An Expired License, a Mysterious Applicant, and a Threat to Sue: What Else Can We Expect as the Fight to Control the Waters of the Eel River Continues?
Cape Horn Dam [Photo Credit CalTrout_Kyle Schwartz]
The core claim is that the fishway at Cape Horn Dam in Potter Valley causes unauthorized harm to endangered fish, by preventing their passage when the facility is clogged, or making them vulnerable to predators as they try to climb the ladder.
And, if that isn’t drama enough, a man who might not exist filed an application for the license.
Scott Dam [Photo Credit CalTrout_Kyle Schwartz]
PG&E, which still owns the project and is responsible for it, said in a statement that, “The potential claims described in the notice are without merit. PG&E is strongly committed to environmental responsibility, and we are operating the Potter Valley Project in full compliance with the National Marine Fisheries Services’ (NMFS) Biological Opinion (BiOp) and its incidental take statement, which is incorporated into the Potter Valley license.”
While environmental groups widely expect regulators to order PG&E to surrender the project and remove the dams, that order has not been issued yet. And PG&E expects to continue operating the project on a year-to-year basis.
The 20-year license to operate the project expired on April 14. PG&E did not apply for renewal. An alliance of local governments, environmentalists, and the Sonoma County Water Agency was unable to meet the requirements to take over the license, and announced that it, too, would not apply. A wild card applicant likely missed the deadline.
The Project consists of Lake Pillsbury behind Scott Dam in Lake County, and the Cape Horn Dam and van Arsdale reservoir on the Eel River in Potter Valley. A diversion tunnel channels water from the Eel River into the east branch of the Russian River and from there to Lake Mendocino. Last year, 25 cubic feet per second (cfs) came through the project. Twenty cfs was contract water for Potter Valley, and the other five made it to the lake.
Mainstem Eel River [Photo Credit CalTrout_Mike Weir]
PG&E claims that, “Upon expiration of a license, the Federal Power Act requires FERC to issue an annual license, which renews automatically, with the same terms and conditions for the project, until it’s relicensed, transferred or decommissioned. That means PG&E will continue to own and operate the Potter Valley Project safely under the existing license conditions until the project is transferred or FERC issues a final license surrender and decommissioning order.”
Scott Dam which is part of the Potter Valley Project. [Photo cropped by one from PG&E]
But Russian River water users do not appear to be enthusiastic about that prospect. On the day the license expired, Janet Pauli, of the Potter Valley Irrigation District, told the Inland Water and Power Commission (a consortium of water districts, a water seller, the city of Ukiah and the County of Mendocino), that, according to initial surveys, “To get a two-thirds vote for a parcel tax would be tough. It might not be successful.” Pauli reported that the IWPC had hired a consultant, who did an estimated 400 polls reaching about 23,000 people. “The goal was to see if people had an understanding of their water supply, where it comes from, potential vulnerability with regard to the Potter Valley Project, how they felt water supply was being managed, or if they even knew,” she elaborated. The IWPC is now considering proposing a county-wide sales tax measure for the November ballot, “along the lines of a more general county-wide water infrastructure and resiliency funding request.”
It’s impossible to be unaware of water conditions in the Eel River basin, according to Adam Canter, the Director of Natural Resources for the Wiyot Tribe at the Table Mountain Bluff Reservation in Humboldt Bay. “It’s been really bad in the last five or ten years,” he said. “It’s hard to ignore, just the reduction in flows, the toxic algae blooms, the reduction in the number of fish returning to the river. It’s just more visible on the Eel River basin side.” The Wiyot are not a party to the 60-day notice issued to PG&E, but Canter is looking forward to a future without dams, saying, “We’re excited that the license has expired…that doesn’t necessarily mean that we can celebrate and walk away and not have to continue to put pressure on PG&E and FERC to move forward with actual decommissioning and dam removal.”
The Wiyot name is taken from the river, which means “abundance” in the ancient language of the tribe. “The Wiyot, the Eel River, is the third-largest river fully within the state,” Canter said; “and used to have salmon runs in the tens of thousands, where now we’re lucky to have runs of a thousand or two.” The salmon and lamprey are profoundly significant elements of the Wiyot culture.
Glen Spain, the Northwest Regional Director of the Oregon-based Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations and the Institute for Fisheries Resources, also believes that dam removal is key to restoring the depleted salmon and the fisheries. Both organizations are parties to the notice of intent to sue PG&E under the Endangered Species Act. He said “weak stock restrictions,” designed to protect endangered salmon, often restrict access to all fish in the vicinity of the endangered fish, from Monterey to Klamath. “We have to make sure we avoid them at all costs,” he said. “The end result has been devastating…we’ve lost thousands of jobs. We’ve lost basically millions of dollars in revenue…we’ve sort of adapted to a horrific situation, but this dam removal gives us a chance to undo that damage.”
![Coho Salmon [Photo from CDFW]](https://kymkemp.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/AdultCoho-1.jpg)
Coho Salmon [Photo from CDFW]
A party named Antonio Manfredini, who appears not to exist in the typical way of people who leave traces on the internet, put in a last-minute application for the project, one day before the license expired. “We don’t think it affects anything at all,” said Brian Johnson, the California Director of Trout Unlimited, which is a party to the notice of intent to sue. “It’s more than two years late.” In 2019, FERC said applicants had until July of that year to file a notice of intent to start the application process.
The business name on Manfredini’s application is PVP 77 LLC, an interest that does not seem to have a website and which turns up no results on an international business database. No one answered calls to the phone number listed on the application.
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blow that motherfucker up immediately. no backslidin. give the fish a chance. the wine farmers have had their chance to try to get drunk on money and it just came out ugly. revive the beauty way https://www.crystalinks.com/amphibiousgods.html
Hayduke Lives!
Beauty way, indeed!
damns are destructive
So are Dams, especially when No One gives a Damn!!!
Only the government can have a rule that when a company decides not to renew a license it is automatically renewed anyway. In the meantime, the fish continue into extinction. That fish ladder hasn’t worked properly since it was built 100 years ago. In the meantime, summer water critical to the Eels health continues to be diverted to potter valley and beyond.
Like your car tags if you forget they automatically send them to you
In what state does that happen? They never automatically send me mine and if they are late it costs a lot of money.
Sarcasm is subtle
Yeah- they are super kind! I always appreciate how lenient and caring they are…
And even then only a goverment controlled by corporations, after having beaten the working class into submission and out of political participation.
Of course, I am sure that private industry did not have anything to do with that rule through lobbying or purchase of politicians and lying to the public. /s The fish continue moving to extinction through the indifference and neglect of the people that control the water. It is more important to have washed cars in Santa Rosa and wine in wine country.
Agreed. People wash their cars down there like it’s L.A. Actually…it has grown a fairly L.A. style vibe in old Rosa…style over substance and some bling blang sparkle. Cut them off!
The fish ladder was upgraded in 1987 as part of the 50yr license renewal process that started in 1970/72.
Still works poorly
Jeffersonian is spot on. Bottom line is that fish need water (go figure!) and there has been less and less every year, drought, illegal diversions from growers, etc. But the overall largest impact to flows is the loss of Eel River water to the Russian River through the diversion at Potter Valley (vineyards continue to expand all the way from Ukiah to Santa Rosa).
It is time to do the right thing PG&E and remove the dams!!
It is apparent, at least to me anyway, that PG&E is much more concerned about their shareholders than they are about doing the right thing.
It’s taken you all this time to figure that out??? I could have told you that 30 years!!!
EVERY corporation is more concerned about their shareholders! That’s why they exist. And they have it in writing. So don’t be confused by their public relations people. That is exactly how they are. It’s not evil. It’s reality.
It’s actually their legal obligation to be most concerned about their shareholders bottom line. If they place other considerations higher then they’ve violated their fiduciary responsibility.
We may be well past time to reconsider the allowances we make for corporate largesse
My understanding is that removal of dams, and a return to natural flow, will result in lower late summer flows. If someone who knows with certainty can elaborate that would be helpful. I know that this is the case with the Lewiston dam on the Trinity river.
I believe a return to normal flows, regardless, is the best case scenario for the fish anyhow, because they have evolved over millennia with the river the way it is, droughts and all.
They only let 15cfs into the eel in the late summer and early fall, claiming that was the mean historic flow. But the main point is that the dams block several hundred miles of salmonid habitat, in an area of steep canyons, deep pools and higher elevations that has cooler summer temperatures that allows for better juvenile survival, particularly for summer steelhead, whose population is endangered. Furthermore, the dams prevent the replenishment of spawning gravels downstream, and inhibit the cleansing effect of high flows that benefit the entire watershed.
Thank you for those very important points. I would add that these low rainfall years actually provide a golden opportunity for restoration in one very important way. Having planted a large number of trees myself along mainstems and mountaintops, I have come to realize the trees along the main stems in the lowlands are the most important for fish and should be the highest priority because they can neck down the river and become hardpoints that can quickly make the river deeper. Certainly the very first trees that were logged in almost any watershed were the ones RIGHT ALONG THE BANKS OF THE RIVERS. It was easy to fall them into the water and have them not split, and that’s how they moved them anyway, by water, so they were the first to go. And those trees growing there was the main reason why all our rivers in norcal were TWENTY FEET DEEP ALL YEAR LONG. Even in just recent decades old man Bass in phillipsville told me that before the 55 flood there was MUCH more long established hard points and pools with lots of turtles that had enough refuge to shelter during high water. South of phillipsville just upstream from chimney tree are 2 important trees -1 lone snag of a redwood which shows that there were probably a lot more redwoods continuously lining the bank, at the end of the frontage road there, and 2 next to turtle rock there’s an old growth redwood that still today in summer is at the waters edge, showing how certainly there were many more giant trees growing right up against the waters edge and when the river would rise, those hard points would make the river deeper. Years like the past several when we get almost no rain all winter relatively, offer young trees the best chance of survival along the waters edge starting with willow and cottonwood. If a large scale planting effort was mounted the river might get deep in as little as 5 years, whether you believe it or nor. I’ve seen it with my own eyes. If you choke the gravel bar with vegetation it causes the river to get deeper and narrower almost immediately. Low flow winters mean that a huge number of trees could survive the important first years without all getting washed away, if somebody planted them. All you need to do is stick cuttings in the sand and gravel…. One big problem is that most of the lowlands are controlled by arborcidal maniacs. I could go on and on about this. There’s a beaver dam in my neighborhood there now too for the first time in well over a century. Hahaha. Logging and ranching is arson. CDF et al THP rubberstampers should be sued for arson. That’s the only thing they understand or listen to. We managed the forest into kindling. Forest biomass deficit in the Pac NW is causing the SAHARA EFFECT on the interior of the entire American West into Canada. Here’s a pic from last week of the Rio Grande all dried up in big bend national park texas
Yes lower lae summer flows but also the retuen of masive deep pools. Back to the environment the fish evolved in.
The world is only 2022 years old. Millennia. 😅
Late last summer, in the middle of a historic drought, 15cfs was going down the Eel and 25cfs through the diversion pipe. That ought to illustrate where the priority lies.
So if humans don’t have water that’s ok. If fish don’t and haven’t for 100 years, stop the train. Let’s reverse course and kill the humans but save the fish. Makes no sense.
Man has survived since the beginning of time without dams all it is about is money if man can survive without dams fish can survive without dams all so simple
“Makes no sense.” For that matter neither does what you wrote!!! Just saying is all!!!
It’s not exactly difficult for a human to just pick up and move somewhere else but fish can’t exactly choose to just walk over to another river can they? Maybe humans should move where they actually have water not divert it hundreds of miles out of the way to build massive cities in the middle of the desert like LA.
The Potter Valleys situation is classic California. Plant your irrigated fields where there isn’t natural water. California’s “drought” is permanent now. The only time there’s enough water is after record setting precip. Average amounts don’t meet the over allocated supply. Meanwhile, if you have water on you property, and want to use 1%of it…oh no! the Water Boards got a program for you!
“drought” has many defintions. Normally when a drought is delcared it is based on level of stored water in resivors, not the needs of the flora and fauna. No state/nation should seek to produce excess agricultural goods for international trade. The cost to land resources to too great.
Makes PERFECT sense. Your ilk at the top of the list ☺
Humans do have water. This would only limit the extent of their profit seeking endeavors. Its as if you are not reading what you write, of course if fish dont have sufficient water for 100 years that is a major problem that should be corrected asap.
No humans are expectedt o die with the loss of water diversion.
I’m pretty sure the people on the PVID pay less than $20 acre foot for water. No one is making money on that. Make sure you don’t go use Lake Mendocino for any recreation, or buy local hay, or local produce, and definitely don’t ever touch a local wine. Sounds easy enough.
Its based on how much you pump and the lateral East n Westl branches within the PV irrigation district. Very complex system with HUNDREDS of customers. Certain times branches are accessesd or filled. The “gates” are the only drop points to pump. Some gates have collapsed or been taken out of service. Many have massive military pumps they siphon thousands of gallons in a blink of an eye at the flick of a switch. The water gets pretty chemical laden via vineyard or other additives/ fertilizers by the time it hits Mid Mountain Road on the eastside. Never have seen fish or much of anything living in the ditch complexes. Mostly used to be for pears, hops n hay. The fancy vineyards maybe last 30 years in the making. It was feilds for quite some time after the mill closed. Better put in some more rain catchment ponds or go to dry faming. It is hard to wean spolied crops to a dry farm practice. This is going to be interesting.
I think the customer count is below 200. My point still stands. Cost is still below $20 acre foot(350,000gal)
Actually, if environmentalists are honest with themselves, the environmental problems we have stem from just too damned many people. This has been known since the ’50’s and is not new information. It is ironic I guess, that we are literally fucking ourselves to death.
You are right to a large degree. “How many children do you have?” Is the first question everyone complaining should be asked.
Full disclosure: my parents had four children. My siblings and I together have had ONE, total.
Not knowing your ranking with your siblings; if your parents would have had only one child, you and two of your siblings would not be around today.
Environmentalists have said this,but again the Right and religion doesn’t approve of birth control.
Wrong. The right has no problem with birth control called the pill , they just don’t like killing viable babies in the womb. The only religion who doesn’t like birth control are Catholics and Muslims. Oops, Muslims yea. The Democrats have no problems with the current open border with 2 million jumpers last year alone. Now. , if 50% of the jumpers are south or Central American and most are Catholics, expect the 2 million to quadruple at least from excess births in one decade. So, the Democrats do not care about our countries environment or ecosystems one bit. Our deserts and national parks on the border are open air dumps from all the litter. In 4 years there will be at least 8 million illegals wandering around and it is all on the democreeps who claim to be the party of science and ecology. Yea sure they are. Open border, millions of illegals, the environment pays, American citizens pay with their life’s.
Just going to make up random shit?
Funny. I know lots of conservative women who believe in birth control, and men ,too.
You also know damn well that Danos comment is correct.
The campaign for education about overpopulation was abandoned in the 80’s. It was seen as possibly leading to anti-immigration sentiments. IMO this was a major mistake made by the main environmentalist groups and it’s where I parted ways with them. Human overpopulation and the resulting overconsumption of natural resources is behind ALL of our current survival problems…and yet it is still impolite to discuss?!!
Even during covid our population is growing like algae.
An infected tree doesn’t die immediately. But when it does, it even takes longer to come down.
Slow and steady of toxins will do the trick
What’s your proposal for dealing with overpopulation?
happening now
‘let ‘er rip’
eugenics in Murka
They have a plan.
Do you?
On a recent episode of the econews report, the greenies agreed that anyone who brings up the issue of over populations effect on environment is obviously a xenophobic bigot and to be disregarded.
False equivalence. And how exactly will people die because this dam ceases to exist? Hyperbole…
The salmon flows and the Bounty of the Eel river watershed and valley was immense before the dam. Afterwards it has been very limited. Species have suffered. Man can only see what we think is a benefit. Yet, we are not always connected to the full Web of Life in a knowing and proactive way. The land is diverse yet limited in resources it was not made to sustain all the development. The residents of these local areas where it is dry must live within the means of what is available. Anyone been to the big island Hawaii where there’s not a lot of water? They all have cisterns and catchments to collect rain. To develop beyond what it can sustain is ridiculous. We are seeing the results of 100 years of disconnect happening before our eyes. The deep pools in the Eel held the fish well in dry times until the rains allowed them to move out. Blasting of railways filled the extra deep pools on many of the lateral tributaries. Dam up the runs so the fish have no hiding holes. Yep…We did all that, not mother nature. It took millions of years to build the flora and fauna, carve the deep canyons. The local populations lived with the life cycles, did not have huge populations because the land could not hold more. A few men with “ambition” wiped it out with nary a blink of an eye in the name of “progress”
This was a misuse of funds. CDFW should not be spending money to investigate protecting ag interests.
Thank you Sarah Reith for the excellent article.
Keep in mind that those who use this water to generate profit are refusing to even entertain the notion of compensating us for the water.
For their offensive entitlement, we should make every effort to deny them even a drop of Eel River water.
Riparian water rights law is long established in the west first come, first served. I agree with the precedent we don’t live in socialist Venezuela if you like move there we live in the good old US of A and we live under the rule of law and over hundreds of years our water laws have developed and prevented much bloodshed because here whisky is for drinking and water is for fighting.
My name is Antonio Manfredini. But my friends call me “Manfredini”.
Why doesn’t lake county have a voice in this debate? The lake sits in lake county, there’s a community around the lake that economically depends on the lake. Were are in a historic drought. I understand the position fish advocates are pressing, but factually does removing dams really lower the temperature of the water? Does it provide more habitual water during the summer months? Convince me.
How did the fish survive better than ever BEFORE the dams? The Salmon runs were once so large you could walk across the river on their backs.
From my understanding, the real decline in the fish population happened right after the ‘64 flood. The devastation from that flood is hard to imagine, along with all the bare hillsides caused so much sedimentation that filled in all the deep blue holes, it could take 100s of years to recover. Dams keep the heavy winter flows from scouring out the holes, and natural flows are better; but I think it’s just going to take TIME.
It was declining before that, but certainly that was a significant event that the watershed is still recovering from
The fish don’t pay taxes
I live in Lake County, and in fact I live in the district that includes Lake Pillsbury. And I am an advocate for dam removal (but of course, I did live in Humboldt for a long time and I am definitely biased toward doing whatever is necessary to restore the Eel River fisheries). It’s true that dam removal will be difficult for the landowners around Lake P and the recreational users, and the county, which gets property tax revenue — for a while. But I believe that recreating in the area ultimately will actually improve when the dam is removed and the river restored to its natural flows. Right now Lake P must be STOCKED with fish every year for the sports fishermen — and stocked with (as I understand it) steelhead from other watersheds/hatcheries as well as bass, which are not native to Lake P, or to Clear Lake, for that matter. Restoring natural fisheries and freeing the steelhead/trout population to once again get out to the ocean should improve the genetics of the Upper Eel steelhead/trout population and reinvigorate the population, leading to better fishing in the long run. Motorized boating on the lake will be lost, but in the spring there would be opportunities for kayaking and rafting. Hiking, mountain biking, wildlife viewing, will improve. Yes, there’s a tule elk herd at Lake P, but there were tule elk in the area long before there was a lake so the elk should do just fine. Which reminds me that before the PVP was conceived, where the lake is now was a thriving town called Gravelly Valley, and no one ever asked the folks who lived and worked there if it was OK with them to cover their town with a lake so that the city of Ukiah could have electricity year-round (it was much smaller than it is now), or that Potter Valley could have irrigation water. The residents were NOT thrilled by the possibilities for recreation if it meant losing their homes and livelihoods. And residents of Lake Co. should think of the fact that the water rights to Clear Lake itself belong to Yolo County — and on and off for decades there have been movements to try to get those water rights back to Lake Co; a somewhat parallel situation, which should help us understand why the people of northern Mendo and Humboldt feel so strongly about getting back the water that belongs in the Eel watershed. It’s tough, but the old saying is true: you can’t make an omelet without breaking eggs — the fight is always about whose eggs get broken this time.
Some of the biggest pike minnow I’ve ever caught we’re out of Lake Pillsbury
In the Eel those Pike are a real bad news bear situation.
You want someone to post a collection of studies showing the benefits of damn removal on anadromous fish populations for you?
Removing damns allows winter flows to scour deep pools that have been filled with sediment. These pools are how fish survived summer before logging filled the river channels. Water temp is not the only thing affecting these fish, removing the dams would allow access to far more spawning grounds, some of which are protected from invasive species present in the lower (and warmer) regions
I am sure they do. Factually, there is great habitat above the dam for fish with cold water year-round. Nobody is necessarily arguing water in the lower Eel will be cooler once dams removed.
All discussion is useless until Sonoma County gets another water source/ water storage. We have seen the Santa Rosa area blow up in these last 2 decades and all those houses need water. Sonoma real estate would plummet if they get cut off and the higher-ups will not allow that to happen. Either party it’s the same money and it’s A LOT of money. But I’d rather have fish also. Instead of yet more parasitic earth-destroying humans…
They also have Berryessa and Sonoma. Imagine some of Pillsbury will be filled annually in a “vernal” nature.
I agree that they have enough and they should manage what they have w/o destroying the Eel. But they want more…actually they want it all. All of it. And the politicians are on their side. And the money is on their side. We need to have a BIG voice to beat them. They are locusts and they will chew everything up…it is a death machine
They are people too, neighbors, just looking out for their interest just like you are.
So how will the fall Salmon and Steelhead runs look with no water in the Eel or Russian rivers? What are all the growers along the watersheds do for water? Do the Dam Busters really think water will flow all year long?
Yes. It flows south year around…I don’t understand your comment about no water in the Eel. This will mean more water.
The Eel has deep water pools that reach 30 plus feet. By fall there is water from rainfall that opens up the rivers for the runs. Traditionally the Russian River did not hold much of a run because it was typically dry versus the Eel. As far as the Growers that live along the water sheds sustainability, dry farming, rain catchment living within climate means is required. Evaluating options that are possible instead of coming up with everything that isn’t deemed possible. It all survived long before the dam was ever built. How do we let go of our human egos to realize that our interventions are not always the best. Hope.
Take down Hetch Hetchy! Ruth Lake! Stop Huffman’s county of Marin from importing water from the Central Valley!
I’ve heard numerous times, you can find some really old pictures of it that Hetch Hetchy is/was far more beautiful than Yosemite. Had its own Half Dome formations. I believe they reported it was twice the depth of Yosemite Valley.
Before Hetch Hetchy dam. Hmm any of Scott dam area prior?