Boaters and anglers believe Southern California Edison doesn’t leave enough water in a stretch of the Kern River above Kernville to support a healthy fish population. They want the utility to conduct a robust flow study as part of its quest to relicense its power plant.
The company is conducting a “Level 1” study of “angling and aesthetic flows” on that 16-mile section of river.
Level 1 is a “desktop review of existing information including a literature review, structured interviews, and the results of aesthetics-related questions,” from other studies, according to a description by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission of the studies Edison is required to complete as part of the relicensing process.
That’s not good enough for groups concerned about the health of the river.
They want an intensive, “Level 3,” study including site visits and monitoring to establish a protective “minimum instream flow.” The groups are hoping enough signatures on a petition will convince FERC regulators to require a Level 3 study.
A spokesperson for Edison did not respond to an email seeking comment for this story. But Edison’s website shows it is conducting numerous other studies looking at how its operations impact water quality, temperature and whitewater boating, among other things.
Minimum river flows, though, are key to keeping the river healthy, according to Brett Duxbury with Kern River Boaters.
And those flows have been far too low for far too long, he said.
Kern River Boaters along with Kern River Fly Fishers’ Council prepared their own minimum flow proposal, which they plan to submit to FERC along with the petition in an effort to encourage regulators to take a harder look at Edison’s impacts.
The current minimum flows for that stretch of the river – from Fairview Dam to the Kern River 3 (KR3) plant – were established through a settlement with federal and state agencies in 1996 when KR3 was last relicensed.
That settlement caps Edison’s take at 600 cubic feet per second, leaving a required minimum 40 cfs in the river during winter and 130 cfs in summer.
Using research from the California Environmental Flows Framework (CEFF), which analyzes river health, Duxbury said minimum flows in that stretch of river should be 195 cfs in winter, up to 335 cfs during spring runoff and 230 cfs by late summer. The CEFF review shows that at 79 cfs, the river habitat suffers “severe degradation.”
CEFF is a collaboration between environmental scientists from several state agencies, academics and advocacy groups and is hosted by the University of California at Davis.
One of the state agencies listed as part of the CEFF collaboration is the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW). But a regional manager of CDFW said the agency is satisfied with the current minimum flows in that stretch of the Kern River.
“With the exception of dry years, which impacts both fisheries and boating, the flows below Fairview Dam generally support native fishes below the dam in addition to trout that the CDFW plants in this reach,” wrote Julie Vance, Regional Manager of the agency’s Central Region, in an email.
The agency is not seeking to have Edison conduct new studies on minimum flows for fish, Vance wrote.
She wrote that Edison has conducted fisheries studies, does river monitoring and files reports.
Jim Ahrens, with Kern River Fly Fishers, said those “fishery studies” were basically fish counts, not intensive studies, and most were conducted during flush years when there was enough water for Edison’s demand and a brimming river.
One Edison fish study was conducted in 2016, a moderate water year, and showed what Kern River Boaters and Fly Fishers say was significant impacts.
With naturally lower flows that year, the number of trout above Fairvew Dam declined by 50%. Below Fairview Dam, after water was taken by Edison for its power plant, the trout population dropped by 95%, according to the groups’ minimum flow proposal using numbers from Edison’s 2016 study.
Duxbury said river advocates know the plant and dam won’t be decommissioned. They’re just hoping to get a better deal for the river this time around.
“Why can’t we apply the latest, best science to our river? This is a generational issue,” he said.
Edison’s current license is set to expire in 2026. If it’s reissued, the new license will be in place for the next 30 to 40 years.
