If you hadn't heard, several organizations are suing to get a massive underground water bank in Kern County back in the hands of the state -- and it could be a very important lawsuit.

The suit says the 1 million acre-foot Kern Water Bank was built with taxpayer money and cannot be given away. The bank was given to powerful farm business interests and real estate speculators as part of a backroom deal, the groups allege.

The deal is part of the Monterey Plus Amendments to the State Water Project -- a deal that has been widely criticized for many years. Critics have long held the deal is on a par with the Los Angeles water grab on the Owens River a century ago.

The water in the underground bank comes from California rivers, and many claim the San Joaquin River's water has been sent there.

A water bank this large in the southern part of the San Joaquin Valley is gold. It is basically a reservoir of water twice the size of Millerton in a place where Southern California can easily get it.

The groups involved in the lawsuit are the Center for Biological Diversity, the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance and the California Water Impact Network.

Specifically, the lawsuit asserts that the Kern County Water Agency gave the Kern Water Bank to the Kern Water Bank Authority, a public-privatejoint powers authority controlled by Paramount Farming Company (one of the world's largest agricultural and holding companies) and Tejon Ranch Company (the massive landholding corporation seeking to develop several new cities north of Los Angeles --including the largest development ever proposed in California).