Lake Pillsbury Alliance board members, Frank Lynch and Carol Cinquini, were interviewed by reporter Karen Rifkin at the Ukiah Daily Journal about the efforts being made to save Lake Pillsbury.
The Ukiah Daily Journal - June 18, 2021
By Karen Rifkin
Lake Pillsbury Alliance Working to Keep Water - Part 1
Aligning with the U.S. Forest Service’s early philosophy of “bringing the people to the forest,” in 1915 the U.S. Congress established the Cabin in the Woods program to facilitate family recreation in the National Forests, a cost-effective way for average citizens to afford seasonal getaways near lakes, mountains and streams,
Individuals could purchase a lot—a long-term Forest Service lease—issued for 20 years at a time, upon which they could build a cabin.
Of the nearly 14,000 cabins in the program throughout the 114 National Forests in the U.S., there are 71 of them in a tract in the Mendocino National Forest at Lake Pillsbury.
Carol Cinquini’s grandfather bought his first one in 1940 after camping at the lake in the 1930s; and Frank Lynch’s father purchased a permit for one in 1947 after finishing his World War II military service.
Cinquini and Lynch both grew up by the lake; she spent her summers there with her children and currently watches as her grandsons, fifth generationers, continue to enjoy the beauty of the land and the lake; and he and his family live there part-time in the cabin his father built by hand.
“Most of the returning families, for whom this is their second home, are people who come back generation after generation,” Cinquini says. “We’re not unique; our love of Pillsbury extends throughout the whole community.”
There are 450 property owners, lease holders and ranchers, a resort and a marina in the Lake Pillsbury Basin on a mix of private and National Forest Service lands. The Lake Pillsbury Ranch has 330 lots (about 30 full time residents) on privately-owned land; Rice Fork has 30 lots on privately-owned land; Homesite Tract has 71 cabins on U.S. Forest Service leased lands; Westshore Campers Association has 80 privately leased (from PGE) campsites; and, at the height of the season, thousands of campers, many of whom are in multigenerational families, populate the 225 developed campsites around the lake to enjoy the boating, swimming, wildlife, hiking, mountain biking, kayaking and fishing.
The rather-remote Lake Pillsbury, the largest lake in the Mendocino National Forest with its 31 miles of shoreline, is located in the northeast part of Lake County. Filled in 1922, impounded by the Scott Dam, it is part of the Potter Valley Project that assures water security for hundreds of thousands of people in the three counties of Sonoma, Mendocino and Marin for drinking, farming, aquifer replenishment and recreation.
On May 13, 2020, the Two-Basin Solution Partnership—California Trout, County of Humboldt, Mendocino County Inland Water & Power Commission, Round Valley Indian Tribes and Sonoma County Water Agency—filed a proposed Feasibility Study Report for the Potter Valley Project with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). Included in the study, as one of its objectives, the Partnership “will conduct detailed studies to analyze the potential effects of Scott Dam removal…in a phased process” to allow volitional fish passage to spawning grounds that have been blocked since construction of the dam. (Scott Dam has no fish ladder.)
On March 17, 2021, FERC issued a Study Plan Determination and per the order the Two Basin Solution Partnership must analyze the effects of removing Scott Dam on the communities around Lake Pillsbury, tribal interests, recreation and other activities on the Eel River and the socioeconomic impacts of Scott Dam removal on local communities and economies in both river basins—studies that will likely last through the end of 2022.
As quoted in a press release from Lake County, 3rd District Supervisor Eddie Crandall says, “This Feasibility Study blatantly ignores the potential catastrophic effects this would have on the thousands of people meaningfully connected to Lake Pillsbury and the economic and environmental resiliency of all of Lake County, further threatening the economy of one of the poorest counties in the United States.”
Although to many it seems apparent that the train has already left the station, a network of people dedicated to the continued existence of the lake—the Lake Pillsbury Alliance (LPA)—has been established “to protect this extraordinary public resource through outreach, education and action.”
“It’s not about losing our lake view—which few of us have—it’s about losing an ecosystem and wildlife. How do you destroy a 100-year-old ecosystem with nesting bald eagles and tule elk, a recreational and water resource for the whole area?” asks LPA co-director Cinquini.
“We consider ourselves environmentalists,” says LPA co-director Lynch. “We want to do the right thing. Tearing down the dam is not the only answer. There are alternatives that have environmental value.”
She continues, “We support fish passage; there are designs for fishery enhancements, for fish passage, that could be implemented at Scott Dam all the way to the Pacific Ocean.
“There has been a long-term effort by Cal Trout and other dam removal advocates to remove the dam. They see the only path forward being the removal of the dam and opening up the habitat. They want a wild and scenic river.”
“Cal Trout’s position is that the dam is bad. Period. They believe that removing it is the panacea that will bring back the fish; however, there are many things that have impacted the fisheries—overfishing in the early 1900s, road and rail construction cutting off tributaries, the cannabis and ag industries and historic forestry operations,” he adds.
Differences of opinions exist: Cal Trout’s Dams Out Report webpage lists Scott Dam as one of the five dams in California that is “ripe for removal” and Janet Pauli, chair of the Inland Water & Power Commission, says that although its infrastructure is old, it has been maintained with regular inspections and if it were not safe, “PGE would not have any water behind it. They take dam safety very seriously.”
The Ukiah Daily Journal - June 20, 2021
By Karin Rifkin
Water: Lake Pillsbury Alliance - Part 2
In April of 2017, PGE began moving forward with its plans to relicense the Potter Valley Project (PVP)—with, as of yet, no designs to remove any of the infrastructure—and in August of 2019, Congressman Jared Huffman created the PVP Ad Hoc Committee, a Two Basin Solution for the Eel and Russian River basins, whose more than 20 members were tasked with the relicensing process of the PVP to improve fisheries and fish migration, minimize adverse impacts to water supply reliability, respect tribal rights and minimize and mitigate adverse impacts to Lake County including Lake Pillsbury.
In its beginning stages, the Committee had no representation from the Lake Pillsbury basin and Frank Lynch, as president of one of its four homeowners’ associations, attended meetings and requested a seat at the table. He was refused.
“Of all the agencies represented on the Committee, there is little in the literature that addresses the Lake Pillsbury environment. None of the agencies have been proactive in regards to the wildlife and the ecosystem up there,” says Carol Cinquini.
Although Lake County was a member of the Committee, their supervisors’ concerns and comments were ignored by the predetermined goals of the Committee.
“You can be silenced by not being there or by having your representation minimized at the table. Either way you don’t have a voice,” she says.
In 2019, Lynch and Cinquini spearheaded the formation of the Lake Pillsbury Alliance (LPA), a 501c3 non-profit, and reached out to hundreds of people at the lake and in the county to be inclusive of the entire community. They met with Congressman Huffman and requested a seat on the Committee. They were refused.
From a Lake County press release: “The utter lack of regard shown for the people that would be affected by [this] proposal is deeply disturbing,” says Lake County 3rd District Supervisor Eddie Crandell, one of the current representatives to Committee …“the Lake Pillsbury Alliance has tried again and again to be heard, yet there has been no meaningful response.”
In January of 2019, PGE withdrew its application for re-licensing the PVP and in June of 2019, as an outgrowth of the Committee, the Two Basin Solution Partnership formed and submitted a Notice of Intent to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to file an application for a new license for the PVP.
With the necessary $100,000 in hand, Lake County met with the Partnership in November of 2019 requesting membership. They were vetoed by one or more of its members, yet again denying the County and the Lake Pillsbury Basin from having a meaningful seat at the table.
Although their request was submitted with a revised resolution committing to working toward a cooperative solution, their request was denied with the claim that they were not fully supportive of a two-basin solution.
Humboldt County’s original request for membership supported the removal of the dam and, after passing a second resolution stating they would work cooperatively towards a two-basin solution, they were accepted into the Partnership.
“There was a precedent set by Humboldt’s actions, but Lake County was not treated the same way,” she says.
“It’s almost too late; it’s a steamroller now; there’s money coming in for the approved study plan that has been defined—but we are not done fighting.
“Without Scott Dam and Lake Pillsbury, Sonoma and Mendocino County water users will lose control of the headwaters of their water supply; without the dam there would be no water in Lake Mendocino right now—it’s not going to fill without Pillsbury as a regulator to control the headwaters—there would be no water on the Eel River and no water on the Russian River by the end of the season,” he says.
The lake is a critical resource for wildfire protection. In 2020, there were 4,000-gallon water tenders drafting water 24/7 for over 3 weeks to fight the August Complex Fire and two years prior for the Mendocino Complex Fire.
The Lake Pillsbury Basin is a remote recreation area where families can come to unplug and enjoy nature, their community and an ecosystem with nesting bald eagles, tule elk, otters, western pond turtles, migrating water fowl and many other species.
“Lake Pillsbury is unique because you have to work to get there; that’s part of the attraction because you are really out there when you’re there,” he says.
“But it’s remoteness hurts our cause in trying to get the word out
that this is a critical issue that impacts our water supply, not just for those of us who utilize the lake for our vacation homes, but also for all of us who live in this region.
“There’s 192 miles of Eel River and we have a dam that is blocking a tiny piece of it. Salmon are not returning because of changes in ocean temperature and disturbed balances of alkalinity and acidity; they are not migrating upstream in rivers, with or without dams, throughout the entire North American continent. These problems are in the ocean, not necessarily caused because there’s a dam 190 miles up the Eel River watershed,” he says.
There has been little debate over the existence of Scott Dam since its inception in 1922; the controversy, however, began in 2002 with the biological opinion developed by the National Marines Fishery Service to support endangered salmonids in the Eel River and enhance fisheries downstream.
The implementation of the biological opinion in 2006 resulted in radical changes in the flow regime: Flows from the Eel River to the East Branch of the Russian River were cut by 50 per cent—the Eel River continues to get its regular diversions while the Russian River does not—and increased flows from Lake Pillsbury have caused lake levels to fluctuate more drastically resulting in more dry years.
“Scientist don’t necessarily agree on what needs to be done; unfortunately, these specific biological opinions are running the show and other factors that should be considered are not being taken into account,” she says.
“And this is happening at the same time as the whole Eel River is being sucked dry by the cannabis industry,” he adds.
“There will be a huge fallout if this project moves forward and we are not part of the discussion; there’s nobody looking out for mitigation for us down the road.
“What do we do with dry boat docks? Our boat ramps? Our devalued homes? Lake County, one of the poorest in the nation, will lose the $1.7 million PGE unitary tax base that the County uses to provide services,” she says. “As our property values decline, so does our property tax revenue.”
Lynch says, “This whole process is building momentum and, as time goes by, all the money is being directed toward studies with the focus being the removal of the dam as a given. By the time we get to a certain point, they will say they have all this invested in this solution so let’s continue on. Slow down, there are other alternatives to consider, other ways to ensure fish passage and provide environmental benefits to communities along the Russian and Eel Rivers and those that live near Lake Pillsbury at a fraction of the cost.
“Lake Mendocino is not going to happen without Lake Pillsbury as the controlling point; It’s important for all of us to realize that drought is part of our new reality and even if they raise Coyote Dam, the water is not there.
“The diversions that exist up to now have been year-round; under the new proposal Lake Mendocino will only get water during the high peak flow period. We haven’t had many of those lately and we may not get a lot of those in the future.”
Cinquini concludes, “We would like to see a retrofit of the dam and the implementation of mitigation enhancements all the way from Lake Pillsbury to the Pacific Ocean. It’s entirely feasible and would be a great deal less expensive than what is now being proposed.”