Kern County

This is the single most important thing to understand about drainage on commercial property here, and it makes Kern County genuinely different from every coastal county we serve.

Kern County operates under the Central Valley Regional Water Quality Control Board, through Order R5-2013-0153, a Phase I MS4 (municipal separate storm sewer system) permit held jointly by the City of Bakersfield and the County of Kern. Roughly 80% of the Bakersfield urbanized area drains not to a river but to terminal basins. The remaining share reaches the Kern River and the canal system.

A terminal basin has no outlet. Whatever enters the drain system settles there and stays there. Sediment, oil and debris are not carried away downstream, they accumulate, and over time they reduce the basin’s capacity to hold the water it exists to hold.

Two things follow for a property owner. Containment matters more here than in a county with flowing receiving waters, because there is no dilution and no flushing. And your own on-site drainage silts up faster than most maintenance schedules assume, particularly on unpaved or heavy-traffic yards. Our storm-drain maintenance program is built around inspecting and clearing before capacity becomes a problem, not after a basin backs up.

Kern is an energy and agriculture county, and its commercial property carries a soil profile that reflects both.

Around the oil fields and service yards, the problem is hydrocarbon: crude residue, drilling mud and hydraulic fluid tracked across concrete pads and yard surfaces by equipment. It is heavy, it bonds, and cold water does very little to it.

Across the agricultural belt through Delano, Shafter, Wasco and Arvin, it is a different soil entirely: fine valley dust in enormous quantity, plus organic residue around packing and processing operations.

• Crude and hydraulic residue on energy service yards and equipment pads
• Fine agricultural dust on every windward elevation and horizontal surface
• Organic staining around packing houses and food processing facilities
• Diesel and tire film on the I-5 and SR-99 logistics corridors

Hydrocarbon soil is a hot water and steam job, and it is exactly the category where uncontained wash water becomes a regulatory problem. In a terminal basin county, recovery is not optional.

• Industrial & Manufacturing Energy service yards, equipment pads and processing facilities
• Logistics & Distribution Truck courts and dock aprons on the I-5 and SR-99 corridors
• Cold Storage & Refrigerated Warehouse Packing and cold chain facilities across the agricultural belt
• Gas Station & Fuel Center Forecourts and fuel islands, where drainage is as regulated as the surface
• Commercial & Retail Property Centers and plazas through Bakersfield and the outlying cities
• Government & Municipal Facilities Public buildings, yards and civic hardscape

Coverage centers on Bakersfield and extends along the highway corridors and into the agricultural communities.

• Why does containment matter more here than elsewhere? Because most of the Bakersfield urbanized area drains to terminal basins rather than to a river. There is no outflow, so anything that enters the system settles and stays. What is contained on site never becomes someone else’s problem downstream.
• How often do drains and basins need clearing on a dusty site? More often than owners expect. Yards carrying agricultural dust or heavy equipment traffic can lose meaningful drainage capacity in a single season, so we inspect on a set interval rather than waiting for standing water to appear.
• Can crude and hydraulic staining actually be removed from concrete? Most of it, yes, with hot water and the right surface equipment. Concrete that has been saturated for years will hold a shadow, and we will tell you that at the walk rather than after invoicing for a result we cannot deliver.
• Can you work through a Central Valley summer? Yes, on an adjusted schedule. Peak summer heat makes midday detergent work ineffective, so we move to early morning or night windows, which also suits sites that cannot give up daytime yard access.