The Mendocino County Inland Water and Power Commission will
host a workshop Monday about what the future holds for water
supplies in the wake of the decommissioning of the Potter
Valley Project. “The workshop is intended to help the
public better understand the facts, dispel misinformation, and
engage constructively in one of the most significant water
supply issues facing the region,” organizers said in a
statement. During the three-hour workshop, presenters from
the IWPC, Eel-Russian Project Authority and New Eel Russian
Facility will share factual updates and data about the future
of water in Potter Valley and areas in the Russian River
watershed.
Conservationists restoring salmon along California’s North
Coast have a mantra: A good coho salmon stream looks like a
teenager’s bedroom—if teenagers discarded logs and branches
instead of dirty clothes. … The first attempts to
restore Mendocino’s streams for coho and other salmon began in
the 1960s. Decades of logging in the area’s old-growth forests
left woody debris in stream channels, creating miles-long
barriers. Well-intentioned state conservationists decided to
remove it. … Gradually, researchers realized that salmon
needed the shelter provided by logjams.
Environmental organizations supporting the removal of the
Potter Valley Project dams will host a virtual and an in-person
workshop this month to help residents craft comments for
submission to the Federal Energy Regulatory
Commission. Friends of the Eel River, Save California
Salmon, the Sierra Club Redwood Chapter and California Trout
are hosting the two-hour workshops, which will explain the
groups’ reasons for supporting the removal of the Scott Dam and
the Cape Horn (also known as Van Arsdale) Dam.
Northern California’s Siskiyou County took another hit Tuesday
when a federal judge denied its summary judgment motion in a
case over residents’ claims they’re not getting the water they
need. The putative class — many of whom are Asian American and
live in a part of the rural county called Shasta Vista — sued
in 2022. … They also claim officials have used water
ordinances to deprive them in an area with no public water
system. County officials have said the local ordinances
that prevent the transfer of water to the Shasta Vista
residents are needed to combat illegal cannabis grows. But the
plaintiffs contend they’re used against a minority population
that needs water.
After a lengthy public comment session that included dozens of
speakers both for and against a resolution that many argued
would jeopardize years of painstaking progress made toward
continuing water diversions from the Eel River into the Russian
River following the removal of the Potter Valley Project dams,
the Mendocino County Board of Supervisors instead voted to
consider an alternative resolution proposed by Fifth District
Supervisor Ted Williams at its next meeting. … [H]e was
concerned about the “unanticipated consequences” of passing the
resolution … that asks the Pacific Gas and Electric Company
to reconsider its decision to decommission the hydroelectric
plant known as the Potter Valley Project.
Tucked into California’s remote northwest corner, the Smith
River winds through Del Norte County. … Down on the river’s
lower plain, though, the wilderness gives way to farmland.
Here, a handful of growers produce nearly all of America’s
Easter lily bulbs, which are then shipped off to greenhouses
across the country. The iconic plant is the most famous export
from Del Norte County — yet state scientists say decades of
pesticide use by these growers have contaminated the
tributaries that flow through those fields, threatening fish,
wildlife and nearby residents.
The State Water Resources Control Board is hosting a meeting in
Ukiah Wednesday to collect comments related to the Potter
Valley Project. According to information provided by the board,
it is holding “scoping meetings to provide information about
the Proposed Project, the CEQA process, and to receive written
or oral comments from trustee agencies, responsible agencies,
Tribes, and other interested persons concerning the range of
alternatives, potential significant effects, and mitigation
measures that should be analyzed in the EIR.”
On this first-ever Foundation water tourwe examined 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
