball. So if I said the river was running at 300 CFS, you can imagine 300 basketballs per second going past your position. And that's what if you can keep that in kind of your head.

• 43:52Speaker 04

  And also back to the lake, an acre foot of water is it blew my mind, but it's an entire acre could be filled with one foot of water.

• 44:01Speaker 05

  Right.

• 44:01Speaker 04

  That's pretty. And you're talking hundreds of thousands of acre feet in the Isabella. It's crazy.

• 44:05Speaker 05

  If you if it helps you, a football field is about the size of an acre. So imagine a football field covered in a foot of water. So I have to use these little visuals to kind of help myself, you know, understand these things because these, yes, they are huge. The numbers are huge. And you're like, oh, my God. And then and people, a lot of people want to convert it to gallons. And I'm like, I can't, I can't, I can barely keep it in my head as an acre foot.

• 44:31Speaker 04

  The Europeans get involved. Now we're talking milliliters. Please stop.

• 44:36Speaker 03

  This is this is the problem in general with the water issues we have in California is it's hard for the average citizen to wrap their head around what even just an acre foot of water is, let alone 100,000 acre feet of water. It's like, I don't know that there's been 100,000 and a million acre feet. Like, it's all just seems like a lot of water.

• 44:52Speaker 04

  And this is the the language for farmers. This is what they talk in and how they are charged, right? And acre feet and

• 44:58Speaker 03

  And speaking of farmers, The Sigma, the state.

• 45:02Speaker 05

  Sustainable Groundwater Management Act.

• 45:04Speaker 03

  Is, you know, game changer. I mean, this is a major nightmare for water districts up and down the state. You've been on, you've been reporting this since before it even passed. And you've been, now you're still writing about the issues that the.

• 45:16Speaker 05

  You're making me sound really boring.

• 45:18Speaker 03

  No, I, I.

• 45:19Speaker 04

  I'm intrigued.

• 45:20Speaker 05

  When are you ever gonna start something new?

• 45:22Speaker 03

  I find it fascinating. It's the whole water, just, it's similar to the oil and gas story that we have in California. It's like, it's the, it's the last, like vestiges of the wild, wild west in California. It's like the, everything that we, that we, that we've created, the monsters that we've created when we moved out west. And, you know, as liberal and, and left as the state of California is, we've got these major, like, major problems. That we've created, that would come because of the way that we started this state. The way the state was kind of created.

• 45:57Speaker 05

  Yeah, Wesley Powell actually, you know, was an explorer and he, you know, explored, you know, Powell Lakes. Named after him and all that kind of stuff. And he said, he thought states should be actually drawn up around watersheds.

• 46:10Speaker 03

  Yes.

• 46:10Speaker 05

  And not, instead of just whatever these weird political, you know, when you look at California and you're like, um, well, the majority of our population is in the south. The majority of our water is in the north. So obviously we've had to, you know, create this system that moves water from north to south, which comes with it. But it always brings big problems.

• 46:27Speaker 04

  Have you seen the documentary on the Aqueduct?

• 46:31Speaker 03

  What?

• 46:32Speaker 04

  Maybe Netflix, I'm not sure. It's actually really interesting.

• 46:35Speaker 03

  About the California Aqueduct?

• 46:36Speaker 04

  Yep. How, how it all works and kind of the, I was gonna say the flow, but literally how it was created. And it's actually really fascinating because I always wonder, well, are they pumping it over the grapevine? Like I was saying, it goes through all the different pieces.

• 46:48Speaker 03

  Oh, yeah.

• 46:49Speaker 04

  If you're a nerd like me.

• 46:50Speaker 05

  They are pumping it over the grapevine. I was just at Ebniston Pumping Plant as a matter of fact.

• 46:54Speaker 04

  And then the balls, are you familiar with the?

• 46:58Speaker 04

  Black balls that they use at the storage.

• 47:00Speaker 03

  Oh, that's in LA.

• 47:01Speaker 05

  The Pyramid Lake or is it?

• 47:03Speaker 04

  It's the one, it's the, it's the water reservoir that it all goes down into. They couldn't figure out how to get rid of this, uh, this algae or something that would grow. And some guy came up with, and he's now a multi, multimillionaire, but if you put a, a dark colored ball, it keeps the sunlight out. So when you guys are heading down to Magic Mountain next time, or actually it's past Magic Mountain, when you're going to LA right before the 405, look over at the water reservoir on the right.

• 47:25Speaker 05

  Yeah, it's on the right. I do know that.

• 47:27Speaker 04

  Like millions of black balls, uh, just protecting the water from.

• 47:31Speaker 03

  Yeah, it's cool.

• 47:32Speaker 05

  It is amazing, has been.

• 47:34Speaker 04

  Steve's shaking his head like, dude, we just lost like 500 listeners.

• 47:37Speaker 00

  No, actually I, I've seen them. I just never knew what, what they were there for.

• 47:40Speaker 03

  It starts with the evaporation too. It helps so it doesn't evaporate. But LA is a good example of just the disaster that is the planning, the water planning that's happened in the state. The fact that LA was able to buy all that land up in the Owens Valley and create that, those massive canals to bring all that water down from the eastern Sierras was like one of, one of the world's biggest engineering feats, but it.

• 48:08Speaker 05

  Chinatown Jake.

• 48:09Speaker 03

  Chinatown, exactly Chinatown. But it also created now we have all of these population in LA that we shouldn't have that many people living there.

• 48:16Speaker 04

  96 million.

• 48:17Speaker 05

  Interestingly, um, Los Angeles, uh, the city of Los Angeles, not talking about, you know, the metropolitan area, but the city of Los Angeles was, it's, it's L A D W P, Los Angeles Department of Water and Power that, um, inherited that system. Some people feel it's stealing it from Mona Lake, but whatever, I'm not here to judge. It is what it is. This is where we are. Um, that, um,

• 48:45Speaker 05

  they have increased in population and decreased their, uh, per capita water usage.

• 48:51Speaker 03

  Yes, yes.

• 48:53Speaker 05

  And, um, which is interesting. It could segue into when I was at the water board and I need to write this story. Just haven't gotten to it. Um, this water board meeting, um, that I was just attending, the city of Bakersfield has finally hired, um, a conservation person. So to get to get our act together on conserving some water.

• 49:09Speaker 03

  Well, about time, but the city can only do so much. Most of the water is going to ag. It's going to industrial. It's not. It's not the residents.

• 49:18Speaker 05

  Yeah, but in terms of growth, we kind of are going to be on a budget because of Sigma. So I think it's a really smart thing to do.

• 49:24Speaker 03

  Yeah, we are. We're being forced. We're being forced into it, whether we like it or not. Want to tell. Thank you, Lois. Thank you so much for coming. Anybody who is interested in learning anything about water or knowing what's going on, sjvwater.org. Remember, be smart, be safe, and always be money wise.

• 49:43Speaker 02

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