Kern River Valley tribe may have river rights that give it a big dog in the Edison power plant relicensing fight

Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

Editor’s note: Reporting for this story is supported by a grant from the Upper Kern River Fisheries Enhancement Fund.

Tübatulabal Tribal Chairman Robert Gomez sat quietly for most of the four-and-a-half hour meeting Oct. 23 about the adequacy of studies on the impacts of Southern California Edison’s Kernville power plant – Kern River No. 3 (KR3) .

Then he calmly rolled in what could be a mini-grenade, just as things were wrapping up.

“I had a 30-minute dissertation ready to go,” he joked as meeting-weary participants folded papers and closed laptops. “Instead, I’ll just give my card to the attorney so he can follow up.”

Gomez said the Tübatulabal tribe was disenfranchised back in 1995 when KR3’s current license, set to expire in 2026, was being discussed.

“We weren’t allowed to participate after our request,” he said.

The tribe had hoped to get 1% of the gross revenue from commercial rafting on the river, which, Gomez said, has since become big business. But the tribe was shut out of the process, he said.

“In the interim, between 1995 and now, I’ve discovered a document from the Bureau of Indian Affairs,” he said. “A tribal member had asked the BIA back in 1914 for assistance because someone was trying to take her water rights. I don’t know if that was Edison or whoever else it was.”

The Bureau of Indian Affairs wrote back affirming the tribal member did in fact own those rights. Gomez said he didn’t have the document with him at the meeting but would be happy to produce it for examination later.

Construction of KR3 began in 1919 and was completed in 1921. A documented, pre-existing water right that wasn’t terminated or legally obtained, could prove to be an interesting wrinkle in how water is apportioned on the North Fork of the Kern River.

“From our perspective, people with commercial boating have been generating revenue on the river hand over fist while the tribe wasn’t allowed to pursue its economic interest,” Gomez said. “So, let’s get together and talk about this.”

The Tübatulabal, or Pakanapul, tribe has been working to reassert its place in the Kern River Valley and recently acquired 1,200 ancestral acres on Fay Creek above the South Fork of the Kern River. Tribal members have also rededicated one of its historic cemeteries and is working to keep is language, unique among California tribes, alive through mentoring programs.