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Counties → California

Kern County, California

SDWIS compliance plate

Sheet CA029 · Kern County 341 sys · 11,890 viol · #54/3254

VIOL-SEVERE · HEALTH-HIGH · RANK-TOP · PHOTO-FINISH · PFAS-LOW · SRC-GW · SYS-LARGE · BOOK-FULL

  • VIOL-SEVERE 92.4% flagged
  • HEALTH-HIGH 55.4% health
  • RANK-TOP #54/3254
  • PHOTO-FINISH ±0.1 pp
  • PFAS-LOW 21.4% detect
  • SRC-GW GW lead 93%
  • SYS-LARGE 341 systems
  • BOOK-FULL 7/7 fields

Nearest flagged-rate peer: Tuolumne County (+ 0.1 pp flagged-rate)

According to EPA SDWIS county population served used on /counties, Kern County ranks #54 of 3,254 counties by people served, and #11 of 58 counties in California. See methodology · corpus placement.

Kern County standing, lower-flagged corpus third

Flagged-system rate 92.4% is at or below the corpus lower third (≤ 92.7% flagged) across 2,973 counties with ≥3 SDWIS systems . Health-based share 55.4% is health-based share above the upper third (> 24.5%) . UCMR5 detect rate 21.4% is UCMR5 detect rate in the tested-pool middle third (≤ 33.3%) . Population served ranks #54 of 3,254 · #11 of 58 in California.

Flagged-rate neighbourhood around Kern County

Lowest/highest poles plus in-state counties nearest Kern County on % of SDWIS systems with ≥1 violation. Full ladder: /counties.

0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100% Alpine · lowest Yolo · near Tuolumne · near Sutter · highest 70% 91.9% 92.2% 92.4% 92.5% 92.6% 97.1%

Source: EPA SDWIS (county aggregates) As of 2026-05-15

Water Systems

System Name Population Violations PFAS
Cws - Bakersfield 267,881 12 Detected
Bakersfield, City Of 160,144 9 Detected
Delano, City Of 51,428 83 Clean
Oildale MWC 44,899 24 Clean
Indian Wells Valley W.D. 41,580 44 Clean
Tejon Castac WD - I5 & Laval RD 38,125 26 Clean
Vaughn WC Inc 37,189 14 Detected
East Niles Csd 32,517 47 Clean
Cws - North Garden 22,762 0 Detected
Wasco, City Of 22,757 30 Clean
Shafter, City Of 21,915 39 Clean
West Kern Water District 20,500 6 Clean
Arvin Community Services Dist 19,669 331 Clean
Lamont Public Utility Dist 19,057 128 Clean
Rosamond Csd 17,711 23 Clean
California City, City Of 14,198 37 Clean
McFarland, City Of 14,161 157 Clean
Greenfield County WD 11,590 114 Clean
Edwards Afb - Main Base 11,316 23 Clean
Golden Hills Csd 9,857 13 Detected
Tehachapi, City Of 9,094 24 Clean
China Lake Naval Air Weapons Station 6,600 32 Clean
Bear Valley Csd 5,592 25 Detected
Wasco St. Prison Reception Ctr 5,124 8 Clean
Willow Springs Raceway 5,022 19 -
Kern Valley State Prison 5,000 50 Clean
Famoso Raceway, Smokers Inc. 5,000 16 -
Stallion Springs Csd 4,910 31 Clean
Mojave PUD 4,699 83 Clean
Caltrans-Boron Rest Stop Water System 3,000 30 -
Cci - Tehachapi 2,993 22 Clean
Lerdo Sheriff S Facility 2,800 35 -
Frazier Park PUD 2,592 27 -
Cws - Kernville 2,572 27 -
Kern Valley Airport 2,507 3 -
Erskine Creek WC 2,500 18 -
Lost Hills Utility District 2,370 53 -
Tejon Ranch Grapevine Water 2,207 23 -
Mil Potrero MWC 2,200 28 -
Interstate 5 Utility Company 2,100 35 -
Boron Csd 2,086 116 -
Buttonwillow Tiger Mart 2,006 0 -
Bolthouse Fresh Foods 1,917 16 -
Wp&a - Lost Hills Water System 1,888 19 -
Buttonwillow Cwd 1,508 19 -
Aera Energy-LLC 1,500 16 -
Cal Trans Buttonwillow Sfty Rsra 1,500 26 -
Lebec County Water District 1,379 125 -
Usfs - Old Isabella Auxiliary Dam WS 1,320 0 -
Rio Bravo Greeley School Water System 1,219 73 -

Compare beyond California

Lower-flagged peers for Kern County

Cross-state counties nearest Kern County on flagged-system share (92.4%) and cumulative violation count (11,890). In-state neighbours stay on the compliance plate above.

Similar flagged-system rate

Nearest cross-state counties by % of SDWIS systems with at least one violation on record.

4 peers

Similar violation load

Nearest cross-state counties by cumulative SDWIS violation count (all systems in the county).

4 peers

Read our methodology · Check your water system - how this data is sourced, computed, and verified.

Data sourced from EPA SDWIS and UCMR5 PFAS monitoring data. See our methodology for details. Retrieved and formatted by PlainWater

Every figure on PlainWater is rendered directly from EPA SDWIS drinking-water data, no number is typed in by an editor. This page draws directly on EPA SDWIS data, no figure is typed in by an editor. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error.