PG&E releases final plan for removal of Scott and Cape Horn dams and elimination of Lake Pillsbury

The PG&E plan calls for the expedited removal of Scott Dam and Cape Horn Dam as part of Potter Valley power plant license surrender, eliminating Lake Pillsbury and freeing the waters of the Eel River.

By Mary Callahan

PRESS DEMOCRAT

February 5, 2025, 4:45PM - UPDATED Feb, 6, 2025

Pacific Gas & Electric is closing in on final plans for removal of Scott and Cape Horn dams and will hold a virtual meeting today to discuss the process outlined in its draft decommissioning plan.

At more than 2,000 pages in length, the draft Surrender Application and Decommissioning Plan (the password to access the document is PW_Surrender) describes in detail the deconstruction of the century-old Potter Valley hydropower plant and surrounding features, including Lake Pillsbury.

It’s packed with particulars about the dismantling of the dams, the removal of campgrounds and picnic areas and restoration of areas inundated by water when the dams went up.

These maps show the location of the Scott Dam and Cape Horn Dam, and their location in context of the Eel River and Russian River watersheds.

The teardown of the dams is still several years off.

But the document brings ever closer the transformation of Lake County’s Lake Pillsbury area that will affect farmers, grape growers, tribes and residential consumers in three other counties ― Sonoma, Mendocino and Humboldt. Some of those affected have conflicting interests that are the subject of ongoing negotiations.

PG&E is holding a virtual meeting Thursday morning to walk people through the surrender process. The meeting runs from 10 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. Use Microsoft Teams to join the conversation.

The company is accepting written comment on the draft plan through March 3 before submitting a final document to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission for approval.

Company spokesman Paul Moreno said there was no time frame for federal regulators to consult with other agencies and complete an environmental analysis of the project, but their decision would not likely come until at least 2028, at the earliest.

The decommissioning plan describes a “Rapid Dam Removal,” or expedited, approach to deconstruction of Scott Dam, which could mean the 130-foot-high concrete could take only two years to bring down. That would drain Lake Pillsbury, which covers about 2,280 acres in the Mendocino National Forest. Work on smaller Cape Horn dam would begin at roughly the same point but take less time, though an actual schedule has not been determined.

Scott Dam’s removal would flush an estimated 12 million cubic yards of sediment accumulated behind the dam, sending it downstream and temporarily fouling the river, the document said.

Fisheries advocates favor the rapid approach to remove barriers that for decades have prevented vulnerable salmon and steelhead trout from reaching the cool upstream waters of the Eel and its higher elevation tributaries.

But groups like Friends of the Eel River are also somewhat cautious about the “very large volume of sediment” and what they expect will be “serious impacts which require further assessment,” Executive Director Alicia Hamann said.

“However, the rapid removal plan limits the temporal scope of these impacts, which we believe is the best option,” she said via email. “That being said, protective measures may still be necessary to protect native fish in the river during the initial sediment flush, and we will maintain a critical eye to ensure those plans are in the best interest of the Eel’s fish.

“As we’ve learned from the Klamath, these fish are resilient and we need to give nature the best chance for recovery,” she said, referring to the Klamath River, where four dams have been torn down in the past two years.

Lake County still opposes the dam removal, as do property owners around Lake Pillsbury, who feel left out of the process by which decisions about the dams have been made. They argue the plan will affect tourism, property values, tax revenue, water supply and water availability for firefighting.

“The document is really single focused,” said Frank Lynch, a spokesman and advocate for the nonprofit Lake Pillsbury Alliance. “It offers really no mitigation.”

PG&E announced in 2019 it would it would not renew its federal license to run the hydropower plant, which since 1908 has diverted a portion of the flow in the upper main stem Eel River past turbines in a mile-long tunnel and into the East Fork Russian River, which flows into Lake Mendocino. Operations at the power plant ceased in 2021, and PG&E also has kept the gates open in Scott Dam, reducing the holdings in Lake Pillsbury because of seismic safety fears.

PG&E says the plant did not produce enough energy to justify the expense of repairs and ongoing maintenance, which, in combination with the liability related to seismic vulnerability, prompted them to decide to give up the power plant.

PG&E could find no buyer for the project, even though Sonoma and Mendocino county stakeholders, eager to secure seasonal water diversions that supply more than 600,000 people and prevent the Russian River from running dry in the summer, had hoped to put together a bid.

Representatives from the two counties and the Round Valley Indian Tribe formed a joint powers authority called the Eel-Russian Project Authority, just over a year ago, to advance design, permitting and financing of new infrastructure allowing for pumping of Eel River water during high flow periods through the mile-long tunnel once used to generate power and into the East Fork Russian River.

The PG&E plan includes retaining structures necessary for the reconfiguration and continuation of diversions.

Written comments about the draft plan can be submitted by email to PVInquiryPGE@pge.com by March 3 or via regular mail to: Tony Gigliotti, Senior Licensing Project Manager, Power Generation, P.O. Box 28209, Oakland, CA 94604.

You can reach Staff Writer Mary Callahan (she/her) at 707-521-5249 or mary.callahan@pressdemocrat.com. On X (Twitter) @MaryCallahanB.

Editor’s note: This story has been updated to include a corrected email address provided by PG&E for comment on the Potter Valley surrender plan. It also has an updated photo caption correcting the location of Lake Pillsbury. It is in Lake County.

BREAKING: California to Spend $500 Million to DESTROY Century-Old Dam, End Water Supply for 600,000 Citizens in Fire-Prone Region

By Keely Cavello @UNWON

January 27, 2025

As Gavin Newsom denies Trump’s accusations of water mismanagement in California, he must be hoping no one brings up the Potter Valley Project…

The Potter Valley Project is a 100-year old Northern California dam system that provides water for 600,000 residents from Potter Valley to Novato. In a story the media has completely overlooked, this critical water infrastructure is slated for destruction under Gavin Newsom’s administration.

As Governor Newsom fights a PR war to combat President Trump’s accusations over the state’s water mismanagement in the wake of the horrific LA fires, this story has gone ignored. There has been zero media coverage of the dam system scheduled for tear down in one of the counties most at-risk for drought impact and wildfire.

California voters designated $7.5 billion for new water infrastructure back in 2014. No major projects have been built. The Infrastructure Improvement Act specifically designated $50 billion to water infrastructure. Officials have not applied for this funding. Instead, Newsom’s administration is set to green light the destruction of existing infrastructure, spending an estimated $500 million to take down multiple dams on the Eel River.

“It’s incomprehensible to the average voter that the state of California would work against their interests,” says Chris Coulombe, a leader in the fight to protect the dams. “But how many more examples do you need?”

What is the Potter Valley Project?

The Potter Valley Project diverts water from the Eel River through the Potter Valley tunnel to the Russian River. The project includes a hydroelectric plant and two dams: Scott Dam/Lake Pillsbury and Cape Horn Dam/Van Arsdale Reservoir.

Map of the Potter Valley Project. By Shannon1 - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0

Pacific Gas & Electric Company (PG&E) owns and operates the Potter Valley Project. In 2019, PG&E announced they would not be renewing their license with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), claiming the project is unprofitable and requires maintenance. PG&E officially sought to decommission and destroy both dams.

For years, special interest groups have lobbied politicians to “free the river” and “restore fish habitat” by destroying these dams.

Instead of seeking funding to restore the project, officials now appear set on spending hundreds of millions of dollars to destroy the dams, ending the water supply for these fire-prone rural communities.

Coulombe says he hopes President Trump, who has put California water in the spotlight his first week in office, will step in. “The best solution I see in the immediate is for President Trump to put a moratorium on all dam and water storage removal in until these water supply issues are solved. If we we don’t stop this, if we lose these dams, it’s irreversible.”

100 Years of Water Supply, Agriculture, Flood Control, Fire Management, Energy—All DESTROYED at California Taxpayer Expense

Prior to the construction of these dams, towns in the Humboldt Bay region frequently suffered severe flooding. The dams ended this flood cycle for communities on the Eel and Russian Rivers.

The project serves agricultural communities in Marin, Sonoma, Lake, and Mendocino counties. Lake Pillsbury and Lake Mendocino are beloved recreational sites for these rural, working class communities, while also serving as a critical water resource for regional firefighting efforts in an area embattled in recent years by multiple large-scale wildfires.

While community members scramble to come up with a solution for water diversion, time and time again these efforts have failed, and the march toward decommissioning continues. FERC has approved a draft of PG&E’s decommissioning plan. PG&E is expected to file its final surrender application and decommissioning plan by early to mid-2025.

According to the Save Lake Pillsbury website, “Unless an agency or entity steps up to take over the Potter Valley Project, it is very likely that both dams will be removed and a water supply resource that has served our region for over 100 years will be gone. If Scott Dam is removed, Lake Pillsbury will vanish forever.”

California Politicians Prioritize the Free Movement of Fish—and of Political Contributions from PG&E

Instead of fighting for the water supply and quality of life of his constituents, Congressman Jared Huffman, the Democrat who represents the region and a former attorney for the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), appears complicit. In an article posted to his website, Huffman made his priorities clear: “There will be fish-friendly diversions.”

He boasted: “PG&E is trying to get out from under this project as quickly and as cheaply as possible—but it’s not going to be fast, and it’s not going to be cheap.”

Huffman seems to think this statement should be comforting for citizens. It is not. Whether through higher energy prices or their tax dollars, ultimately citizens will foot the bill for destroying their own water supply, and their community with it.

Meanwhile, Huffman continues to receive thousands of dollars from PG&E in political donations every year. Newsom receives millions.

PG&E, which is a state-regulated company, has been found liable for thousands of fires in Northern California caused by poorly-maintained equipment. The company has failed to pay fire victims, even as executives gift themselves large bonuses and maintain a steady stream of generous political donations.

“PG&E is not really a private company—the governor approves their board whether they want to admit that publicly or not,” says Coulombe, who ran against Huffman in 2024. “They play it both ways. When it comes to paying fire victims, they get to dodge liability in a way that a government agency never could. They declared bankruptcy to avoid paying victims, even though they make $2.1 billion in profit a quarter.”

The Trucker at that Sparked a Fight for Lake Pillsbury

MendoFever - December 17, 2024

By Monica Huettl

Last month, the Mendocino County Inland Power and Water Commission held a Town Hall meeting in Potter Valley to engage and inform residents about water storage solutions in light of the impending loss of Scott Dam and Lake Pillsbury. Much of the meeting was technical talk by water engineers. During the public comment portion of the meeting, Potter Valley resident Hannah Foster stood up and voiced her frustration about the loss of Lake Pillsbury, a beloved local recreation spot. “Hi everyone, I don’t have a question. I have Save Lake Pillsbury hats for sale. Love you, Potter Valley, f—k you, PG&E!” 

For Foster, whose family has lived in Potter Valley for 6 generations, the loss of Lake Pillsbury is personal. Foster’s grandfather worked for the US Forest Service at Lake Pillsbury, and her family has vacationed there for generations. The lake is a resource for firefighters. Her extended family lives in Upper Lake, Covelo, and Potter Valley. She has spent most of every summer at Lake Pillsbury. “I don’t know any other home,” said Foster.

Foster acknowledges that the Scott and Cape Horn Dams, and the Potter Valley Project, which diverts Eel River water through a tunnel into Potter Valley, would probably not be constructed today. This system of hydroelectric power generation and water delivery has been in place for more than a century and serves over half a million people. PG&E says that Scott and Cape Horn Dam are not up to today’s seismic standards and that it is not economically feasible to repair the hydroelectric power generating equipment. PG&E has petitioned the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission for permission to surrender the project. No buyers came forward to take the Potter Valley Project off PG&E’s hands. The Eel River water users, fisheries groups, and others, want the dams removed. 

Sonoma and Mendocino County water agencies are in the process of negotiating with PG&E, and designing and funding a new seasonal diversion to be used in the rainy season once the dams are gone. There are estimates of how much water will come through the tunnel in the seasonal diversion, but nobody knows, as it hasn’t yet been built.

This means that Lake Pillsbury will be gone forever. Foster feels that PG&E is not concerned with what will happen to Potter Valley and the communities surrounding Lake Pillsbury.

Foster said, “We heard whispers of PG&E’s plan to decommission Scott Dam about 8 years ago, but PG&E did not engage with people in Potter Valley. There was closed-door decision-making happening.” In 2020 she heard more about the decommissioning plans, which over the years began to solidify. This triggered Foster to do something. 

What about the Mendocino Inland Power and Water Commission and the Potter Valley Irrigation District, which have been discussing PG&E’s plans in their regular board meetings? Those meetings are open to the public, and meeting minutes are available on their websites. (Here is a link to the MCIWPC meetings web page.) Foster says people are busy. “There is no way for citizens to engage. The talks happen in back rooms, led by bureaucrats. There is no way for the average person to say, ‘Hey, please stop this!’”

The decline of local news coverage from traditional newspapers can be blamed for people’s feelings of being uninformed. News reporting is transitioning from newspapers to online media sites. The local papers that are still in business do not provide the level of in-depth reporting as in years past. Many people don’t know how to find online news, and don’t know which sites are trustworthy. 

Foster explained her decision to start selling “Save Lake Pillsbury” merch. “There aren’t a lot of opportunities for the average person to do anything to try and help save the lake. I’ve commented to FERC, I’ve shared on social media, I’ve written/tagged my representatives. I decided that since the people who are really trying to wash their hands of the dam are the ones I was being asked to send comments to, I’d try and support a group doing the work to fight removal instead. I figured generating awareness was a way I could help, in a form that was funny and familiar. I started selling [hats] from my booth at Potter Valley Rodeo and it took a while, but we’ve gotten a lot more traction as more people become aware of the possible loss of Lake Pillsbury, Scott Dam, and the Potter Valley Project.”

Foster supports, but is not a member of, The Lake Pillsbury Alliance, a 501(c)(3) organization formed by homeowners’ groups at Lake Pillsbury. “LPA has a board of members who do a lot of background work like attending regulatory and workgroup meetings and staying on stop of what other groups are doing behind closed doors. They don’t necessarily have an arm for active membership and their fundraising supports their legal fees to continue fighting removal.”

Foster got the idea to sell trucker hats and other merchandise from watching TikTok videos. After recovering costs, Foster donates all profits to The Lake Pillsbury Alliance. She is not affiliated with The Lake Pillsbury Alliance, and all opinions expressed are her own.

Foster has raised almost $2500 through the sale of merch, and donates the proceeds to The Lake Pillsbury Alliance. “I reserve some from each batch to continue printing the merch with a local screen printer, which I pay for personally.” Hats are $40, including sales tax. Foster sold hats at the California Deer Association dinner in November. They are currently available at Hometown Store Kitchen & Gifts, 290 South School Street in Ukiah. Foster added, “I’m hoping to [resume] online shipping again when the Christmas retail season slows down at my shops. We will have shirts available again in the spring in a new color too.”

Foster said, “I hope that people will take a look at where the water in Lake Pillsbury actually goes, and the amount of storage captured in the Lake Pillsbury basin. Water storage is critical for our communities and there’s so much captured in Lake Pillsbury that can be utilized up and down the North Coast. Our state government isn’t recognizing its important role, and I hope the federal government will.”

Read the MendoFever.com article on the Potter Valley Town Hall meeting.

SAVE LAKE PILLSBURY

ANDERSON VALLEY ADVERTISER

SAVE LAKE PILLSBURY

To the Editor:

The sound of silence. PG&E neglected Scott Dam. The consequences have been laid on the people of Lake Mendocino and Sonoma county….yet again. Other entities are using that fact, to jump claim to more water, while a loophole in water rights claims exists. Yet they have water too!!

Salmon in river beds as I speak. The costs are unfathomable for such small counties' coffers. Apathy is rampant in most people. People can fight the corporate/politicians money grab machine in small ways and in big ways. If no one tells the story, no one hears the truth. Losing Lake Pillsbury and subsequently Lake Mendocino then subsequently Russian River watershed streams home to thousands of salmonids is at risk of completely drying up forever, with cilmate change and new water diversions.

The tourist and recreational value will be lost and so will the land values all over the county. The salmonoids are just coming back in Russian and Eel with two winters of rains. Please hear my voice above the politicians for corporations and do whatever you can, as an individual, to save our counties’ very few lakes and rivers. Hydropower is a future green source of electricity, with no radioactive risks and no lithium waste. It is the harnessing of water power, the most powerful source of energy, on this Earth. If California is so future forward for green energy, then why are politicians not seizing the day to save Lake Pillsbury/Scott Dam for hydropower?

Catherine Lair

Ukiah

Federal Funds Propel Eel River Water Diversion Forward

MendoFever - June 9, 2024

By Sarah Reith

Scott Dam that controls the flow coming out of Lake Pillsbury, a piece of infrastructure slated to be removed [Picture from the Mendocino County Farm Bureau]

The Department of Reclamation has put $2 million towards the next phase of designing a facility to continue diverting water from the Eel River into the Russian after PG&E removes the Potter Valley hydropower project dams.

Congressman Jared Huffman made the announcement at the south boat ramp of the Coyote Valley Dam at Lake Mendocino on Friday, along with representatives from state and federal agencies, the Round Valley Indian Tribes,  and conservation groups. He told the assembled dignitaries that, “I drafted language in Congress to create this new program for the Bureau, the  Aquatic Ecosystem Restoration Program, very much with that kind of win-win water solution in mind — In fact, with this project in mind.”

The Aquatic Ecosystem Restoration Program is part of Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. The check is made out to Sonoma Water, so the Eel Russian Project Authority, a group of governmental agencies and conservation groups, can bring the design of the diversion facility to 60%. Sonoma Water, which is part of the Authority, used a grant from the state Department of Water Resources to design the facility to its current 30%. The Authority is planning to build a set of pumps on the Eel River in Potter Valley, just above where Cape Horn Dam is now. If all goes according to plan, these will divert water through the tunnel between the watersheds seasonally, during high flows. 

Huffman and Bureau of Reclamation Commissioner Camille Calimlin Touton indicated that future funding for the full design and construction of the facility is not entirely unlikely.

“I suspect at least in part they’re going to be looking at me to bring some money home,” Huffman told a friendly crowd. “That’s part of what I do.” He added that he suspects the Bureau’s “commitment to the design phase of this project signals a significant federal interest in seeing this project through, and I think this gives us an opportunity to explore construction funding when we get to that phase as well.”

“This was the first iteration of Aquatic Ecosystem Restoration Program funding,” Touton said. “It’s brand new. We have $250 million as part of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. I anticipate that as we move forward, there will be other funding announcements.”

PG&E, which owns and operates the Potter Valley Project, said last week that it needs an extra six months to file its final surrender application and decommissioning plan, nudging the date to next summer. Janet Walther, Senior Manager of hydropower licensing with PG&E, says she doesn’t expect it to delay the removal.

She thinks that, once the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, or FERC, grants the utility approval to remove the infrastructure, it would take a year to remove Scott Dam. “But we do not really have those details yet,” she acknowledged. “We have not yet finalized our work with our resource agencies to really determine the logistics and how that works. And the least impacts to the fisheries.”

Grant Davis, General Manager of Sonoma Water, spoke in the van on the way from Lake Mendocino to Cape Horn in Potter Valley. The roads to the dam were dotted with large signs beseeching viewers to save Lake Pillsbury, the reservoir impounded by Scott Dam. Davis anticipates that Sonoma County water users will have to pay a surcharge to keep the facility going, once it is in place and everyone knows how well it works and how much water it makes available. “I think the folks that are actually getting the water would be the ones that would be providing that level of funding,” he predicted. He thought the presence of Touton, from the Bureau of Reclamation, and Chuck Bonham, the Director of California Department of Fish and Wildlife, indicated that, “This is an exciting project. One that would certainly compete very well for federal and state dollars. And those dollars would be identified hopefully to help construct the facility.”

Don Seymour, Deputy Director of engineering with Sonoma Water, gave some details about water supply, which the agency has studied with modeling. “Without any interventions, such as curtailing water rights or reducing minimum flows lower than they’re supposed to be,” he qualified; “Lake Mendocino could go dry one to two times out of 10 years, on average….there could be interventions that could prevent that, but you are risking the water supply for 100,000 plus people that are above Dry Creek. So this is a big deal.”

And he said that a system called Forecast Informed Reservoir Operations, or FIRO (essentially using precise weather predictions with lots of data points to determine when it’s safe to release or retain water) is keeping tens of thousands of acre feet in the reservoirs. Since 2021, a pilot program has allowed the Army Corps of Engineers, which owns and operates Lake Mendocino, to retain 11,000 acre feet that would have otherwise been released for flood control. In Lake Sonoma, there is another project underway that’s retaining an additional 19,000 acre feet.

“That’s like another small reservoir,” he said. “That’s not through building any infrastructure. That’s completely through just re-operation and using advanced forecasting techniques that are becoming available.”

Josh Fuller, a scientist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, thinks the new facility will have benefits to salmon, by opening up prime habitat above Scott Dam. “NOAA Fisheries has done quite a bit of research above Scott Dam, and the habitat available up there,” he said. “We know that there are probably 100 miles for Chinook salmon and 200 miles for steelhead trout. A lot of high-value habitat, perennial streams, high-gradient streams where steelhead in particular can out-compete invasive pikeminnow. That’s a big concern in the river.”

Fuller and Bonham both anticipate that PG&E’s delay in filing its decommissioning application will prevent a longer delay later. There is currently a CDFW fish-counting station at Cape Horn Dam, and Bonham intends to continue “to have a monitoring program that’s overlaid with the restoration, so we can track success over time.”

Lake County, which has long argued for the preservation of Lake Pillsbury, did not send representatives to Lake Mendocino. Huffman placed the decision to remove the dams squarely on the shoulders of the Potter Valley Project’s owners. “I have, as you know, long supported the two-basin solution, which does embrace removal of Scott Dam,” he noted; “and that probably doesn’t make me the most popular guy in Lake County…But it’s PG&E’s dam, and they’re removing it.”

Lake County to Study Plan to Remove Scott Dam

Review will look at impacts on ecosystem, water supply, other concerns tied to PG&E project

By Amie Windsor The Press Democrat

Lake County plans to spend $700,000 to study the potential consequences of removing the Potter Valley Scott Dam after getting a grant from the California Department of Fish and Wildlife.

The county’s study seeks to determine how decommissioning Scott Dam could affect the surrounding ecosystem, the Lake Pillsbury water supply, infrastructure, power, sediment and the county’s ability to fight fire.

“The grant was part of a conversation with CDFW we’ve been having for a while,” said Lake County Board of Supervisors chair Bruno Sabatier.

The county on May 2 put out its call for a company to do the study in response to Pacific Gas & Electric’s efforts to decommission its powerhouse in Potter Valley, which includes Scott and Cape Horn dams. The power company detailed its plans to tear down the dams, located on the Eel River, in November 2023.

Scott Dam was built in 1921 and, according to PG&E’s plan, is slated to come down before Cape Horn Dam and could come down in phases or in one season. Those plans still need final approval from the Federal Energy Regulation Commission.

Water supply, fire risk top list of main concerns

The Lake County Board of Supervisors worries that removing the dam puts the region’s water supply at risk during a time when the region teeters between drought and having ample water. According to a county news release, 600,000 Californians depend on releases from Lake Pillsbury and the Potter Valley Project for drinking and agricultural water for Potter Valley, Alexander Valley, Sanel Valley and Ukiah Valley.

The county worries that if Scott Dam were removed, the upper Eel River could be dry for significant portions of the year, making the area vulnerable when fire risk is the greatest. Lake Pillsbury has served as a natural fire barrier, stopping forward progress to the 2018 Mendocino Complex fire, which consumed more than 459,000 acres and the 2020 August Complex, the state’s first gigafire.

Lake County Supervisor Eddie Crandell, whose district includes Lake Pillsbury, said firefighters have reported that without Lake Pillsbury, the Mendocino Complex had enough energy to burn through to Upper Lake.

“If Lake Pillsbury wasn’t there, we’d be toast,” he said.

The Lake Pillsbury basin is home to four established communities of about a total of 300 single-family homes, including the Lake Pillsbury homesite tract, Lake Pillsbury Ranch, Ricefork and Westshore.

Environmental protections a high priority

The watershed above Scott Dam is roughly 289 square miles, accounting for a little more than 7 percent of the Eel River’s 3,971 square mile watershed. It forms Lake Pillsbury, the largest lake in the Mendocino National Forest, , according to the US National Forest Service. The area is home to nesting bald eagles, migratory waterfowl and Tule Elk. Lake Pillsbury is also home to salmon populations, which continue to face decline, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Crandell recognizes the importance of salmon. He’s not against protecting the environment for the salmon, but believes that other options can be explored. “We can build a fish ladder and keep the dam for water for resiliency,” he said.

Crandell’s ultimate hope is for study to provide data that can offer a compromise to a project that feels like a done deal. “The dam is what it is. I know there are folks that are not happy and want the Eel to run the way it used to,” he said. “We just want PG&E to be accountable.”

The goal is to get an impartial report from a technical or environmental firm, says Crandell, whose district includes Lake Pillsbury.

“We’ve never had an equitable study,” Crandell said of the work performed by the Potter Valley Project ad-hoc commmittee, which was established by Congressman Jared Huffman in 2017 as a way to channel stakeholder feedback to federal officials.

Crandell said Lake County government officials often felt bulldozed by the ad-hoc committee and have been unable to get answers about how decommissioning the dam would affect the communities around Lake Pillsbury. For example, the committee published models of how different scenarios could affect water levels and salmon populations, but neither Crandell nor Sabatier have been able to see the data supporting those models.

“We’re looking to make the best decision based on data. It’s important to know,” Crandell said.

Amie Windsor is the Community Journalism Team Lead for The Press Democrat. She can be reached at amie.windsor@pressdemocrat.com or 707-521-5218.

PG&E's Hesitation Casts Shadow on Eel-Russian Diversion Plan

MendoFever - February 14, 2024

By Sarah Reith

Cape Horn Dam from the Road - Photo by Sarah Reith

The plan to continue a diversion from the Eel River into the Russian after the Potter Valley dams are removed hit a snag last week, when PG&E balked at the proposed permitting strategy. PG&E owns and operates the hydropower facility, and is eager to get rid of it in the wake of mechanical failures and a report of earthquake hazards at Scott Dam, which impounds Lake Pillsbury. But a regional coalition of local governments, CDFW, and conservation organizations is planning for life after dam removal by designing a method to continue diverting water when the Eel River is high.

There are two partially designed alternatives for the diversion facility, one of which has garnered an open legal threat from a national river conservation non-profit.

Proponents of the diversion are trying to cajole PG&E into including their plan as a possible alternative when the utility submits its decommissioning plan to FERC, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. The proponents had hoped that PG&E would ask FERC to grant them a non-power generating license to build the diversion, at the same time that PG&E was removing the dams, also under a FERC permit. 

But in a meeting at the end of January, PG&E announced that the utility won’t include the request for a non-power generating license in its decommissioning proposal. PG&E did include the initial plan for the diversion in its draft decommissioning proposal to FERC late last year, along with an outline of its own proposal to remove all the hydropower infrastructure.

Last week, at a meeting of the IWPC, outside counsel Scott Schapiro told anxious water users that he doesn’t think this is the end of the line for the diversion proposal.

“The meeting with PG&E has been characterized by some as the end of the earth, and I don’t think that’s what it is,” he opined. “What PG&E determined was that there were aspects of our proposal which did not align with their goals of timing. In particular they were concerned that the non-power license mechanism would ultimately slow down the permitting for their dam removal. For that reason they don’t want to include the non-power license in their proposal…They still want to collaborate with us on permitting. But they don’t want the non-power license to be part of their proposal,” possibly because it is more complicated for the utility to pass costs along to ratepayers without a direct order from FERC.

Governor Gavin Newsom’s California Salmon Strategy for a Hotter Drier Future mentions the removal of the Eel River dams, saying, “Dam removal could reopen hundreds of stream miles of prime salmon and steelhead habitat.” It also mentions the diversion plan, which is backed by CDFW, California Trout, Humboldt County, Mendocino County Inland Water and Power Commission, Round Valley Indian Tribes, Sonoma County Water Agency, and Trout Unlimited. While the report focuses on restoring habitat for salmon, Schapiro found encouragement for Russian River water users, as well, because he thinks the governor’s plan includes preserving salmon in the Russian River as well as the Eel.

But he said that under the permitting pathway now under consideration, proponents of the diversion will have to seek permits from state agencies, which he fears could result in a delay between PG&E taking out the dams and proponents building the diversion. He presented a scenario.

“The simplest way to do this project, not the best for us, but the simplest, is that PG&E gets permission from FERC to decommission the project completely,” he told the assembled members of small water districts. “FERC gives a series of rules on how that’s done and what the end conditions have to be. PG&E takes that order to the CPUC (California Public Utilities Commission), and says here’s what we’re going to do. Please make sure we can collect money from our ratepayers. The PUC says OK. PG&E then goes and does all the work…Then step two, we come in, and we apply to all of the state agencies that we need to get permits from to build our project. That’s the easiest way. It doesn’t involve us having to touch anything until PG&E is done. We’re not involved in any federal permitting. The problem is, it creates a lot of space between PGE& taking its facilities out and us having our facilities. It also subjects us to a permitting process that could be a year or ten years, or state regulators who never approve our permits, and as a result, the diversion never starts up again.”

Tom Johnson, a consultant who is working with the IWPC on negotiations with FERC and PG&E,  gave a presentation on the two diversion alternatives, which are designed by the Arcata-based firm McBain Associates. Sonoma Water received a $2 million grant from the Bureau of Reclamation to bring the designs to a certain level of detail. Decision makers will receive a draft copy of McBain’s report on February 23, and on March 19, they will decide which alternative they want to have fully designed. Neither design has received a comprehensive geotechnical analysis or sediment modeling at this early stage. Johnson gave a very rough preliminary cost estimate.

“They’re both around $40 million,” he said. “However, at this early phase of design, there are big uncertainties attached to this cost,” from minus 50% to plus 100%, putting the estimate in the $20 million to $80 million range.

One of the potential designs is a roughened channel within the riverbed, lined with large boulders. It would be about 800 feet long, and, at a 3% grade, would deliver water into the tunnel using gravity. A day after the IWPC meeting, Scott Harding, a stewardship associate with American Whitewater, a river conservation organization, wrote to FERC objecting to the roughened channel, claiming that it violates the California Wild and Scenic Rivers Act by interfering with the free flow of the river by altering the makeup of the riverbed. He cited a legal case from 2019, where the California Attorney General sued Westlands Water District over its participation in planning to raise Shasta Dam, adding that, “This precedent suggests that departments and agencies of the state and local governments involved in planning of the roughened channel alternative for the New Eel-Russian Facility may have similar legal exposure.”

The other alternative is a pump station, which would be just upstream of where Cape Horn is now. Johnson expressed confidence that both diversion designs would be able to handle the powerful flows of the Eel River in wintertime. And he was careful not to come out in favor of one or the other.

“There is no silver bullet,” he warned. “Both of these options will have drawbacks. They’ll be either more difficult to construct or more expensive or more expensive to operate or something. What is a benefit of one will be a drawback of the other, and vice versa. Neither will be perfect.”

Save the dams

PRESS DEMOCRAT - February 2, 2024

Letter to the Editor

EDITOR: Pat Burns hit the nail on the head (“Preserving water supplies,” Letters, Jan. 14). There is misinformation being spread by groups following Rep. Jared Huffman’s erroneous theory that taking down dams will restore salmon. Stop blaming dams. Salmon populations are declining from California up to Alaska. Put the blame where it belongs.

The Eel River has four major forks and hundreds of tributaries where salmon and steelhead spawn. The most egregious problems are illegal water diversions for unpermitted cannabis operations and chemicals leaching into these depleted tributaries. “A River’s Last Chance” (Amazon Prime) documents hundreds of these illegal water diversions. Who is addressing this problem?

Huffman’s federal money could be better spent to help the fish by saving and upgrading the Van Arsdale diversion and repairing and raising Scott Dam to hold more water. Upgrading the existing fish ladder at Van Arsdale Dam and installing a hydroelectric plant at Scott Dam could power a fish hatchery using only native broodstock eggs.

Salmon populations can be improved by Scott Dam holding back cold water for release in the fall when salmon are returning, especially in dry years, while limiting summer diversions. Our existing dams and reservoirs provide the much-needed water capacity to provide for the fish and humans.

DAVID FANUCCHI

Geyserville

Preserving water supplies

PRESS DEMOCRAT - January 14, 2024

Letter to the Editor

EDITOR: Congressman Jared Huffman wrote about opportunities to invest tens of billions of dollars for a sustainable water future and billions more for repairing old crumbling water infrastructure (“Investing in sustainable sources of water,” Dec. 31).

Great that our water infrastructure is being addressed, but Huffman is one of the advocates for removing Scott Dam, which creates Lake Pillsbury, and Cape Horn Dam, which creates Van Arsdale reservoir, aka the Potter Valley Project. Why remove a water system that has been in place for over a century, a system that sustains our communities? The water is vital to Sonoma, Mendocino and Marin counties.

Currently the most widely accepted plan is to divert water from the Eel River only during “high flows.” With no high flows and no reservoirs, science and common sense tells us that the Russian River will go dry.

Use the tens of billions of dollars for infrastructure improvements to help fish migration, keep the dams, keep the reservoirs, store valuable water and use it sustainably. Huffman wants to remove these reservoirs and dams rather than upgrading and repairing them.

The economic impact of dam removal is overwhelming, as well as the impact it will have on each of us, our communities and the environment.

Pay attention to who you vote into office.

PAT BURNS

Healdsburg

California Gov. Newsom backs dam removal projects aimed at sustaining salmon populations

CBS Bay Area News - January 30 2024

California Gov. Gavin Newsom is pledging to fast-track more than half a dozen projects by the end of his term to remove or bypass dams that have blocked salmon from returning to the state's chilly mountain streams and acting as the keystone of a complex ecosystem that sustains both economies and spiritual beliefs for tribes.

Newsom — now in his second term and seen as a potential Democratic presidential candidate beyond 2024 — has worked hard to stake a claim as the nation's most environmentally-conscious governor. But his record has been dogged by criticism from environmental groups who say his water policies benefit big agriculture at the expense of salmon and other species of fish in danger of becoming extinct.

Millions of salmon once filled California's rivers and streams each year, bringing with them key nutrients from the ocean that gave the state an abundance of natural resources that were so important to indigenous peoples that they formed the foundation of creation stories central to tribes' way of life.

But last year, there were so few salmon in the state's rivers that the officials closed the commercial fishing season.

Frustrated by the criticism leveled against him and his administration, Newsom on Tuesday released a plan outlining his strategy to protect salmon — a plan that includes a heavy helping of projects that would remove or bypass aging dams that prevent from returning to the streams of their birth to lay eggs.

"These are tangible. And so much of the work we do is, you know, you can't see it, you can't feel it," Newsom told The Associated Press in an interview near the banks of the Elk River in Eureka near a recently completed project that returned some agricultural land to a flood plain habitat for salmon. "But when you see a dam being removed and you come back a few months later — a year or two, five years later — and you see real progress."

Newsom's salmon strategy includes a promise to complete an agreement by the end of the year to remove the Scott Dam and replace the Cape Horn Dam along the Eel River that have blocked salmon access to 288 miles (463 kilometers) of habitat. Once completed, the Eel would be the longest free-flowing river in the state, flowing north through the Coast Ranges before emptying into the Pacific Ocean near the town of Fortuna.

By next summer, Newsom said he would complete plans for the removal of the nearly 100-year-old Rindge Dam along Malibu Creek in western Los Angeles County that would give steelhead another 15 miles (24 kilometers) of spawning and rearing habitat. And by 2026 — the last year of Newsom's term — he promised to complete the infrastructure necessary to remove the Matilija Dam in Ventura County along a tributary of the Ventura River.

These projects have already been announced and are in the early stages of development. Newsom's plan, however, puts on record his goal to either complete them or have them approved by state regulatory bodies before he leaves office.

"I got three more years. And I want to put it all out there," Newsom said.

Newsom's embrace of some dam demolitions comes as the largest dam removal project in U.S. history got underway in earnest last week when crews blew a hole in the bottom of the Copco No. 1 dam along the Klamath River near the California-Oregon border. It's one of four dams set to be removed along the Klamath.

In addition to demolishing dams, Newsom is trying to bring attention to some of the $800 million he has signed off on in recent years for projects that return some creeks and streams to their natural state so that salmon can live there.

Monday, Newsom trudged through thick mud to visit a project along Prairie Creek in Redwoods National Park. The creek had been converted to a ditch, with steep rock walls preventing the water from spilling into a flood plain where baby salmon can eat and grow before heading out to the ocean. The goal is to get the baby fish to stay longer in this creek so they can grow larger before heading out to the ocean — making it more likely they will return.

Newsom watched as Kate Stonecypher, a graduate student at Cal Poly Humboldt, pulled juvenile coho salmon and steelhead trout from the river that had been tagged with a tracking device. Researchers are still studying the results. But early indications have been positive. Fish from the creek were later found to travel 50 miles (80 kilometers) to Humboldt Bay.

But the biggest criticism of Newsom's environmental policies have not been a lack of restoration projects, but a lack of water in the rivers. Newsom's salmon strategy includes a controversial proposal to seek voluntary agreements with major farmers over how much water they can take out of the rivers and streams. Some environmental groups, including the San Francisco Baykeeper, have called this plan "astonishingly weak."

San Francisco Baykeeper Science Director Jon Rosenfield said California has already done lots of habitat restoration projects, but they have failed to result in significant boosts salmon populations.

"Without the essential ingredient of a river, which is the flow of water, fish ... are not going to survive," he said. "The governor is out there promising actions that are not adequate to restore the population."

He also pledged to continue to work with native tribes, who often refer to the rivers where salmon live as their church. Newsom formally apologized to Native American tribes four years ago for how the state had treated them historically. And he has committed to partnering with them to conduct much of the work around salmon habitat.

Monday, Frankie Myers, vice chair of the Yurok Tribe, told Newsom the tribe's work on Prairie Creek had changed the community by restoring the tribe's purpose.

"This goes beyond that apology. This is about restoration," he said.