The various and competing interests surrounding the Potter
Valley Project have now come together in an agreement that
Humboldt County has signed onto. … Approved by Humboldt’s
Board of Supervisors at its July 22 meeting, the agreement
charts the removal of Scott Dam and Cape Horn Dam, as well as
the continuation of water diversion through a new facility
built and operated by a new joint powers authority (JPA).
PG&E now operates the Potter Valley Project (PVP) but is
getting out of it and will submit a decommissioning plan to the
Federal Energy Regulatory Commission by July 29. … The
agreement supports a transfer of PG&E’s water rights to the
Round Valley Tribe, which will lease the rights to the new JPA.
In addition to lease payments, the JPA will make separate
payments into an Eel River Restoration Fund.
Turnout was sparse for Pacific Gas and Electric’s July 1 Open
House at Eagle Peak Middle School in Redwood Valley — a missed
opportunity for local residents to meet directly with PG&E
leadership, including North Coast Regional Vice President Dave
Canny. The event, held inside the school’s gymnasium, featured
a range of informational booths on wildfire prevention,
vegetation management, customer support programs, and updates
on the Potter Valley Project. Representatives were stationed
around the room to answer questions and share materials with
attendees. PG&E’s plan to decommission the Potter
Valley Project was a key topic. Tony Gigliotti, PG&E’s
Senior Licensing Project Manager for Power Generation, was
available to explain the utility’s surrender application and
decommissioning timeline. … When asked about the lack of
silt mitigation plans, PG&E stated that those details would
be addressed during the upcoming environmental review
process.
When it comes to the planned decommissioning of PG&E’s
Potter Valley Project ― the hydroelectric power plant and two
related dams in Northern California ― there seem to be two
schools of thought in Sonoma County. One: Save the dams,
at all costs. … Two: Accept the inevitable, at all costs. …
Now, as Pacific Gas & Electric Co. prepares to file its plans
by July 29 to the federal government to decommission the
project, the rift between those two schools is widening. The
chasm was on display during a July 1 town hall hosted by the
Sonoma County Farm Bureau at the Finley Community Center in
Santa Rosa. … The questions revolve around how hundreds
of thousands of customers would continue to have access
to water once PG&E stops diverting water from the
Eel River to the Russian River ― a move that is likely still a
decade away.
… To many of its visitors, and the several hundred people who
live along its 31-mile shoreline deep within the sprawling
Mendocino National Forest, Lake Pillsbury is the region’s
heartbeat. But Scott Dam, at the foot of Lake Pillsbury, and
another, smaller dam on the river 12 miles downstream, have
also become a headache for Pacific Gas & Electric Co., which
owns both dams. And that’s creating a controversy that’s drawn
interest from everyone from those who live on Lake Pillsbury,
to North Bay communities whose water supplies are linked to
both dams, to federal agencies now under control of President
Donald Trump. … PG&E is on track to decommission
those dams, and under a historic agreement reached earlier this
year, both are being slated to be torn down in what would be
the nation’s next big dam removal project, freeing up the
headwaters of California’s third longest river to help revive
its troubled salmon and steelhead trout runs.
This special, first-ever Foundation water tour will not be offered every year! Join us as we examine water issues along the 263-mile Klamath River, from its spring-fed headwaters in south-central Oregon to its redwood-lined estuary on the Pacific Ocean in California.
Running Y Resort
5500 Running Y Rd
Klamath Falls, OR 97601
