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.”