Press Democrat - May 27, 2022, 12:04AM
By David Taber
Close to Home: Predictions of Potter Valley Project’s demise are premature
The Potter Valley Project is an essential source of water for residents, businesses and agriculture between Healdsburg and Ukiah, representing 30,000 people and 1,800 water-right holders. It also affects water supplies for another 500,000 people in Sonoma and Marin counties. For 100-plus years, the system has operated reliably and evolved to the point that our water hasn’t ran out for 70 years. Right now, it is holding 35 billion gallons of water for fire protection, and that’s in a dry year.
While it is true that PG&E no longer wants to own and run the system, it is literally an irreplaceable asset. It needs to be invested in, not blown up.
David Keller’s May 13 Close to Home commentary was so focused on promoting removal of the dams that it neglected to mention the costs — hundreds of millions — and the risks — both technical and ecological (“Potter Valley Project as we know it is dead”). It also failed to mention that there are equally viable alternatives that cost much less. And, yes, that will improve the lives of fish.
PG&E will submit a decommissioning proposal to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission in July. But decommissioning means remove the generators, not remove everything. Let’s hope that the PG&E process is more inclusive, thorough and transparent than the ad hoc efforts have been to date. Standard practice for FERC decommissioning is to tailor the process to the specific situation. In our case, this means evaluating the impacts on the people and businesses of Sonoma, Lake, Mendocino and Humboldt counties. And it means focusing on water, not electricity.
Most people don’t know how close we came last year to running out of water in the upper Russian River area; it was a few weeks away, at best. But hundreds of water right holders knew that they were no longer allowed to use their water right, and that was with the Potter Valley Project in operation. This year, the water transfer will be cut in half.
The reality is that northern Sonoma County needs more water security, not less. We need more fire suppression capability, not less. Over time, our water is guaranteed to cost more no matter what we do. The last thing we need is to create water shortages and additional rate hikes. Which would be the likely outcomes of a “run of the river” scenario.
Let’s have a balanced view of fish and human needs so we can invest properly in our future.
David Taber is president of the Palomino Lakes Mutual Water Company.