[music] Good afternoon, everyone.

I'm very glad you're here.

I'm Suzanne Hosn with PG&E, and this is my colleague, Carina Corral.

On behalf of PG&E, we're really excited to have you come with us on this tour this afternoon.

On behalf of Yak Titu Titu Yak Tihini, Northern Chumash Tribe, we appreciate you taking a day out of your weekend, both of you, to escort us onto our wonderful homelands.

I'm really happy to do it.

We appreciate it.

We are just temporary stewards of this land, and we take it really seriously.

We have been really working hard to maintain the land in the way that it was when we first got it, and we recognize that our time here is only temporary, so we'll go out, and we'll take a look.

[music] The Diablo Canyon Power Plant sits on a parcel of about 500 to 600 acres, but the industrial footprint is much smaller.

That is our ancestral homeland, with a documented ancestry taking us directly to the village sites that were on Diablo Lands.

It's a place where my grandmother's grandmothers have been buried for thousands of years, and it is a place that we're trying to reclaim.

We were removed from Diablo Lands.

Well, we were removed from all lands violently and without compensation, without agreement, and now we're at a point in time where we're trying to get Diablo Lands back.

The dream of land back, the opportunity of actually gaining our homeland, really came to the surface based on the time that I was appointed on the Diablo Canyon decommissioning panel because, during that time on the panel, we discovered that PG&E, in their decommissioning plan, they were planning on liquidating the excess property around the plant.

Any public utility in California, anything they do with their plant, their operation, their land, or whatever, they have to get authorization or approval from the California Public Utilities Commission.

Well, we were quite surprised when the CPUC decided to work on what they call a tribal land transfer policy.

Essentially, what it means is that if you're a public utility company and you have surplus land that you want to liquidate, you have to give first right of offer to the local tribe.

That, of course, made us real excited because there might be an opportunity if we could put something together to actually acquire this land back.

Well, we needed friends and allies, so we looked for the very best that we could.

I had an established relationship with the Land Conservancy of San Luis Obispo County and Cal Poly.

We talked with the Land Conservancy, and they were on board immediately to help us regain ownership.

We recognized early on that this is a significant and complicated project.

There's a power plant in the middle of these lands, and they're beautiful lands with pristine coastline along the state of California, which is not all that common anymore, and there's all these big questions about, "When will the plant decommission?

What's the timing on that?

When will the lands become available even to purchase for conservation?"

We really knew there was power in all of our groups coming together to both address the economic vitality of our community, how we would actually conserve the lands, what would be that durable thing that would ensure the lands would never be developed no matter who owned them, and how do we return them to the tribe?

The way that it is set up is that the tribe would own the land.

We as a land trust would hold the conservation easement to ensure it's protected forever, and Cal Poly would help with research and also the economic vitality and innovation pieces and how that ties with the plant site, Parcel P as we call it, and REACH also being involved in all of that.

There's different roles for each of us to play, and we've been very clear in how we want to set that up.

This is such a good view of Diablo Canyon.

I think it's a great place to see where 9% of all of the energy that's generated in California is being generated at that facility right now.

All the lands have got these sacred sites.

All the land has cemeteries.

Where the power plant was built probably disturbed a cemetery and a village site.

We have to be very careful.

We need access to the land to be able to study the land, to be able to know where these sites are, to be able to develop, manage public access.

This is what we have said from the beginning is that part of the plan would include managed public access, which we know the public is really in favor of.

When we talk to community members, it's overwhelmingly in support of, "Yes, now's the time.

This should have happened."

That's the beauty of this plan is that to have a tribal entity, to have a state agency, Cal Poly, to have a conservation agency, which Land Conservancy has a beautiful history in this area of land conservation, and it's local.

That's the other part that is so great.

Then the economic development arm.

How can we use that footprint out there?

How can we help bring head-of-household jobs to this area or to develop other green energy?

There's a lot of plans in the works for that.

This would be an incredible model that could be used in other places.

To come up with a proposal that we did that we're all so proud of and so excited about because it works on so many levels, I have great faith in it.

[music] There's some uneven terrain here so, everybody, watch your step.

Yes, we can go down there.

Do you want to lead the way?

Yes, I'll lead the way.

Sure, I'll lead the way.

We can go all the way down.

Ooh, look at the water down there.

It's beautiful today.

Nobody's handing it to us on a silver platter.

We're just fighting for the opportunity to buy it.

It's just so ironic to me that land that was stolen from us, now we're fighting for the chance to buy it back, and it's only right that after all of this time, now that this opportunity is present, that this land be returned to us.

[crosstalk] It's so pretty, huh?

It doesn't matter what the weather is, it's beautiful.

I love it on a foggy day, or a rainy day, or a sunny day, or a windy day.

Well, we'll have plenty to do.

I know.

It's very exciting.

In 2021, the partnership actually submitted a proposal to PG&E to buy all the land, 12,000 acres.

We were feeling really good at the time because the plant was going to be decommissioned.

We had viable partners, and we actually met with PG&E reps several times to talk about our proposal, meaning they were entertaining our proposal.

Then our governor, probably rightfully so because of the need of power, had a change in direction.

Of course, PG&E at that time said, "Well, since there's an unknown whether or not the plant will go forward, we're going to have to put our discussions on hold until we see what happens."

All right.

1, 2, 3, eyes on me.

We'll just say "Sea otter.

” Sea otter.

All right, there we go.

Thank you.

Sea otter [crosstalk] When Governor Newsom came forward with his big, major change of policy, we were all shocked.

We did not see it coming.

We could understand it, and the rationale behind it because California was not ready We repeated over and over and over again, no matter what happens, our goal is to get our land back, to be able to re-steward the land once again.

We said, "No, okay, we're just going to change our strategy.

Instead of a land-back strategy under decommissioning, it's now a land-back strategy under continued operation."

It didn't matter to us one way or the other.

When you really take a look at the plant site, it is an industrial site that will probably have some type of power connection.

I can see the plant operation of some sort to continue at that location with an overall land-back.

I believe down the road, 100 years, 200 years, there's going to be a coexistence.

I would like to see it limited to that 100 or 150 acres of industrial area because, for the last 30, 40 years, the land really has been pretty protected.

There's been a great advantage to have the plant there as it relates to cultural issues.

There's 12,000 acres, and 14 miles is coastland.

Mother Nature's been able to do its thing to even a point, inherited this power plant, and worked it into the system where now, after all these years, it's an asset.

It's a manmade asset, but it's something that probably we should not just destroy without fully utilizing that asset.

We would see that as another economic opportunity because, hopefully, whoever may own the plant, maybe there's an arrangement that we can receive a fee for land for use.

Yes, I can envision a coexistence, if you will, of land conservation and the power plant going forward.

Assuming our plan comes to fruition and we protect the 12,000 acres, ultimately, PG&E will still be responsible for the nuclear waste.

They'll still maintain security and public safety.

They're not just going away.

They really have a very important say on what happens to those lands.

It really is a win-win for them as well.

They really have shown openness and willingness to help make conservation happen.

We want the Diablo Lands to look-- 1,000 years from now, we want them to look the same way they do today.

We're talking about 12,000 acres of the deepest history of California.

It needs to be protected.

It deserves to be protected.

This was taken from us, and we want it back because we're caretakers.

We're stewards.

It really doesn't matter whether the plant goes forward or whether it's decommissioned.

The land is there.

It needs to be returned.

Some people are just not ready to relinquish that control because land is power.

It will give us more of a platform to educate, to bring healing to our families, but also to bring healing to the community.

The story is being played out over and over and over again what's happening in our communities.

This is an opportunity to turn some of that around.

Whether people understand that or not at this point, I think many generations henceforth will know that this was a turning point for shifting gears and for shifting conversations.

Hi.

This is Megan Tan, the narrator for Earth Focus.

Subscribe to PBS SoCal to see more Earth Focus or dive deeper into more illuminating environmental programs Watch anywhere with the free PBS app.