Catching Even Insiders ‘Off Guard’, PG&E Decides to Return the Potter Valley Project, Which Diverts Water From the Eel River, to Full Operational Status

Scott Dam which is part of the Potter Valley Project.

Scott Dam which is part of the Potter Valley Project. [Photo cropped by one from PG&E]

The future of the Potter Valley Project which diverts water from the Eel River to the Russian River is more uncertain than ever, with a regional coalition declaring it will not file for the license application and PG&E unexpectedly taking steps to operate the project under an annual license until the next development.

PG&E, which owns and operates the project, announced in 2019 that it would not renew its license and was no longer trying to sell it. The coalition, which agreed to prioritize fish passage and water supply, was the only entity to express an interest in taking over the license. But on Monday, the group sent a letter to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), explaining that it will not file an application by the deadline in mid-April, when the current license expires. 

The decision has been widely anticipated, since the coalition, consisting of  Humboldt County, California Trout, the Round Valley Indian Tribes, the Mendocino County Inland Water and Power Commission, and Sonoma County Water Agency (known collectively as the Notice of Intent, or NOI parties), has been unable to gather the estimated $12-18 million needed to conduct the studies required by various regulatory agencies. 

The project has been what PG&E spokesman Paul Moreno calls “non-economic” for years, which is why the company decided to bow out of the ongoing operational and maintenance costs. The water diverted from the Eel River is far more valuable to Russian River water users than the power generated by the project. But that flow, which can get as high as 270 cubic feet per second, has been severely curtailed since a transformer in the Potter Valley powerhouse went offline in July. PG&E estimated that repairing the transformer bank would cost between five and ten million dollars, and could take up to two years. 

Then, in a surprising turn of events, on Wednesday, PG&E’s director of strategic agreements told the NOI parties that PG&E had “concluded it is beneficial to PG&E’s electric generation customers to proceed with the work necessary to return the powerhouse to full operational status.” Moreno said in an interview that the company expects to be able to recoup the costs of the repair, which are still unknown, within five years, during which time the company plans to continue operating under annual licenses from FERC. PG&E is not currently under orders to decommission the project, which Moreno described as “kind of a relicensing process in reverse.”

Van Arsdale Fisheries Station in Potter Valley, California. “People might ask ‘can’t they just get over the dam,’ well they were getting over the dam but it was taking three to four weeks and only a small fraction were successful,” said fisheries biologist Dr. Stewart Reid. “If you had to spend three weeks to get into your house, you’d probably look for a solution as well." Credit: John Heil/USFWS

Van Arsdale Fisheries Station in Potter Valley, California. [Photo credit: John Heil/USFWS]

That process has not historically been straightforward. Janet Pauli, of the Potter Valley Irrigation District and chair of the Mendocino County Inland Water and Power Commission, said that even if the relicensing process “had gone perfectly, there probably would have been things that needed to be changed. It’s really unlikely the license would have been renewed in time.” During the previous relicensing process, which lasted from 1972-2006, PG&E operated under annual licenses for eleven years. “And that’s when everything was really simple,” Pauli added.

Congressman Jared Huffman, who formed an ad hoc committee devoted to developing recommendations for the future of the Potter Valley Project, said while the decision to repair the transformer “caught me off guard,” he doesn’t think it will have any bearing on what he sees as an inevitable decommissioning process. With no one else taking over the license, PG&E remains responsible for the costs associated with the project. Huffman suspects the company “did a cold-blooded business calculation” by assuming it would be cheaper to continue making power during “the X number of years it takes to decommission.” He added that while he thinks the decision “is, in the short term, a sigh of relief for Russian River water interests,” even a fully functioning project is not a long-term solution to water woes — and the diversion will be minimal in the two years or so it takes to custom-engineer the broken equipment and install it.

But Alicia Hamann, the Executive Director of Friends of the Eel River, is alert to the possibility that PG&E may seek to recover the costs of replacing the infrastructure “on the backs of ratepayers.” She added that Friends of the Eel is urging FERC to fast-track the decommissioning process, saying “it’s our last and best chance to protect wild salmon and steelhead in California. And removing the two dams at the headwaters is really the most important move we can make to protect the fisheries.” 

In a letter to FERC this week, Scott Greacen, the Friends of the Eel’s Conservation Director, wrote that “Water supply is not an issue over which FERC has jurisdiction;” but, if the dams are seismically unsound, “an unsafe Potter Valley Project is an unreliable Russian River water supply.” He went on to detail the peril of the Eel River fisheries, and lament the lack of publicly available information about dam safety.

Darren Mireau, the North Coast Director of California Trout, says PG&E “has been the black box of this whole thing…They acknowledge what we’re trying to do, but they haven’t shed much light if any on what their plans are. They haven’t been willing to provide funding for studies to try to help the regional partners determine what paths are the best way forward, so we really need to crack open that dialogue with PG&E and hear what they’re going to say. And I think they’re probably not going to do it until they’re made to say things by FERC.” Pondering the year-to-year nature of the future licenses, Mireau added that “maybe conditions can be attached to annual licenses.” 

But Huffman thinks trying to leverage expensive mitigation requirements is “a wild card…even if they wanted to get out earlier, they can’t,” he said. “FERC will not let them out of this quickly or cheaply.”

The future of the diversion 

On Tuesday, Mendocino County First District Supervisor Glenn McGourty told his colleagues that the Mendocino County Inland Water and Power Commission is “still in pursuit of the water rights” associated with the Potter Valley Project. He asked the Board of Supervisors for $50,000 to fund ongoing legal expenses and consulting fees to continue the work. Mendocino County is one of five public entities that are members of the Mendocino County Inland Water and Power Commission. The board approved his request unanimously.

The NOI parties may have gotten an answer to the question of what it would take to continue diverting water without the project. In November, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife funded a study on the group’s behalf, exploring three options for continuing diversions under scenarios with various parts of the project dismantled. Mireau, of California Trout, favors a water-pumping option that includes the removal of Cape Horn Dam, which forms the van Arsdale Reservoir in Potter Valley. Unlike Scott Dam, which forms Lake Pillsbury in Lake County, Cape Horn has a fish ladder and a CDFW-operated fish monitoring station. Scott Dam has long been on California Trout’s list of dams that are “ripe for removal.”

MIreau’s favored scenario is estimated to cost around $200,000 a year to run. “Any water management, any water diversion at that location is going to have some operations and maintenance costs, that’s unavoidable,” he said, shortly after the study was released. “The advantage of the full removal of Cape Horn Dam  with that pumped diversion approach is you get all of the obstruction out of the river that might impair fish passage…it does shift the cost, I think, to the water users, instead of the fish side, where it appropriately needs to be. In other words, we’re committed to that water supply reliability, but I think the water users have the obligation to pay for it. And if pumping is the best way to do that for fish passage and fishery recovery in the Eel River, I think that’s the best approach.”

Janet Pauli, of the Potter Valley Irrigation District and chair of the Mendocino County Inland Water and Power Commission, said that just this week, the Inland Water and Power Commission had started working with a consultant, Brian Godbey and Associates, to poll people who are dependent on project water about their willingness to pay for it, and what it would take to assess a parcel tax or get a special tax on a ballot. Thus far, she noted, all of the legal expenses for pursuing the relicensing have been borne by the five agencies that are members of the Commission. “Protecting the diversion has to be our primary concern,” she insisted.

Hamann, of Friends of the Eel River, finds it entirely fitting that water users should pay for the commodity, if it can be diverted in an ecologically appropriate way. The habitat trapped behind Scott Dam is some of the best in the world, she asserts, including cold water refugia that exclude invasive pike minnow.

Recently, community members got an insight into how much science PG&E biologists conduct in the Eel River watershed, during a controversy over an attempt to cut down a tree containing a bald eagles’ nest. Audubon societies around the county know how long that nest has been there; where the alternate nest is and when it was last used; because the company has kept environmental records as part of its licensing agreement for the Potter Valley Project. Asked if anything will be lost to science if PG&E departs, Hamann said the controversy about the project has engendered plenty of ecological research, including the discovery of summer steelhead. “Indirectly, PG&E causing a problem resulted in some really cool knowledge.”

Note: an earlier version of this story misspelled Scott Greacen’s name. Our apologies for any confusion this may have caused.

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Panthera Onca
Guest
Panthera Onca
2 years ago

Heyduke Lives!

I like stars
Guest
I like stars
2 years ago

It should not be operated under annual licenses. It should be shut down and removed. This is bullshit.

Connie DobbsD
Member
Connie Dobbs
2 years ago
Reply to  I like stars

You’ll take it and like it. Pass the fromage.
–Gavin

Bozo
Guest
Bozo
2 years ago
Reply to  I like stars

Follow the money.

Guest
Guest
Guest
2 years ago
Reply to  Bozo

Follow the water…

Bozo
Guest
Bozo
2 years ago
Reply to  Guest

Money = Water !

ILoveplants
Guest
ILoveplants
2 years ago
Reply to  Bozo

Just wait until they start selling air to us… oh wait! They already do!

spacecraft
Guest
spacecraft
2 years ago
Reply to  Bozo

PG&E is owned by Berkshire Hathaway, which is owned by an almost perfect representation of the 1%.

Ullr Rover
Guest
Ullr Rover
2 years ago
Reply to  spacecraft

Nope. There was talk of Buffet buying up part of PG&E stock after their bankruptcy but it didn’t happen. The biggest stock holder of PG&E is Vanguard with 8.5%. Here’s a list of the top 10 holders… Blackrock is in the mix.

https://money.cnn.com/quote/shareholders/shareholders.html?symb=PCG&subView=institutional

Steelhead
Guest
Steelhead
2 years ago
Reply to  spacecraft

Pacific power is owned by Berkshire Hathaway Who owns the dams on the Klamath river.

Non-fiction
Guest
Non-fiction
2 years ago
Reply to  Steelhead

With regards to the 4 Klamath dams slated for removal, that company is Calpine.

Lon Mayer
Guest
Lon Mayer
1 year ago
Reply to  Steelhead

Not true. PG&E is its own company, owned wholly by the corporation.

Jah
Guest
Jah
2 years ago
Reply to  I like stars

They should rebuild it back better.

Liberty Biberty
Guest
Liberty Biberty
2 years ago
Reply to  Jah

Like Joe Biden LOL! Holy crap you’re so funny, OMG

♋ÑDÑ↑∞↓L¡f£☯️
Guest
♋ÑDÑ↑∞↓L¡f£☯️
2 years ago
Reply to  Jah

Yes I agree. If they are going to build something of that magnitude that
Can affect whole Species& Everyone& Earth’s health Poorly should none-the-less construct it in the most delicate and responsible way to coexist with the naturality of the river and ecosystem and minimize it’s negative impact on the world. Healthy, HAPPY rivers is crucially vital for our future generations of everything that lives to come after us. It don’t call this Mother Earth for no reason. Meaning she brought us in this world, so she can take us out of this world just as quick as we entered it(if not quicker). The Rivers would be AS important as our Mothers Veins. Blood clots as we know, can Kill you slowly-quickly, or Completely life-altering. I’m stoned rn so bear with me folks LOL but I’m sure, or at least hope that you guys catch my drift or at least have an understanding what I mean LOL
P.S. what I really fully can’t understand is how people can sell their soul basically, or nonetheless sell out mother Earth for a “$$$$” that isn’t even a natural resource nor is it even beneficial anyway besides 🔥-starter or Twin-tower origami tricks, or for using Some the most evil elected presidents faces for good ole target practice lol.
Man-o-Man, this CryptoCoronaFight Strain of Exclusively rare weed Katt Williams put me on to has my Corona-Ojo-Listo-Para-Pelear🤣🤣 if that even made sense or you know what I mean jelly Bean

Last edited 2 years ago
Mr. BearD
Member
Mr. Bear
2 years ago
Reply to  I like stars

Find the millions needed for the studies and get it back on track

speak up
Guest
speak up
2 years ago

why is CDFW funding studies to divert water from a watershed that contains endangered salmon runs? this is a chance to help reverse the decline of the Eel River watershed. I am also extremely disappointed in the native tribes of the watershed, where are you guys? speak up!

Ernie Branscomb
Guest
Ernie Branscomb
2 years ago

If California is going to go full electric, from weed-wackers to freight trucks, the electricity has to come from somewhere.

I’m not apposed to “all electric”, but we must put the horse back in front of the cart. Does anyone have a reasonable suggestion for non-polluting, environmentally save way of creating power?

Guest
Guest
Guest
2 years ago

They are saving that surprise for the last…

Ryan
Guest
Ryan
2 years ago

You’re assuming the dams make enough electricity to make them worthwhile, which they don’t. It’s an old inefficient hydro project and it needs to go. The only function it serves is to steal water from the Eel and send it vineyards in the Russian.

Two Dogs
Guest
Two Dogs
2 years ago
Reply to  Ryan

Do we know how much electricity is actually produced by this plant annually? Sounds like just more water theft and higher electricity bills to me.

oofta
Guest
oofta
2 years ago
Reply to  Two Dogs
Steve Koch
Guest
Steve Koch
2 years ago
Reply to  Ryan

It does store water from the rainy season so that it can be used in the dry season. That is really important for us in N Ca. A big chunk of our annual rainfall comes in a few storms that result from a few atmospheric rivers that originate way, way out in the Pacific. Our bursty pattern of rainfall here means we have to capture it when we can via dams.

That water can be used in homes, businesses, farms, recreation, and fighting fire (which is a big problem during the dry season).

I am not for diverting water to the Russian River but having the mechanism of the dam does not force the policy decision of diverting the water (I.e. mechanism and policy are different things, one mechanism can implement different policies).

Every now and then the Eel River has terrible floods (Max cfs record > 900,000 cfs!). When that happens, it will be life saving to have all the water storage and water diversion tools possible to reduce the scope of our catastrophe.

Jay Strugnell
Guest
Jay Strugnell
2 years ago
Reply to  Steve Koch

Agreed,without the dam at Lake Pilsberry that whole branch of the Eel and the rest of the remaining fish habitat will be stressed beyond anything seen thus far, and the same for several other watersheds. This is not the 1800’s, these rivers need a way to regulate what little flow is left.

Kirk Vodopals
Member
Kirk Vodopals
2 years ago
Reply to  Steve Koch

First off, all that strored water mostly goes to Sonoma County, not Humboldt or Mendocino. Ukiah valley has an astounding groundwater aquifer. They truck water over to the coast in drought years! Secondly, these dams provide practically zero flood mitigation to eel river valley residential areas since they are so high up in the watershed. Thirdly, they generate a pittance of electricity. Fourthly, one has an inadequate fish ladder and the other has zero fish passage. Makes sense to me to have Sonoma County residents foot the bill for any diversion operations. These facilities are going the way of the Dodo. No doubt about that. Great article Sarah Reith.

Last edited 2 years ago
VHDA
Member
VHDA
2 years ago
Reply to  Steve Koch

We are no longer having the abundant rainfall we once had and without that rainfall our rivers are really low….. does this river really have enough water to go around to support the fish, wildlife and the big thirsty communities fighting for that precious water in a time of prolonged drought????

Khf
Guest
Khf
2 years ago
Reply to  Ryan

You understand there are six power plants.. including city of Ukiah !!

McLovin
Guest
McLovin
2 years ago

There’s this one guy a few years ago who suggested to me the idea of maybe blocking water and funneling that water into some sort of high-pressure tunnel system and then utilizing that pressure to move a turbine which generates free electric power from that water pressure alone.

I forget what that thing was called…

Well whatever it is pg&e will probably find a way to make us pay for it anyway.

ABA
Guest
ABA
2 years ago

Wind. Solar. Tidal. Geothermal.

ILoveplants
Guest
ILoveplants
2 years ago
Reply to  ABA

NUCLEAR

suspence
Member
suspence
2 years ago
Reply to  ILoveplants

I’m with ya, but it doesn’t really check the non-polluting, environmentally safe box.

grey fox
Member
2 years ago
Reply to  ILoveplants

Just don’t build it on a earthquake fault line…(Humboldt)
San Onofre went into operation in 1967 on the shoreline between Los Angeles and San Diego. The plant was shut down in January 2012 after a small radiation leak led to the discovery of extensive damage to hundreds of tubes inside the virtually new steam generators. The plant never produced electricity again.

Last edited 2 years ago
fellow traveler
Guest
fellow traveler
2 years ago
Reply to  grey fox

sigh.. until the US has a full nuclear fuel reprocessing capability, ours in the US was shut down in 1975 by Pres Jimmy Carter(who was claimed to be qualified but instead was NOT), by full this means a full lifecycle from extraction & reprocessing, which really cuts down on used lethally radioactive rods in eternal(in human terms)waste storage pools/Yucca mountain to transmuting active wastes in fast flux/ breeder reactors(controversial).

The other concern could ours(or anyone else’s) technical establishments handle all of this safely, based on incident records such as the hanford plant, Wash, rocky flats in Colorado , and many many others:

I would have to say NO at present we cant handle the safety requirements for handling effectively eternal toxins either from a USG(AEC->DOE) or commercial establishments (Kerr-Mcgee – now Anadarko Petroleum and many many others).

all of the above is without consideration of Nuclear weapons grade materials proliferation .

(obl disclosure: I was a Nuclear Engineering student at [redacted] university who switched majors in 1975 after Jimmy Carter shut down nuclear fuel reprocessing in the US from his ignorance)

Country Joe
Member
2 years ago

American tax payers funded a national nuclear fuel depository site that was completed in Nevada. After it’s completion, Senator Harry Reid of Nevada refused to allow it’s opening…

Non-fiction
Guest
Non-fiction
2 years ago
Reply to  Country Joe

Once again Joe, you have but a small sliver of the story mixed with falsehoods politicized to move the mob minded to support it.

Reid was but 1 of a massive coalition to halt the opening of the facility and to tell the 2 Bush admins to fuck off.

The Yucca mountain facility was “found” to be fully encased in sandstone…except the geologists already knew this and why they recommended against the site beforw it was railroaded thru by DOE.
They originally believed that since it was located in the Great Basin that the stored radioactivity could not flow downstream or leach outside the Basin.
And somehow thought the sandstone around the facility was impermeable.

Except that now it’s known as fact that water naturally leachs through the massive sandstone formations beyond the Great Basin and into the Mojave surface and groundwater in SoCal.

A very sick joke of wild ineptitude, corruption, and amoral money grubbing from across the US.

Plus the Shoshone were totally railroaded by the permit/build process to have all the US’s spent radiological waste stuffed inside their most sacred site and very near their communities.

grey fox
Member
2 years ago
Reply to  ABA

What ABA said

Ullr Rover
Guest
Ullr Rover
2 years ago
Reply to  ABA

The amount of energy needed to transition into these energy sources exceeds the capacity of these sources to produce energy. They have their places but are not a panacea. High density energy sources like hydro, nuclear and fuel based power plants are very efficient at power delivery within the current ecology built around cheap energy.

Nuclear tech has come a long way. All the operating reactors were built 40 or 50 years ago. Tech has come a ways in the last 2 generations. Thorium salt reactors eliminate the need for building on the coast. Breeder reactors eliminate nuclear waste.

Farce
Guest
Farce
2 years ago
Reply to  Ullr Rover

Yes. Ironically the environmentalists push to decrease fossil fuels puts us on a course to nuclear energy. Nobody ever wanted to discuss population control or less use of energy…those are sacred cows we cannot even discuss publicly. So…nuclear will be the future. So people can keep popping out babies and play video games, etc etc

1crazymfD
Member
1crazymf
2 years ago
Reply to  Farce

Farce
The population control program is in full swing right now.

RsR
Guest
RsR
2 years ago
Reply to  1crazymf

Well your name is fitting anyway, lol

Steve Koch
Guest
Steve Koch
2 years ago
Reply to  Ullr Rover

Great post! One great thing about high density energy is that it conserves vastly more of our precious land cuz it takes way less land (up to 1000x less land) than low density RE to generate the same amount of energy.

The nuclear or FF plants are also way more reliable and generate far less waste for landfills.

To be reliable, RE needs either massive energy storage (such as pumping water uphill into a lake with generators to generate backup power when the wind isn’t blowing) or backup high density energy power plants.

Non-fiction
Guest
Non-fiction
2 years ago
Reply to  Ullr Rover

Breeders do not eliminate nuclear waste from the radioactive source material mining and milling processes.
Nor the injury to communities near the mines.

Ever heard of the Navajo or Sioux peoples?

Farce
Guest
Farce
2 years ago

Nuclear

Guess
Guest
Guess
2 years ago
Reply to  Farce

Yes! I can’t wait for my first nuclear powered chainsaw!

Farce
Guest
Farce
2 years ago
Reply to  Guess

I can’t wait to get a generator that’s nuclear-powered!

suspence
Member
suspence
2 years ago

Are you serious?! If anyone had that knowledge they’d be a billionaire and we wouldn’t be having a discussion about it. Even “renewables” have negative environmental impacts. There is no free power.

Prof. QuizD
Member
2 years ago

Nicola Tesla did over 100 years ago…

Nooo
Guest
Nooo
2 years ago
Reply to  Prof. Quiz

“The phrases “free energy” and “make power free” as they are used in Tesla mythology assume that everything about the process is free. Even if Tesla’s idea was a reality, he could somehow extract electricity from the earth to be reused, it would be free in the sense that we did not have to burn coal, or burn oil, to fire up a generator to produce the electricity. In that sense there are many forms of “free energy” such as wind power, solar power, and water power.”

https://geekhistory.com/content/tesla-tower-wardenclyffe-and-free-energy-myth#:~:text=The%20free%20energy%20myth%20The%20phrases%20“free%20energy”,assume%20that%20everything%20about%20the%20process%20is%20free.

Prof. QuizD
Member
2 years ago
Reply to  Nooo

I wouldn’t put those geeks in the same category as quite possibly the smartest man ever to walk the planet. JMO

Prof. QuizD
Member
2 years ago
Reply to  Nooo

Read this book and you might change your mind.

Prodigal Genius: The Life of Nikola Tesla: John J. O’Neill:

https://www.amazon.com/Prodigal-Genius-Life-Nikola-Tesla/dp/1596057130

Non-fiction
Guest
Non-fiction
2 years ago
Reply to  Prof. Quiz

Nooo’s point that there is NO SUCH THING AS FREE ENERGY stands.
And it will stand the test of time.

Consumption or conversion of atomic material will always be required to have concentrated energy.

Country Bumpkin
Guest
Country Bumpkin
2 years ago

The citizens of this country are the “horse” and government is to busy trying to train the horse to push a cart to even consider putting things back in their natural order.

Canyon oak
Guest
Canyon oak
2 years ago

So many humans everywhere, it’s out of control

Thinkthenact
Guest
Thinkthenact
2 years ago

PG&E is a disaster. But I’m not gonna get depressed over this. Removed the damn dam!

suspence
Member
suspence
2 years ago
Reply to  Thinkthenact

I understand why you think they are a disaster but, do your lights turn on? Do you take hot showers? Just wood heat or do you have a furnace? Not saying PGE shouldn’t be criticized and scrutinized but I think collectively we take having power for granted. We expect and demand it and there better not any mistakes while maintaining HUGE infrastructure and providing for millions of ppl.

Perspective
Guest
Perspective
2 years ago
Reply to  suspence

How many of your electrical load needs are met by this dam?

Nooo
Guest
Nooo
2 years ago
Reply to  Perspective

Probably it has more to do with meeting some regulatory standard about percentage of renewables than actual practicality. But it has to be remembered that it’s not only power but a reservoir. Some where in power and/or water regulations it pencils out for PG&E.

Thinkthenact
Guest
Thinkthenact
2 years ago
Reply to  suspence

PG&E is notorious for not planning beyond its nose. Being dependent on and entwined with nature, the company is morally obligated to operate as a stalwart partner of the environment.

Non-fiction
Guest
Non-fiction
2 years ago
Reply to  suspence

9 megawatts is a pitiful amount of power for a hydro project, even 100yrs ago.
Immediate locals may not agree because they want power where there was not power before but that is no longer the case.

But within Mendo and Humboldt alone the disadvantages are not outweighed by the benefits.

Btw, the Geysers still produces around 10% of all CA electricity.
Used to be north of 25%.

Nick
Guest
2 years ago

Yesterday Newsome signs a backdoor order allowing PG&E rate hikes billing customers for wildfires. The VERY next day they release this statement? Who has a winery in Napa( and friends) who may benefit from this water? Because it certainly isn’t about power generation.

I like stars
Guest
I like stars
2 years ago
Reply to  Nick

Thank you for pointing this out. Seems like quite a strange coincidence. If Gavin Newsome wasn’t such an honest, straight shooter I might suspect shenanigans.

Rimme
Guest
Rimme
2 years ago

Using 1/30th or less of just yesterday’s losses, ZuckerMetaFaceBurg could buy the whole mess.

Bill
Guest
Bill
2 years ago

Complete bullshit to pull this crap in this part of the process! Anyone with a sound, objective view and good knowledge of the Potter Valley project know that it is completely obsolete. It would require millions, possibly pushing a billion to get if functioning to produce enough power to make it worth it while creating the fish passage requirements.

The only reason it is still in place is to supply water to a watershed (Russian River) so that the vineyards in Mendocino and Sonoma County can continue to survive and grow in extent.

Keep the water where it belongs in the Eel River, without water we have no fish. Maintain a diversion as proposed by the recent working group and Cal Trout.

Farce
Guest
Farce
2 years ago
Reply to  Bill

Did you say vineyards? Some of them are converting some vineyards to cannabis mega-grows. With that diverted water. Sure. Gotta love “legalization”! The rich get richer, the poor get less opportunity to climb out of poverty and the environment gets further shredded by those wealthy economic interests. Lose-Lose-Lose all around

lol
Guest
lol
2 years ago
Reply to  Farce

Im not aware of a single vineyard in the potter valley watershed that has converted to cannabis. Sounds like a farce.

dogglife
Guest
dogglife
2 years ago
Reply to  lol

I can think of at least 6 right off hand that have added 10,000 sqft of cannabis to their vineyard. Debatable if that’s a “mega grow”. That did appear to be Glenn McCourty’s intent though along with range land until enough people stood up to squash the phase 3 expansion.

Farce
Guest
Farce
2 years ago
Reply to  lol

Sorry for the misunderstanding. I am speaking of Sonoma wineries that are using Eel River water diverted to Russian River.

Non-fiction
Guest
Non-fiction
2 years ago
Reply to  lol

That’s Farce’s specialty

Steve Koch
Guest
Steve Koch
2 years ago
Reply to  Farce

One problem is that legal mj generates a lot more tax revenue and legal kickbacks and legal investment opportunities for politicians than illegal mj does.

Another problem is that the ruling California politicians are not friends of small business, they much prefer dealing with big unions and big business cuz facilitates leveraging their power via big unions and businesses.

Farce
Guest
Farce
2 years ago
Reply to  Steve Koch

You are correct. It’s like how both political parties now work for the rich elites. Not everybody has caught on to that yet. But nobody has the back of the little guys and gals anymore…we get thrown a scrap now and then just to keep us voting and believing ha ha

I like stars
Guest
I like stars
2 years ago
Reply to  Farce

No group in our government/political landscape has ever had the backs of the common folk. It has always been the rich in control and they have always looked out for the best interests of the rich. Meet the new boss. Same as the old boss.

daniel Edrich
Guest
daniel Edrich
2 years ago
Reply to  I like stars

How about Franklin Delano Roosevelt for one,
add his cousin Teddy the trustbuster for two.
Bernie Sanders for three, I am sure there are
many more.

I like stars
Guest
I like stars
2 years ago
Reply to  daniel Edrich

Those are individuals, not groups.

Non-fiction
Guest
Non-fiction
2 years ago
Reply to  I like stars

Individuals, who as presidents, faced off directly with the moneyed power elite and were successful…JP Morgan be damned

moviedad
Member
moviedad
2 years ago
Reply to  daniel Edrich

The Roosevelts did what any terrified elite would do with millions of PO’d workers ready to tear the whole structure down.
They won’t let it happen again.

Ullr Rover
Guest
Ullr Rover
2 years ago

Californian’s: “We need water and electricity!”
PG&E : “Let’s fire up this existing hydroelectric system.”
Californian’s : “Not that way! Reeeeeeee…”

lol
Guest
lol
2 years ago
Reply to  Ullr Rover

This gets us less water, not more.

Ullr Rover
Guest
Ullr Rover
2 years ago
Reply to  lol

Not for those on the Russian river. And, reservoirs do a pretty good job storing water.

Steve Koch
Guest
Steve Koch
2 years ago
Reply to  Ullr Rover

No co2 emitted in hydroelectric generated power, either.

Non-fiction
Guest
Non-fiction
2 years ago
Reply to  Steve Koch

Incorrect.
Reservoirs have an oft overlooked and very serious methane problem.
It’s a serious hot potato.

Xebeche
Guest
Xebeche
2 years ago

What a revoltin’ development.

What!?D
Member
What!?
2 years ago

PG&E out of California!

Rimme
Guest
Rimme
2 years ago
Reply to  What!?

G&E outta P!

lol
Guest
lol
2 years ago

” In November, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife funded a study on the group’s behalf, exploring three options for continuing diversions under scenarios with various parts of the project dismantled.”

This is outrageous! Why were public funds used for this study? Someone need to be held responsible for this. If it is not illegal, it damn sure should be.

blue dragon
Guest
blue dragon
2 years ago
Reply to  lol

These are not all public funds they are license fees of course, so you can fish and not catch anything or can not keep it. catch and release good idea up to a point, quite a loss in fishermen numbers that even bother to fish on the eel. Or all the money raised or taken by force and collusion by the fish cops who say waters are owned by the state. fine the people high upstream then buy water pumps for rio dell f the state. where on any fish cops remedies or repairs incurred on property owners is anything dealing with other wildlife or fish rearing. Oh you drove over a seasonal water crack on your quad trail here you owe this. Has df&w and all the save the fish groups forgotten the life cycle of migratory fish? you can do everything you can which is great but there is not enough water in the creeks in the summer to hold over the smolts until the next year. too many people no rain too much storage just a fact of the current state. oregon got it. put a fish hatchery on every major trib work in the right place. all watersheds should have to release a batch of year old fish or no diversion every year. it is proven that a 6 inch smolt can survive the wrath of the squawfish on their way out to the ocean. speaking of squawfish df&w sure fixed that problem huh. use the pot money where it was raised. put something back. spend the money on the dirt not dirtbags. if you do not fix it you lose it. final note all those white trucks running all over so hum could pay for alot of power at least i would have a smaller bill

lol
Guest
lol
2 years ago

I hope some eco-terrorist decide to take this matter into their own hands and blow up the damns. What’s right is often not what’s legal.

grey fox
Member
2 years ago
Reply to  lol

You better hope nobody does it cause now your on record..

oofta
Guest
oofta
2 years ago
Reply to  grey fox

grammarly can help ..

Jeffersonian
Guest
Jeffersonian
2 years ago

The diversion of water to the Russian river need to stop. This is bad news

Jeffersonian
Guest
Jeffersonian
2 years ago

Every drop of that water belongs in the Eel. Huffman is the enemy. Cal Trout is the enemy. Friends of the Eel is the enemy. The Humboldt BOS is the enemy as well as the southern counties. The two basin solution they all push is nonsense. The fish are in danger of extinction. They should take priority. They have bumbled this from day one, and now pge is back in charge.

BigEric
Guest
BigEric
2 years ago

Sounds like the consultants and lawyers will get to eat even more at the hogs’ trough of taxpayer and ratepayer monies….

Farce
Guest
Farce
2 years ago
Reply to  BigEric

Ha! Sounds like the cannabis business…predators and parasites feeding away

Brent peeck
Guest
Brent peeck
2 years ago

We need more storage and more dams and restoring the fish is a maybe and the vineyards that grow grapes are a sure thing. I am for farming and hydropower and dams to store water. I am sorry there’s less fish but I don’t think it’s going to help to remove all the dams. If you cut down the Amazon rainforest models show California receiving 30% less rainfall and it’s already beginning. We produce a 1000x times more food with water for irrigating farms and vineyards. Our future is producing food so people can survive not trying to bring back a lost past because most likely it ain’t coming back.

Last edited 2 years ago
Non-fiction
Guest
Non-fiction
2 years ago
Reply to  Brent peeck

If the fish go extinct it’s just a mater of time until the region becomes a temperate dust bowl

Brent peeck
Guest
Brent peeck
2 years ago
Reply to  Non-fiction

That doesn’t make sense. If the dams don’t release water in summer months the water temperatures are too high and fish die off. The fisheries are under extreme pressure from multiple levels and removing the dams doesn’t guarantee their return.

Non-fiction
Guest
Non-fiction
2 years ago
Reply to  Brent peeck

First off… It may not make sense to you but you understanding is not required for natural processes to occur.

The fish survived millions of years without human scale dams.

Most anadromous fish do not attempt to “run” in the summer months. Summer runs occur primarily east of the Cascades in early summer not late.
Those fish enter the rivers during medium to high flow periods at the mouth.
Dams reduce the flows at the mouth.

Anadromous fish and eels are what’s called cornerstone species.

Cornerstone species are what defines and expands or limits the base ecology of a region.
There’s a lot of facts and reason behind why isotopes found in all living flora originated in the sea and were brought uphill, against gravity, by anadromous organisms.
This is measurable.
The only other nutrients sources are atmospheric dust and rain storms that work against gravity.
Lichens take prime advantage of those nutrient flows.
Very little phosporus in those 2 sources.

Go ask the Swiss why the timberline in the Black Forest is dropping at a rate measurable per year.
They know why.
400 years of low or no anadromous fish.

Western forests without fish and eels will die out as they are the primary nutrient sources that feed the forests and broader landscape.
Phosphuorus is an element not a molecule.
It can not be created nor destroyed by biologic processes.
It can only be bonded into & out of molecules and moved around.

Humans have caused extraordinary erosion to the available phosphorus on land.

This only adds to the need for the original large scale natural pathways that bring phosphorus onto the land from the sea.

True, the only likely guarantee that fish would return is the loss of humans operating with a settler mentality….use it all up, then move to a new spot and then use that all up.
No more new spots left to use up.

Chris
Guest
Chris
2 years ago

Potter valley? Who’s talking about potter valley? Do you really think they are diverting 270 cfs a second from the Eel River for vineyards in potter valley!( 270 cfs a second x 86,400 seconds a day = 23,328,000 cfs a DAY!) I think Farce was talking about all the other vineyards the line the Russian-Eel River( that should be the Russian Rivers new name since it mostly Eel River water!) Pg&e and the government local and state could care less about an endangered fish or two! Money is way more important than the health of the Eel River!!

Get some
Guest
Get some
2 years ago
Reply to  Chris

Does this mean Pillsbury will fiil again with rain?

VHDA
Member
VHDA
2 years ago

We are no longer having the abundant rainfall we once had and without that rainfall our rivers are really low….. does this river really have enough water to go around to support the fish, wildlife and the big thirsty communities fighting for that precious water in a time of prolonged drought????

Philip G. Damask
Guest
Philip G. Damask
2 years ago

You people amaze me! Why don’t you just stop eating expensive salmon, forget about tearing down dams, and take you kids up to camp out and fish at Pillsbury Lake which is formed by Scotts Flat Dam. You might even learn how to enjoy camping, boating and fishing on a lake.

Last edited 2 years ago
Sharing is caring
Guest
Sharing is caring
2 years ago

Don’t you think it could be mutually beneficial to continue diverting water through the PVP as well as the Eel river ? In case all you fish nuts on the Eel river side didn’t know it, there is also a salmon run as well as Steelhead trout run on the East fork of the Russian river below the Coyote dam. Without the water diversion going through the PVP, and dumping into lake Mendocino, I doubt very seriously the fishery on the East fork of the Russian river could exist. The West fork of the Russian river could not support a fishery of any kind by itself in lien water years, it might even dry up. Maybe quit being so single minded and try sharing the wealth.

Non-fiction
Guest
Non-fiction
2 years ago

The west fork of the Russian is above the outflow of lk mendo.
Thus any west fork runs are not supported by outflows from the lake.

The main stem russian river is counted as over watered because of the diversion.
Historically the Russian did not support a king salmon run.
Steelhead and Coho are the native home runs of the Russian.
Those fish were here before a dam and can thrive in lower flows than kings require.

King salmon are now seen on the russian because of the diversion.

PS. The Russian river is considered the #1 most damaged river in CA by aquatic biologists.

NDNengenuity
Member
NDNengenuity
2 years ago

there ain’t no community without UNITY. I wish people could put past their differences and treat people like how they would like to be treated and it’s just that simple, so WTF is so hard about it? I think then it boils down to people and most don’t want to but there are some willing to share, show compassion, be understanding, helpful, honest, stand up, genuine, and with good intentions. We need to stop being so materialistic,greedy, and selfish and finally work together and see what we all can accomplish together for real for once. Imaging how many intelligent their would be if every one had free easy access to higher education or simply even the books of all knowledge of whatever it was you were wanting to study and dedicate yourself to it and master it. We probably would have had all this technology and knowledge we have know probably some rediculous time from way back in time and we all could have been living happy real new meaningful and eventually when time comes we will accept death because everyone would know that served their part in the bigger picture and not only for him and his family but for all and every family because humanity evolution as social beings need one another when it comes down to surviving on this planet for the rest of it’s life till end of infinity if we wanted to. Just change those simple but for no reason simply hard. Hope that made sense and actually get posted and read lol. Good night y’all!!♋☯️ Oh jeez lol wrong post But umm this could sort of apply to this post as well lol

Last edited 2 years ago
Lesco Brandon
Guest
Lesco Brandon
2 years ago

They are criminals just like Pfizer and here you are fondling the teabagage.teabags..
Open wide.