Kern River Valley tribe may have river rights that give it a big dog in the Edison power plant relicensing fight
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. Gomez said the Tübatulabal tribe was disenfranchised back in 1995 when KR3’s current license, set to expire in 2026, was being discussed. 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.” The Bureau of Indian Affairs wrote back affirming the tribal member did in fact own those rights.
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