At the March 6, 2025, Ukiah Valley Water Authority (UVWA)
meeting, the Board welcomed its newest member, the Calpella
County Water District, and swore in two new representatives.
The discussion quickly turned to potential expansion, as
several small mutual water companies expressed interest in
joining. The Board also voted to approve a $147,750
comprehensive rate study that could pave the way for regional
water consolidation, while tackling future challenges like
PG&E’s plan to abandon the Potter Valley Project. As the
Board works to secure water for the future, the weight of
rising costs and strained resources looms large.
At Tuesday morning’s Mendocino County Board of Supervisors
meeting, the supervisors spent 27 minutes taking public comment
and discussing a request from 5th District Supervisor Ted
Williams to provide a letter of support for state
Assemblymember Chris Rogers’ Assembly Bill 263. AB 263,
sponsored by the Karuk Tribe and supported by California
Coastkeeper Alliance, would extend emergency water flow
regulations to the Scott and Shasta river watersheds. Both
rivers are tributaries of the Klamath River and flow through
Siskiyou County. … (Board Chair John Haschak)
suggested the Board monitor the bill’s progress and potentially
revisit the issue in the future. AB 263 will be heard at
the California State Assembly on April 8 by the Committee on
Water, Parks and Wildlife.
At its February 13, 2025, meeting, the Mendocino County Inland
Water & Power Commission (IWPC) discussed a landmark Memorandum
of Understanding (MOU) that sets the stage for a New
Eel-Russian Diversion Facility (NERF). … IWPC also
discussed efforts to restart the Army Corps of Engineers (ACOE)
Feasibility Study on raising Coyote Dam, a long-debated project
aimed at increasing water storage capacity in the Upper Russian
River Watershed. Coyote Dam was originally designed to be
36 feet taller, but funding shortfalls prevented the full
construction. Increasing the dam height would allow more water
to be stored for dry-season use, especially as flows from the
Potter Valley Project decrease.
More than 200 people from Humboldt to Marin counties packed the
Cloverdale Veterans Memorial Hall Thursday night for a town
hall meeting about how PG&E’s planned shutdown of its
Potter Valley hydropower plant would impact the region’s water
supply. The controversial project involves the removal of the
Scott and Cape Horn dams and PG&E’s nearby hydroelectric
facility in Lake County, with PG&E saying it won’t shut
down the plant and begin dam removal until 2028 at the
earliest. Residents and some elected officials are
concerned the project will spark the potential loss of water
from the Eel River to the Russian River that individuals from
Mendocino, Sonoma and Marin counties have relied on for more
than 100 years.
The Trump Administration is keeping a tight lid on information
about cuts to North State programs, and even members of
Congress are being left in the dark about how Department of
Government Efficiency (DOGE) cuts are affecting local
communities in their districts. While the Trump
Administration’s U.S. Bureau of Reclamation plans to close an
office in Weaverville, representatives of that agency would not
confirm which office it was, what would happen to employees
working in that office or if employees would be relocated to
another location. DOGE did list on its website that it canceled
a $566,304 contract to provide environmental consulting
services as part of an analysis for a modernization project at
the Trinity River Fish Hatchery near Lewiston Dam.
On the first day, Trump took radical executive action to gut
the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), revoking the 1977
Executive Order that gave regulatory authority to the Council
on Environmental Quality (CEQ) Trump’s new Executive Order also
directs CEQ to rescind existing NEPA regulations and issue new
guidance that significantly accelerates permitting timelines.
In summary, the Trump administration has overturned decades of
NEPA regulations and related case law. For everyone who has
spent time learning and applying NEPA, this is very bad news.
It’s going to be a full-time job for our environmental
attorneys to rebuild case law and defend environmental
regulations. –Written by Larry Glass, Northcoast Environmental Center
Board Secretary and Public Lands Director
Three years ago, drought was declared in our community. Marin
Municipal Water District reservoirs dipped to just months of
remaining supply. This sobering memory has been forefront in
the minds of each member of the MMWD Board of Directors as we
work with district staff to implement a roadmap designed to
ensure our supply reliability for future droughts. Last month,
the Marin Water Board voted unanimously to proceed with the
design and environmental review for a new pipeline and pumping
plant to transport excess winter water flows from Sonoma
County’s Russian River system to Marin reservoirs – truly a
milestone moment. –Written by Jed Smith, vice president of the Marin
Municipal Water District Board of Directors.
… Pacific Gas & Electric went public with its draft
application to walk away from the (Potter Valley Project) in
late January, citing financial losses and aging infrastructure
and setting the stage for one of California’s most contentious
water battles. Conservationists and tribal leaders say this is
a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to restore the Eel River’s
salmon runs, long blocked by dams. Farmers, ranchers and local
officials warn that losing the project’s diversions could
devastate water supplies, cripple fire protection and threaten
a multimillion dollar agricultural industry. Some have even
urged the Trump administration to intervene, arguing that
PG&E’s plan to dismantle the project is reckless and puts
entire communities at risk.
It was all kumbaya a couple of weeks ago, as various players in
the drama over the Eel River Project stamped their seals of
approval on a deal that would tear down both Scott and Van
Arsdale dams, while at the same time continuing delivery of Eel
River water to the Russian River watershed. But Lake County —
the actual home of Lake Pillsbury, the reservoir created by
Scott Dam — now seems ready to throw a wrench into the gears,
via a direct appeal to President Donald Trump. At its meeting
tomorrow, the Lake County Board of Supervisors will consider
sending two letters — one to Gov. Gavin Newsom and one to
various cabinet-level officials in the Trump administration,
arguing that removal of the badly broken dams runs contrary to
policy.
There’s a lot to like about the historic agreement to manage
water in the Russian and Eel rivers. For farmers and city
dwellers in Sonoma and Mendocino counties, preserving
diversions into the Russian River is nothing short of a
lifeline. For conservation and fishery groups, a commitment to
restore flows on the Eel is a milestone in a decades-long
campaign to revitalize a historic salmon stream. –Written by The Press Democrat Editorial Board
