Russian River Water Users Could See Significant Curtailments After PG&E Requests Flow Variance

MENDOFEVER - JUNE 2, 2022

By Sarah Reith

Russian River water users are preparing for another dry year, with water rights curtailments for those who depend on Lake Mendocino, and the possibility of just a trickle coming out of Lake Pillsbury.

PG&E, which still owns and operates the Potter Valley Project under an annual license, has asked the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to give it permission to release five cubic feet of water per second from Lake Pillsbury into the East Branch of the Russian River, which flows into Lake Mendocino. This is a variance from the 75 cubic feet per second that’s otherwise required for this time of year.

Elizabeth Salomone, the General Manager of the Russian River Flood Control and Water Conservation Improvement District, says that although last year’s variance was the same, water managers were expecting five times as much this year. That was based on the storage levels in Lake Pillsbury, which filled during winter storms, and the terms of the license. “In other words, the request for five cfs is a significant change from the current license,” she asserted; “and I believe there will be questions. What is the justification for that great change, from the expected 25, based on conditions, and what they’ve asked for. The five.”

Last year, PG&E aimed to have 12,000-acre feet in Lake Pillsbury by the end of the water year in the fall. This year, after consulting with the Round Valley Indian Tribes and state and federal regulators, PG&E wants to make sure it maintains at least 30,000-acre feet in the reservoir. That’s to create cold water pools below Scott Dam, for the benefit of endangered salmonids.

Alicia Hamann, the Executive Director of Friends of the Eel River, says it’s time to face the facts of water scarcity. “I think that makes it eight of the last ten years that they’ve required a variance to operate the project,” she said; “and it’s just really telling that the status quo is not sustainable… It’s not sustainable for the interests in the Eel River, nor for water users in the Russian River. And I think seeking a new future for the (Potter Valley) Project and for the Pillsbury Basin is just in the interests of everyone.”

In a letter to FERC, PG&E wrote that if it has to continue releasing 75 cubic feet per second, Lake Pillsbury will be drawn down so low that its banks could be destabilized, which could affect the safety of Scott Dam.  Janet Pauli, of the Potter Valley Irrigation District, expects the District to continue getting its 50 cubic feet per second on demand; “but the minimum instream flow going to five without a buffer is a dramatic decrease…If we start the year off as a dry year, that would give us a 25 cubic feet per second buffer, and then what we believe is they should watch the lake level carefully. If it gets to a point where it drops too precipitously, they could incrementally reduce the diversion rates through the Project.” 

The irrigation district also submitted a letter to FERC, complaining that PG&E had not consulted with a full range of stakeholders before requesting the variance. Last year, FERC required PG&E to consult with a drought working group to have the same variance approved.

In its proposal to FERC, PG&E wrote that it does plan to reconvene the drought working group, but if the full group is unable to agree on flow adjustments, the determination will be settled on by the Round Valley Indian Tribes, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, and the National Marine Fisheries Service. The letter also says that according to the contract with the Potter Valley Irrigation District, PG&E has the discretion to limit deliveries.

The district differs on that interpretation, writing that it’s still entitled to 50 cubic feet per second, but that it’s been requesting less water to conserve the infrastructure at Lake Pillsbury. And the district declares that the new minimum storage target of 30,000-acre feet “is not supported by any definitive studies or modeling of prior year conditions and is clearly outside of the existing license requirements.”

Salomone says the variance would have a significant impact on water users further downriver, too. “That 25 cfs that was expected would satiate some of the demand for the appropriative rights along the Upper Russian River,” she explained. “The Flood Control District has one of those appropriative rights. But so do many others, including urban water suppliers and agriculture. At five cfs, preliminary analysis is that the State Water Board would need to curtail all post-1914 water rights. The water rights system is based on priority dates, so the older your water right, the higher priority. It will cause curtailments to go back as far as 1914, and possibly earlier.” 

Salomone does expect some minor differences between this year and last.  “This year it does protect an amount for human health and safety for all urban water users and domestic diversions,” she said. “And there is a small amount for the highest priority appropriative water rights. Last year, the State issued full curtailments. No appropriative rights or riparian rights were able to pump. They were all curtailed. So it’s a tiny, tiny bit better this year. But a very, very small amount of better.”

Letters: Save the Water for All of Us

Ukiah Daily Journal

April 20, 2022 at 9:22 p.m. | UPDATED: April 20, 2022 at 9:23 p.m. 

To the Editor:

Answer to Scott Greacen’s Sunday April 3, 2022 Letter to the Editor on the Potter Valley Project. Mr. Greacen and his so-called friends of the Eel River, are they actually friends of the Eel River or environmental extremists. Do they care anything about human habitat? There are at least five water districts in Mendocino County that get their water from Lake Mendocino. Without water from the Potter Valley Project, Lake Mendocino will never fill enough to meet the needs for human habitat needed in Mendocino County, not including Sonoma or Marin Counties needs for human habitat. Look at this year how low Lake Mendocino is. All because the environmental extremists would not allow PG&E to transfer water during November and December of 2021 when we were getting plenty of rain to transfer water to Lake Mendocino. 

Next, what about this Two Basin Solution disaster that will fail. Ten years after the Cape Horn Dam was built it already had silted in. That’s why Scott Dam at Lake Pillsbury was built. Lake Pillsbury has a bigger basin adequate for the water of every need including fire protection. Cape Horn Dam at Van Arsdale does not have a big enough basin for the needs of both the Eel River (fish) and the Russian River (human habitat) without the water from Lake Pillsbury. There are plenty of solutions to get fish past Lake Pillsbury without removing Scott Dam and destroying an asset like Lake Pillsbury. People need to watch the documentary “A Rivers Last Chance”. 

In that documentary Lake Pillsbury only effects eight percent of the Eel River. The illegal dope grows effect one hundred percent of the Eel River. You will not hear any of that from these environmental extremists. If these environmental extremists truly cared about the Eel River they would go after these illegal dope grows that draft way too much water and release toxic pollutants back in the Eel River to the point the fish cannot even navigate back to their spawning grounds. Lake Pillsbury has water to send downstream during droughts in the summer months to help fish habitat. Without Lake Pillsbury there is no guarantee there would be enough water for fish during these droughts that we are now going through. People of Mendocino, Sonoma and Marin Counties, do not let these environmental extremists from Humboldt County destroy our human habitat. 

Why don’t these environmental extremists have Ruth Lake’s Dam removed in Humboldt County (water supply for Eureka), because the people in Eureka would run these environmental extremists out on a rail. Oh, by the way Mr. Scott Greacen, I AM NOT a farmer. I am a native of Mendocino County from a family who has been here over one hundred years and does not want my county destroyed by people who do not even live here. 

-John Almida, Mendocino County 

Everyone Knew it Was Coming: Eel River Waters Continue to be Diverted as PG&E Granted Annual License for the Potter Valley Project

Redheaded Blackbelt

April 24, 2022 Sarah Reith

No one was surprised by Thursday’s letter granting PG&E an annual license to run the Potter Valley Project until April of next year. And, while a last-minute mystery application did provide a few moments of titillating speculation, the enigmatic Antonio Manfredini failed to generate any real suspense.

The 50-year license to operate the Potter Valley Project, which diverts water from the Eel River into the east branch of the Russian River to Lake Mendocino by way of a tunnel, a pair of dams and reservoirs, and a small hydropower plant, expired on April 14. A group of diverse environmental groups and local government interests from Humboldt to Sonoma county tried to gather $18 million to conduct the studies needed to apply for the license, but fell far short and never filed an application. The parties had pledged to find a way to operate the project in a way that would satisfy the demands of the endangered fisheries in the Eel River basin, as well as water users in the Russian River watershed.

A day after the license expired, a group of environmental interests and fishermen filed a notice of intent to sue PG&E within 60 days under the Endangered Species Act, claiming that the fish ladder at Cape Horn Dam in Potter Valley harms endangered salmonids trying to make their way through. 

The notice relies heavily on a letter from the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), which states that the project is causing take of endangered species in a manner that was not anticipated in a 2002 NMFS biological opinion, and that the agency “is concerned with insufficient coverage under the Endangered Species Act for incidental take of ESA-listed salmonids.”

PG&E declared that the claims in the notice are “without merit,” and that, although PG&E did not file to renew the license, the Federal Power Act requires the regulatory agency to automatically issue an annual license upon the expiration of the previous license.

That agency is the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), which confirmed PG&E’s claim a week after its license expired, writing that the Federal Power Act does indeed require the Commission, “at the expiration of a license term, to issue from year-to-year an annual license to the then licensee under the terms and conditions of the prior license until a new license is issued, or the project is otherwise disposed of…” The brief notice concluded that “PG&E is authorized to continue operation of the Potter Valley Project, until such time as the Commission orders disposition of the project.”

That disposition is widely assumed to be an order to surrender and decommission the project, though FERC has provided very few hints that would either confirm or deny the supposition, or provide much of an idea of what that means or how long it would take.

Clifford Paulin, who is legal counsel for the Potter Valley Irrigation District, was among those who fully expected FERC to grant the annual license. For him, the remaining uncertainty lies in the big-picture conditions of the drought, as well as details about the pikeminnow reduction program and how additional conditions to the license, if any, will be implemented. 

While Sonoma County is entitled to the lion’s share of the water in Lake Mendocino, the Potter Valley Irrigation District is first in line for water that comes through the project. And a combination of drought and the project’s current inability to generate power due to a broken piece of equipment means that just a few cubic feet per second have made it past the irrigation district. Paulin said that, while PVID is entitled to 50 cfs per its contract with PG&E, the district’s directors acceded to PG&E’s request to stay on a demand-based system, only asking for the amount the district can sell to its customers. This is calculated in part to protect the infrastructure at Lake Pillsbury and Scott Dam in Lake County. It also means that the only additional water going into the Russian River and Lake Mendocino from the Eel River will be the minimum instream flows required by the National Marine Fisheries Service to protect salmonids in the Russian River.

As for the PVP 77 application, which was decisively dismissed on Friday, Paulin thought it might have been part of what caused the delay in FERC’s announcement, but “I don’t see Manfredini being much of a factor” otherwise.

Curtis Knight, the Executive Director of the environmental organization California Trout, described the granting of the annual license as “a big step,” which “everyone knew was coming…the only weird note was Manfredini.” CalTrout is one of the organizations in the coalition that was working towards applying for the license, and is a party to the notice to sue PG&E under the Endangered Species Act. Reflecting on the years of effort that went into consultations with affected communities and efforts to gather funding for extensive studies, he described the PVP 77 application as “deficient,” and hopes “FERC will squash it completely.” While FERC’s letter declares that its rejection “constitutes final agency action,” applicants may file a request for a rehearing within thirty days. Still, Knight declared that “the distraction won’t amount to much;” and said that what he expects next is a timeline for the surrender of the project. He hasn’t given up on working with the Russian River members of the original coalition, reflecting that, “we spent a few years in the trenches, so we’ve got something there.”

Still, he doesn’t expect FERC to define the process of decommissioning without a fight, or at least a lot of hard work. “It may have to get a little messy first,” he acknowledged.