By Lois Henry, SJV Water
Boaters and anglers trying to get greater flows on the upper Kern River have been frustrated by what they feel is an absolute betrayal of the river ecosystem by the one state agency they hoped would be their strongest ally – the California Department of Fish and Wildlife.
The advocacy groups have been urging the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to mandate Southern California Edison leave more water in the river as part of the utility’s ongoing relicensing application for its Kernville power plant, KR3.
That process is delayed with one study not expected to be complete until April 2026. After that, FERC will likely deem proposals by Edison and other stakeholders “ready for environmental analysis,” which will trigger a 60-day public comment period. FERC is expected to make a determination on the new licence by Nov. 30, 2026.
Because FERC has already dismissed the idea of decommissioning KR3 a new, 50-year license will likely be granted. The debate now is over how the plant will operate, including how much water Edison can take out of the river.
Flowing disagreement
Advocacy groups contend Edison has decimated the native fishery by taking far more water than is healthy for fish on a 16-mile stretch of river from the Fairview Dam near McNally’s to Kernville.
The CDFW, however, disagrees.
In fact, it says KR3 is vital to its plans to reopen the defunct Kernville hatchery so it can start a breeding program to prevent extinction of the Kern River rainbow trout, already listed as a species of concern.
“Even if you took the Fairview dam out entirely, it wouldn’t improve the native fishery that much,” said Gerald Hatler, Program Manager for the Central Region. “If we’re going to improve things for the Kern River rainbow, we need to focus above Fairview and keep the hatchery functional.”
“Even if you took the Fairview Dam out entirely, it wouldn’t improve the native fishery that much.”
Gerald Hatler, Program Manager for the California Department of Fish and Wildlife’s Central Region.
But that flies in the face of CDFW’s own 1995 Upper Kern Basin Fishery Management Plan, river advocates point out.
“The Kern River in this reach (downstream of Fairview Dam) is capable of producing a self-sustaining wild trout population when water temperature and flows are improved,” the management plan states.
The directive of that 1995 management plan was clearly to increase flows for native trout, according to Brett Duxbury, with Kern River Boaters, which has been fighting for increased flows downstream of Fairview dam for years.
He called CDFW’s stance a “complete disconnect.”
“There’s nothing stopping CDFW from demanding hatchery flows and higher flows for the instream fishery,” Duxbury said.
The hatchery needs cool water from upriver for its breeding program. Edison had been piping that water to the hatchery through KR3 in a 1960s-era siphon that fell into disrepair forcing closure of the hatchery in 2020. The CDFW expects to begin a $7 million project to rebuild the siphon by the end of this year.
Duxbury noted the irony that CDFW wants cooler upstream water for its hatchery but insists running it down the river wouldn’t help trout, even though that’s what its 1995 management plan states.
That was then
That plan was written in concert with a settlement agreement with Edison during the utility’s previous relicensing of KR3 in the 1990s.
Under that settlement, CDFW and the U.S. Forest Service agreed to a set of minimum river flows during drier years including 130 cubic feet per second in July and August.
In exchange, Edison established a $2.5 million fund that was to spend $250,000 a year on projects designed to “restore, protect and enhance” native Kern River rainbow trout in order to avoid it being listed as sensitive, threatened or endangered at either the state or federal level. *
Even so, Duxbury noted, the Kern River rainbow declined and was subsequently listed as a species of concern both federally and by the state.
Hatler acknowledged the 1995 management plan was “very ambitious” in its goal of restoring a self-sustaining native trout population on the Kern River.
But things have changed since then, he wrote in an email.
Funding from the settlement agreement and other sources was insufficient for all of the projects listed in the 1995 management plan and further data analysis shows a self-sustaining cold-water fishery isn’t possible below Fairview Dam, he wrote.
Modeling shows river temperatures in August below Fairview are between 66 and 68 degrees when flows are at 150 cfs and 100 cfs, respectively, Hatler wrote.
“Which is on the high end of trout tolerance.” A slight flow increase, he wrote, would be negligible in reducing those temperatures.
Because of that, he wrote, CDFW supports Edison’s proposed new minimum flows that would shift 30 cfs from July/August to flows in May/June.
Feeling the heat
Hatler is just flat wrong about the temperatures, said Duxbury, who has been fervently arguing against any plan that would further reduce summer time flows.
Late summer water temperatures are already a huge problem for fish, he said. Spring flows are typically higher and cooler, so there’s no need to shift flows to May/June.
CDFW, the Forest Service and state Water Resources Control Board all agreed during KR3’s previous relicensing in the 1990s that a minimum 130 cfs was needed in late summer for trout populations, Duxbury said.
In fact, CDFW was part of a U.C. Davis-hosted collaboration that created flow recommendations for each of the state’s rivers that show minimum flows in the Kern below Fairview need to be at least 230 cfs in late summer.
“CDFW’s current stance is just a total abdication of the North Fork of the Kern River below Fairview Dam,” Duxbury said. “And for what? This is a once-in-50-years opportunity.”
* SJV Water received a grant from the Upper Kern River Fisheries Fund to write articles that raise awareness of upper river issues.
