Lake Pillsbury Could be Drained - Advocates See it as Indispensable

KRCB - Noah Abrams

PG&E is in the early stages of surrendering control of the Project - a pair of dams, a diversion tunnel, and a hydro-electric station along the Eel River - and some groups are hoping the surrender will result in California’s next dam removal project.

Others, not so much.

"This is a regional water issue and multiple counties are involved and it has everything to do with the drinking water in Mendocino, Sonoma, and Marin counties." Carol Cinquini, a local advocate said. "It has everything to do with fire protection in, in those counties."

"I like where I live, but it's getting hard to live here without knowing that I'm gonna have a steady water supply."

And those of the words of Frank Lynch. Both Cinquini and Lynch are with the Lake Pillsbury Alliance, a nonprofit that advocates for the lake’s preservation.

Filled 100 years ago by the completion of Scott Dam, Lake Pillsbury is in many ways the lynch pin of the Potter Valley Project.

https://norcalpublicmedia.org/2022081780728/news-feed/lake-pillsbury-could-be-drained-advocates-see-it-as-indispensable

Cutback in Eel River diversions expected to prompt new curtailments for Russian River water rights

MARY CALLAHAN

THE PRESS DEMOCRAT

August 2, 2022, 4:58PM - Updated 2 hours ago

Federal energy regulators say Pacific Gas & Electric can begin drastically reducing Eel River water diversions bound for Lake Mendocino, which will likely result in additional curtailments of water rights for hundreds of landowners, ranchers and communities in the Russian River watershed.

The new flow regime, approved last week after more than two months of consideration by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, authorizes PG&E to divert as little water as it did last year even though there is almost 50% more water in Lake Pillsbury than there was at the same time last year.

But PG&E is under pressure from state and federal wildlife agencies to improve conditions for federally listed salmon and steelhead trout below Scott Dam and Lake Pillsbury and, thus, is seeking to preserve a pool of cold water in the lake for release when necessary to enable fish survival.

It also told regulators that allowing the reservoir to be drawn down too much risked bank sloughing and damage.

Urban water providers supplied by Sonoma Water, which has rights to water stored behind Coyote Dam, will still have the same access to water they had last year, Principal Engineer Don Seymour said.

The agency, which supplies more than 600,000 consumers through its retailers in Sonoma and northern Marin counties, has taken measures to conserve water in the lake, including a pledge to reduce withdrawals from 2020 levels by 20% from July 1 to Oct. 31.

But many of those who rely on water from the river and its tributaries can expect to lose the right to withdraw it for the time being. New orders from the State Water Resources Control Board are expected to come out Thursday or Friday suspending water rights of a still unknown number of rights holders in the watershed.

Though not unexpected, word of the reduced river flow is widely disappointing, said Robin Bartholow, deputy executive director of the Sonoma County Farm Bureau.

“It’s not good news,” said Isaul “Junior” Macias, vineyard manager at Hoot Owl Creek Vineyards in Alexander Valley.

The federal variance allows for about a 93% reduction in flows from the Eel River into East Fork Russian River and Lake Mendocino.

“It’s really a blow,” said Elizabeth Salomone, general manager of the Russian River Water Conservation and Flood Control District in Mendocino County.

Already, nearly 600 water rights in the upper and lower Russian River have been curtailed to ensure Lake Mendocino retains sufficient storage after a third year of drought.

Newly authorized efforts by PG&E to maintain a minimum threshold in Lake Pillsbury by throttling back downstream releases from the Eel River through the Potter Valley hydroelectric plant could mean additional curtailments on the scale of last year, at least in the upper watershed, said Philip Dutton, senior water resource control engineer with the state water board. The water board staff is still crunching the numbers, he said.

Potter Valley Powerhouse, map

Water fed through PG&E’s disabled power plant from the Eel River dumps into the East Fork Russian River and then into Lake Mendocino. Some of the resulting stream flow — up to 50 cubic feet per second under the new approval — is allocated to fulfill a contract with the Potter Valley Irrigation District.

About 5 cfs — down from around 75 cfs until now — is considered minimum in-stream flow required for environmental purposes. It’s that water and whatever return flows might accrue after the Potter Valley Irrigation District takes its allowance that is the only new water coming into Lake Mendocino at this point.

That water so far this year has kept the water level stable, said Nick Malasavage, chief of operations and readiness for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, San Francisco District, which oversees lakes Sonoma and Mendocino.

“We’re going to start to see the impact as the lakes starts to drop,” he said.

Water storage levels as of Aug. 1, 2022 in lakes Sonoma, Mendocino and Pillsbury. (Sonoma Water)

The lower flow also likely will mean the suspension, at least temporarily, of a groundbreaking voluntary water sharing agreement in use on the Russian River for the past month. It permitted participants with older, “senior” water rights that they were still allowed to exercise to share water allotments with those whose rights had been curtailed. temporarily, of a groundbreaking voluntary water sharing agreement in use on the Russian River for the past month. It permitted participants with older, “senior” water rights that they were still allowed to exercise to share water allotments with those whose rights had been curtailed.

There’s not expected to be enough water in the system now for at least some of those who had been sharing to supply even their own needs, water officials said.

Macias and Hoot Owl Creek Vineyards were among those who benefited from the water sharing after the vineyard’s water rights were among 331 curtailed in early July.

The program “went great,” he said, allowing him to see diminished acreage halfway through summer.

“Now,” he said, “going into the month of August — August, September, which are two crucial months for irrigating and getting the fruit ripe — that’s going to change everything.”

Bartholow said local agriculture stakeholders worked so hard over many months to frame the water sharing agreement with state water board personnel that to have it paused now “feels like it’s been undercut.”

“It’s just the variance (granted for stream flows) potentially made all that work moot,” Bartholow said. “The flip side of that is that this is a great model, working with the water board and the other agencies.”

Devon Jones, executive director of the Mendocino County Farm Bureau, said she hoped that conditions might allow for a bit more water in the system as time goes on, allowing more users to have access.

She said that some of those who face curtailment may have other water resources, such as storage ponds or recycled water, but the largest impact would fall on those with only one source: the river.

The curtailments allow for a minimum health and human safety allowance for those who live on land affected that she hoped would be extended for livestock.

You can reach Staff Writer Mary Callahan at 707-521-5249 or mary.callahan@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @MaryCallahanB.

Decommissioning the Potter Valley Project Is Off to a Rough Start

MENDOFEVER - by Sarah Reith

Decommissioning the Potter Valley hydro project is off to a rough start. There have been two developments in the ongoing saga of the Potter Valley hydropower project this week. The 20-year license has expired, but PG&E still owns and operates the project on an annual license. On Monday, PG&E submitted a rough schedule to surrender that license to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC).

In a separate filing, PG&E argued that it should be allowed to continue operating the project under the biological protections that were attached to the license when it was issued in 2002.

The 100-year-old project consists of two dams and two reservoirs that impound water on the Eel River; and a diversion tunnel that sends Eel River water into the East Fork of the Russian River, eventually making up the majority of Lake Mendocino. At its height, the project was capable of generating 9.4 megawatts of power, but it’s not currently producing power due to a broken transformer. The project provides water that’s key to agriculture in the Russian River and has long been a hot-button issue for environmental organizations that argue it harms endangered fish in the Eel. 

On Monday, PG&E submitted a four-page proposal for a two-and-a-half-year timeline to surrender the license and decommission the project. The bulk of that time will be devoted to interacting with agencies and stakeholders as PG&E drafts more detailed documents. Environmentalists are pushing for a speedy removal of both dams. But PG&E spokeswoman Deanna Contreras said in an email, “We expect it will take many years following PG&E’s submittal to FERC for a Decommissioning Order to be issued.” She added that PG&E still plans to replace the broken transformer, expecting it to amortize over a period of five years. Replacing the part could take up to two years.

Water-using stakeholders include the Potter Valley Irrigation District, which has contractual rights to some of the water; and the City of Ukiah, which has pre-1914 rights to water further down the East Fork, before it flows into Lake Mendocino. The Sonoma County Water Agency claims the bulk of the water in the lake. The Russian River Flood Control and Water Conservation Improvement District also has water rights to the lake, and sells wholesale water in Mendocino County. All these interests are currently in suspense about whether or not PG&E will be allowed to drastically reduce the water flowing through the diversion tunnel. PG&E has stated that one of its reasons for asking FERC to allow it to cut down on the flows is to preserve a cold-water pool for young salmonids in the Eel River.

But it’s not just environmental advocacy organizations that are concerned about the project’s impact on wildlife and the environment. Back in 2002, the National Marine Fisheries Service, or NMFS, wrote a Biological Opinion, laying out the measures that PG&E needed to take in order to comply with the Endangered Species Act. That opinion was incorporated into the license that was issued at that time, and which expired three months ago.

In March of this year, NMFS wrote a letter to FERC, saying that the project was causing take, or killing and harming fish that are listed under the Endangered Species Act, “in a manner not anticipated in the Opinion and from activities not described in the Opinion.” The letter goes on to say that the fish passage facility at Cape Horn Dam has not undergone the proper consultations regarding endangered species, and that none of the operations at the facility are covered in the 20-year-old opinion. NMFS wants to re-open consultations about the license in order to update and strengthen the environmental protection measures. This means that the license for the project would be undergoing amendments at the same time that it is being surrendered.

Within a few weeks of the NMFS letter, environmental advocates filed a notice of intent to sue PG&E under the Endangered Species Act, citing among other things that the fishway at Cape Horn Dam made the fish easy prey for river otters.

In a 16-page letter to FERC, PG&E wrote that NMFS doesn’t have evidence to back up its claims. PG&E also protested that NMFS failed to mention “any of the voluminous monitoring record covered by over 20 years of monitoring Project operations.”

Redgie Collins is the legal and policy director for California Trout, one of the organizations arguing that PG&E is in violation of the Endangered Species Act. He believes the biological opinion expired along with the license, and that it needs to be updated. CalTrout is threatening litigation as part of a pressure campaign to speed up dam removal and install other structures that will enable a winter diversion from the Eel to the Russian. “We have plenty of information that shows that these 100-year-old plus Eel River dams kill fish,” he declared. “And becasue they kill fish, and because we believe that the Biological Opinion has ended, that PG&E is required to either re-consult, or open themselves up to litigation that we are preparing, as we speak.”

Collins is inspired by plans to remove four hydropower dams from the Klamath River, which is scheduled to start next year. “It took them about 18 years to get to the point of the surrender process,” he said. “And once it kick-started there, the writing was on the wall for the eventual solution, which was worked on by a host of stakeholders, including tribal nations. Here we have a very similar path, and so we’re hoping that they use the existing information that we’ve put forth, and the removal plan, and try to beat that 30-month window. That’s our goal. It will never be quick enough for us.”

The Round Valley Indian Tribes have weighed in on the NMFS request to amend the license, saying the tribes support all the protective measures proposed by the service. The tribes are one of the few entities PG&E notified of its intent to reduce flows coming through the project, much to the chagrin of the Russian River water users, who argued that PG&E should have assembled a full drought working group before asking FERC to sign off on the reduction, or variance.

Collins says PG&E could have cut down the flows any time, without waiting around on FERC. “If they truly wanted to save listed species, they would have implemented the variance,” he said. “That cold pool will be functionally gone in a short period of time. We think just in a matter of weeks that cold pool will be drained based on the variance not being implemented.”

With ag users writing angry letters pleading for more water and environmentalists threatening lawsuits, one thing is clear: the initial outreach to stakeholders is not going well. And the decommissioning process hasn’t gotten started yet.

Eleven miles of Eel River corridor, Lake Pillsbury basin protected under conservation easement

THE PRESS DEMOCRAT

BY MARY CALLAHAN

Between talk of a widely reviled Coal Train and continued uncertainty over Pacific Gas & Electric’s Potter Valley hydroelectric plant, the future of the Eel River has been a source of profound anxiety over the past year.

But there’s some good news with the announcementthat 5,620 acres of remote wilderness along 11 miles of the river between Lake Pillsbury and the Potter Valley Project are now permanently under a conservation easement held by the Mendocino Land Trust. The easement includes the Lake Pillsbury basin and shoreline, as well as the property around the power plant, in addition to what the land trust describes as “a wide area on either side of the river” in proximity to the Mendocino National Forest.

The arrangement prohibits future subdivision and development on the land, protecting natural habitat for chinook salmon and steelhead trout from degradation, as well as supporting bald eagles, osprey and elk often seen around the lake.

PG& E will still own the land, which is part of a complex system. Eel River water is stored behind Scott Dam in Lake Pillsbury, delivered downriver to Van Arsdale Reservoir and tunneled through a mountain to turn the turbines in Potter Valley before it transfers to the East Branch Russian River and Lake Mendocino.

But with PG& E’s decision in 2019 not to renew its operational license, changes are afoot for the entire system, including the permanent closure of the power plant and the potential removal of Scott Dam.

Having a land organization in charge of stewardship before those decisions are made was a comfort to Alicia Hamann, executive director of Friends of the Eel River.

“I would trust a land trust to manage the land more responsibly than PG& E,” she said.

Importantly, the easement provides for public access to the river and lake basin in perpetuity, which is one of the most exciting things about it, said Conrad Kramer, Executive Director of the Land Trust.

Often, conservation easements exist on private land that prevent development but don’t otherwise benefit the public. This one is special, particularly given the popularity of Lake Pillsbury and surrounding areas. The newly protected acreage includes several campsites, including the Trout Creek campground east of the powerhouse.

But, in general, the land “feels remote and it feels very wild,” Kramer said.

The agreement is the result of a nearly 20-year process that began with the settlement of PG& E’s 2001 Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing. (The company recently emerged from a second round of bankruptcy proceedings begun in 2019 because of billions of dollars in liability from catastrophic wildfires.)

The 2003 settlement included a provision that required the company to dedicate 140,000 acres of watershed land worth $300 million around its hydroelectric facilities to be used in perpetuity for public purposes.

The nonprofit Pacific Forest and Watershed Lands Stewardship Council was established in 2004 to oversee that effort. It reached out about a decade ago to the Mendocino Land Trust to negotiate an easement, Kramer said.

PG& E paid for the staff time and any studies needed during the negotiations, and also provided more than a half-million dollars to fund a stewardship endowment, he said.

“We’re really happy about it,” he said.

The land trust also holds a conservation easement on 879 acres of adjoining forest on the north side of the river donated by PG& E to the Potter Valley Tribe in 2019, restoring a portion of the tribe’s aboriginal territory.

Close to 1,000 acres also has been donated to the U.S. Forest Service.

The patchwork of easements and public lands contributes to expanded wildlife corridors, as well.

Most people who visit the affected stretch of river at this point actually go in the river, Kramer said, but he said he hopes to see hiking trails in the future that might enhance public enjoyment of the area.

And if, at some point, the lake goes away, the land underneath would be cared for by the land trust, he said.

“The whole area underneath the water here would be under our easement,” he said.

You can reach Staff Writer Mary Callahan at 707-521-5249 or mary. callahan@pressdemocrat. com.

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.