PG&E Signals That It Will Speed Up Removing Dam Which Helps Divert Water From the Eel River to the Russian River
Scott Dam which is part of the Potter Valley Project. [Photo cropped by one from PG&E]
This will cause Lake Pillsbury, the reservoir behind the dam in Lake County, to be ten feet, or 26% lower than it normally is, heading into spring. According to the PG&E article, “With the dam gates remaining open, water availability will be similar to dry year conditions experienced in 2020 and 2021.”
PG&E owns and operates Scott Dam and Lake Pillsbury, along with the rest of the Potter Valley hydropower project, which diverts water from the Eel River into the Russian River. The utility is in the process of developing a plan to surrender the entire project.
Early Friday afternoon, PG&E filed a document with FERC, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, explaining that according to the results of a recent analysis, “proactive steps to limit the potential for seismic instability of Scott Dam are necessary at this time;” including maintaining the lower water level in the reservoir. The filing states that, according to a memo prepared by its engineering consultant on March 14, “the proposed restriction will improve the dam’s expected stability and safety performance during a major earthquake.”
The Friends of the Eel River is an environmental group that has questioned the seismic safety of the Potter Valley Project for years. That information is secret due to laws about the confidentiality of infrastructure vulnerabilities. “We’ve been raising concerns about Scott Dam’s location near the Bartlett Springs fault, about the active landslide on the southern abutment, about the knocker, that giant boulder that fits right behind the dam and is the reason that Scott Dam has that really unusual sharp angle in its construction,” said Alicia Hamann, Executive DIrector of Friends of the Eel River. “It’s frankly really kind of validating to see PG&E and FERC starting to take these concerns seriously.”
Elizabeth Salomone is the District Manager for the Russian River Flood Control and Water Conservation Improvement District, a water wholesaler and a leading water manager for the Upper Russian River in Mendocino County. She said the news was “devastating for the Mendocino County Russian River watershed…The upper portion of the Russian River is reliant on Lake Mendocino, which is a reservoir that does not see us through extended drought periods. It needs to refill every winter to meet historical water use levels. And that doesn’t count for carry-over, in case there is a dry winter.”
PG&E has not submitted a plan to remove the dam at this point, but it is already planning to submit a variance request, to manage the flows out of Lake Pillsbury to keep the levels in the Lake Pillsbury reservoir low. The utility is anticipating a minimum flow of 5-25 cubic feet per second to the East Branch of the Russian River, which flows into Lake Mendocino.
The Potter Valley Irrigation District has a separate contract with PG&E for its water. The Irrigation District’s Janet Pauli said a lot of uncertainty remains, but she’s expecting this year’s grapes to make it through the cold. On Friday, she said that, “As far as I know and from what I’ve been told today, we’ll for sure be able to access our frost protection water this spring, which of course is critically important…the way the frost protection works in our contract with PG&E is, we request it. We don’t get just a certain block of water.” Instead, the district has to let PG&E know in advance when frost is in the forecast, and how much they will need to fill ponds for a particular period of frost protection. “What’s going to happen with our summer supply,” she said; “It has yet to be determined.”
Another thing that remains to be determined is exactly how to maintain a cold water pool below Scott Dam. One of the project’s mitigation measures is releasing cold water for salmon from the bottom of the Lake Pillsbury reservoir into the Eel River, though, according to Charlie Schneider, the Lost Coast Project Manager for California Trout, “The habitat below the dam does not make up for the habitat behind the dam,” which is inaccessible to the fish. CalTrout has long advocated for the full removal of the Potter Valley Project, including Cape Horn Dam and the Van Arsdale reservoir in Potter Valley. Schneider said that CalTrout’s main concern is “to make sure that this obsolete project that’s kind of falling apart now is still able to take care of the fishery and manage its impact on the Eel River in that interim period before the project is decommissioned…so we want to make sure that the ultimate outcome here is dam removal, which is going to benefit the river and the fishery, but in that interim period, we want to make sure we’re not killing off all the fish”
The next-to-the-last sentence of PG&E’s article about keeping the spillway gates open is far from definitive. It reads, “The company plans to continue to develop long-term mitigation measures which could include expedited partial or full removal of Scott Dam.”
Hamann is focusing on the possibility of things moving fast. “I’m a bit of an eternal optimist,” she said on Friday; “so the key word that I hone in on in that sentence is ‘expedited.’”
Salomone is not quite as optimistic about the expedited nature of the much-reduced flow, which is a certainty with the spillway gates staying open as long as the dam is in place. “One proposal that’s been put forward is the removal of Scott Dam, and then continuing with what we call the run of the river, or what would be wintertime transfers from the Eel to the Russian River,” she said. “And with that, there was an understanding that we would need to reduce our reliance on those summertime Eel River diversions, if that was the option that happened in the future. But that was in the future. We thought we had some time to turn the bus around on this. And now we’re finding, dramatically, we do not have time.”
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Sheer stupidity. The water releases for the Eel are needed in the late summer and early fall, not the spring. The earthquake risk there is de minimis. I cant understand why the groups representing eel interests can be happy about this.And copping out for a two basin solution is likewise bad judgment. Given the sad state of the eel salmonids, no water at all should go to the Russian river. Late season flow increases would be greatly beneficial.
The water releases, which you say are needed in late summer and early fall, are only possible because of Scott Dam. Built in 1921, the dam and diversion impact a tiny % of the overall flow but are somehow responsible for all the ills that have befallen the Eel.
And of course in times of drought it makes great sense to destroy a source of stored water. Without that water there are times when the so-called main stem below the dam would be dry. I’d rather be in a position to argue how much of the water goes to fish, how much to farmers, how much to Humboldt and how much to Mendo instead of it all going out to sea during high winter flows.
the water going to sea is what they call a river. fish swim back and forth in them. they swim around and bring nutrients back from the oceans. they go dry sometimes, that’s natural. when man impedes nature everything (and everyone) suffers from it. pretty simple
The water stored in Pillsbury is a small fraction of high winter flows that the fish will never miss. In contrast, cold water is released from storage in late summer and fall when it’s most needed. Take out Pillsbury and the river below the dam is more likely to go dry. Your theory of more water equals no water at the most critical times of the year.
Not true. The high winter flows replenish spawning gravel and remove silt accumulation below the dams.
The tunnel is operated at a max of 150cfs to minimize wear so I hardly think the fish or the gravel notice the difference between 5,000cfs or 4,850cfs.
Meanwhile, all these Humboldt pot growers with millions of gallons of water flowing through their properties have to listen to Mad River dependants telling them how weed farming would be better done in “traditional” farming areas. Well look at ag lands in CA today, flooded. Dependent on complicated water theft schemes. Desert grit, leaching boron. Our “Waste water discharge” fees went from $350 to$690 to$750, year by year, arbitrarily. Because it rains on my 1/4 acre with marijuana roots. I pay $750 to provide my own 65,000 gallons from my own creek, pumped out in ten winter days out of 365. I operated a vegetable farm for 25 years without any interest from the State. It’s truly the product, not the activity. Unequal treatment under the law. I wonder what farmers in the Russian River pay for deliveries of Eel river water, using all this public infrastructure for a mind altering wine grape crop.
The water releases are only required due to the dam. The dam has eliminated a significant portion of critical habitat, not a tiny %.
The Eel may not flow in parts of some summers, but pre-dam scouring flows made deep pools that fish could reside in.
Farmers have more than enough water to produce food for OUR REGION.
I guess I should form it as a question…don’t fish live out the summer in cold refugia, sometimes disconnected from the main channel? Maintaining a blue line all summer like a map may matter more to humans than fish.
If you look at the entirety of the Eel river, even the highly inflated numbers attributed to the fish habitat behind the dams is not all that significant, particularly considering that they will be dry several months of most years. Further, summer flows and temperatures of the Eel post-dam will be worse than today, because there won’t be any water to feed it.
The TBS’ own report stated clearly that there is no guarantee that dam removal will improve the fish habitat.
The reality is that as a practical matter, the Eel can never return to it’s pre-dam health, due to three factors: climate change, ag runoff (chemicals), and marijuana growers (taking tons of water and even worse runoff).
This is all an exercise supposition and hope.
The only certainty is that water security and fire surpression will be worse without the dam system in place.
living 3 mi. from Lake Pillsbury I can tell you that the Eel dries up in late summer right above the lake 1/2 of the years & untill fish grow legs no help. The lawyers still get fed frepm cal trout & friends of the eel.
Nevertheless, as long as the dams exist, there is the need for these late flows,given the precarious state of the fish runs and the huge amount of water diverted downstream by marijuana growers and other users. The Russian river watershed should not be a beneficiary of eel water. The Eels fish should.
Your very name says it well. One of Amerikan history’s
biggest hypocrites.
Who had the erudition to be asked to write the Declaration of Independence. Whatever possesses so many liberals to continuously trash their own country that millions have broken the law to enter? Maybe dichotomous thinking?
I shouldn’t have saud liberals. It should have been left wing nuts to correspond to the right wing nuts doing the same.
Erudite rapist of his wife’s half sister, yes much there to be admired
One of the greatest men who ever lived. But actually. my name refers to the state of jefferson, which is a movement to remove southern oregon and true northern california from the rule of portland, San fransisco and los angeles.
It’s obvious you don’t know much about rivers, but you make one hell of a beche. I am sure your opinion on river matters might provide us with a real eye opener. Let’s hear it.
I’m curious how you know that the earth quake risk is so low? The article states that the information is protected but pg&e is clearly indicating that it does think there is a risk
He knows more than you, and the scientists. Obvious.
The scientists that work for the government or the company or the water district or the fish council?
I’d have to say it was the insurance company who ordered the inspection by their engineer. PG&E has enough problems, a failed dam would be a catastrophic blow to the organization.
Science was bought by politicians and corporations (PG&E and others) where matters of the Eel are concerned decades ago. There are still scientists who will tell us the world is flat, if you pay them enough.
Nope. Not how science works. Sure, a “scientist” is free to say whatever they want, but science requires their findings to be submitted for peer-review. If their claim can’t stand up to scrutiny, it doesn’t become part of the scientific literature.
Nope. The fake man caused Oscar the Grouch climate religion is a prime example. The only studies being funded are those with the predetermined outcome. Otherwise, no more funding and bye bye job. The fact that a Gollum political party seeking the Ring at all costs can claim the Science is settled is beyond comedy, it is a complete farce and scam. Schools need to stop indoctrinating children that they are going to die unless dad stops driving his truck and the cows in the field are bad because farts, or some asinine stupidity pulled out of some morons keester. IThe joke is over. The recent gauntlet picture at the Klamath mouth says everything about the concern for salmon. It reminds of the movie Gallipoli, cause even if you are as fast as a cheetah, you will still be caught or gunned down running into an impossible gauntlet of opposing humanity. 300.
99.9% out of the 88,125 peer-reviewed scientific studies surveyed support the conclusion that climate-change is real and that humans are the primary drivers behind it. https://news.cornell.edu/stories/2021/10/more-999-studies-agree-humans-caused-climate-change
That’s an awful lot of people on the take.
Gallipoli was a good movie, though.
No they do not. You proved my point but thanks for trying. Cornell has no stake in the matter besides MOOLAH from Papa Gollum. Their graduate and doctoral research is funded hugely by the government climate fake science Arcata March complex. Why yes, yes it is. I would take their research and burn it in a huge slash pile as it is worthless.
Climate changes, man does not influence it. The ice cores from Vladavostok prove it, along with tropical areas in the past being located in now arctic environments before the Industrial Age. If you cannot see that the Oscar the Grouches got hammered with their prediction of doom and gloom in the recent snowmaggedon, I cannot help you. It completely blew up the entire Oscar the Grouch Arcata SCIENCE religious parade and their entire point. They have no idea what they are talking about but like lemmings follow the herd right off the precipice. I don’t follow aging hip peas and their religious adherents off cliffs. Jim Jones was a creepy loon and his quasi scientific religious zealotry screams reincarnation in the form of the Oscar the Grouch man caused climate change fraud. Screw that. Good luck, Natural Selection wins again
“tropical areas in the past being located in now arctic environments before the Industrial Age.”
Ok that’s weird.
The industrial age started 200 ish years ago? Right? Is this the basis from which you build your thesis?
Maybe you are thinking of Ecuador’s Chimborazo? Alexander Von Humboldt pointed out the relationship in ecologies as you climb in elevation, or travel North in Latitudes. Dude. Chimborazo’s summit is actually farther from the center of the plant than Everest. The planets equatorial bulge means sea level at the equator is farther from the center of the planet too.
Are you referring to the colorized archival photo FROM THE SIXTIES!?
That must be among the most naive things ever written here. There are hardly two scientists on earth who completely agree with each other on anything. Except maybe how someone else is wrong. And the more prestige is involved, the more petty they can be. Sometimes the personal feuds make the a person blush. And can they do dirt on each other… sometimes it’s more like a hen house trying to establish a pecking order than any semblance of intellectual goodfellowship.
” Another popular move is to say scientific findings are true because scientists use “the scientific method.” But we can never actually agree on what that method is. Some will say it is empiricism: observation and description of the world. Others will say it is the experimental method: the use of experience and experiment to test hypotheses.”
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/if-you-say-science-is-right-youre-wrong/
Here is a story of how a bunch of old farts behave when their ideas are challenged. Just remember scientists are humans with bad breath, irritable bowels and inflated egos. Dreadfully unscientific at times.
“Keller said she barely got through her introduction before members of the audience tore into her: “Stupid.” “You don’t know what you’re doing.” “Totally wrong.” “Nonsense.””
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2018/09/dinosaur-extinction-debate/565769/
Not entirely sure what either you or Al are rambling on about (especially Al.) Neither of you provided anything that refutes anthropogenic climate change or the scientific consensus on anthropogenic climate change.
I was involved in the science. You are correct in your definition of what is supposed to happen with science, but sadly money and power trump science. It’s all around us.
Once the science is in on paper and paid for by whoever paid to have it done there is nothing to stop the data from being interpreted or manipulated to favor someones agenda. It was the case on the Eel where powerful corporations and sellout politicians neutered the California Fish And Game commission so that they could not then uphold their mission statement.
Special interest attorneys on both sides are responsible for all the foot dragging over the last twenty years.
The dam has been there for over 100 years. It’s not in a high earthquake area.
The dams adhesion to one side of the dam is less than ideal, it leaks there, and or it is somewhat compromised, is maybe a vicious rumor, but may hold some truth…
The fact that it is also over 100 years old, could also be a factor…
It’s reinforcement steel, could be beginning to oxidize beyond it’s serviceable life, possibly compromising it’s overall
structural integrity…
?♂️
https://eelriver.org/2021/10/07/dam-safety-series-aging-structure/
“This year Scott Dam turned 100 years old, and as is the case with any century-old infrastructure, there are some concerns about its safety. Cape Horn Dam, 12 miles downstream, is 114 years old. Both were designed during a time when engineers assumed and built for a stable, predictable climate with reliable water resources. Both structures are also rated as “high hazard” structures, meaning that loss of life is likely in the event of dam failure.”
“Over the years, PG&E has been required to report the declining condition of Scott Dam’s aging structure to FERC. Several reports filed by PG&E suggest serious issues that may be associated with Scott Dam’s aging structure. These include decaying concrete, cracks in the structure’s face, pipes with unknown connections, spraying leaks, and the vulnerability of the dam’s only low-water outlet to clog with sediment.”
Interesting…
This confirms the instability of one side of the dams adhesion points…
The moving “Knocker”, which they initially thought was solid….
The dam had to be reengineered with the “wing” that is now evident….
Cont…
You can see the “wing” redesign, in this article’s photo…
I wouldn’t trust a report by Friends of the Eel River or any other special interest group as they clearly get the results they pay for.
The public does not have access to any of the official seismic studies or dam safety reports on Scott Dam as they are confidential for security reasons.
But it is in a seismically active area and thus it may have been affected over the course of the last hundred years.
Do you think that pge is lying to justify dam removal? Some other motivation?
I dont think they really want to do anything. They would walk away if they could. I’m certainly in favor of removal, but in the meantime the water should be stored in a manner adequate to provide late season flows to the eel.
I guess thats why I’m inclined to believe that there is a structural risk. I don’t see what benefit pge gets from claiming a seismic risk that isn’t there.
An active fault was discovered less than mile away…
“Questions of foundation inadequacy and questionable safety have plagued its owner, Pacific Gas and Electric Company, and with the recent discovery of an active fault only one mile from the dam, it became urgent to reestablish the reserve of safety of the dam under a range of loading conditions.”
Link below…
Humboldt’s nuke plant was built on a fault. Plate Tectonics was not really an accepted theory until after the ’64 Good Friday quake in Alaska. Technology allowed us to map the faults in 3D.
Historically 75% of the salmon produced by the eel river came from spawning grounds below these dams. The diversion should cease. A system of reservoirs was envisioned and designed on paper to supply water from Marin County north into the Russian River basin by Marin Municipal Water District and others decades ago. This was abandoned because of cost and the fact they had Eel River water to take.
Why not settle for 75% of the original fish population and keep the Pillsbury dam. It offers control of water on the river during flood and drought.
Clear back in the 1800s when the Eel was commercially fished, the managers of those affairs both private and governmental knew that the river could not sustain the fish at the rate they were being taken, and they knew the river would never recover if regulations were not bumped up to secure the future of the salmon population. They did just that.
Back in the fifties and sixties when I was fishing, there were still mind boggling runs of fish by todays standards. It wasn’t until runs of fish devoid of fish over about eight inches long began coming up the river with mysterious markings on their skins made by seine nets they had escaped from began telling the tale. The Chinese were raping our fish stocks, following them everywhere they went, and nothing was done about it.
THAT was the death blow to the eel. Suddenly the fish population dwindled to almost nothing compared to years past and it has never recovered thanks to the pike minnow, pollution and politics.
Removing the Pillsbury Dam is a pipe dream cure for what ails the Eel. What needs to happen is to kill the pike minnow out of the river and develop a breeding system for the salmon and steelhead.
I became heavily involved with Eel River science and politics in the early eighties. I was dismayed at the level of subterfuge presented by all sides of the issue to achieve their political goals at the expense of the river and bailed, stood back with my arms crossed and watched the river fail. I quit fishing when catch and kill was introduced. All that did was kick the can down the road.
Kill the pike minnow, regulate the fertilizer out and start a breeding program or we will never see revenue or food from the river again.
In the 80s the runs were rebounding from the postwar logging and all of a sudden came the pike minnows. Not only did the salmon and steelhead populations plummet, so did the suckers and lampreys. Every large pike minnow I caught had a smolt in its stomach.They were introduced to the eel through presumably an illegal dumping into lake pillsbury. They quickly spread throughout the watershed. They seem to have been the straw that broke the camel’s back, although illegal water draws and pesticides and nitrates from fertilizers due to pot farming helped to foster algae growth that created anerobic water conditions. Overfishing didnt help either as a proliferation of guides attacked the river,the asians pirated the seas and Charles Hurwitz overlogged critical tributaries. In short, man. It may be too late. But removal may help the summer steelhead, since their gene pool still remains above the dam, and removal will also allow the necessary scouring and gravel replacement downstream of the damsite.
Tear down that damn dam.
Let the Eel River run wild and free.
Let Sonoma County supply their own water instead of destroying the Eel River basin. Wild and free baby!
More people less dams, our politicians know best. Don’t question their decisions, just pay the man! Crack me up. Shasta is 40 ft from full ,but the drought is over this year. Shasta was full in 2016 but the drought wasn’t over. Always trust your politicians.
Lake Shasta area is still in a drought. https://droughtmonitor.unl.edu/CurrentMap/StateDroughtMonitor.aspx?CA Humboldt County isn’t. The state is big.
Which definition of drought are they using?
There is a long and nuanced explanation here: https://droughtmonitor.unl.edu/About/WhatistheUSDM.aspx#:~:text=Traditional%20ways%20to%20measure%20drought,water%2C%20water%20in%20reservoirs%2C%20or Short version: “[R]ecognizing emerging drought, or knowing whether drought is over, entails understanding what is normal for a given location or season, and considering longer time frames. If an area has been in drought for a while, it typically takes more than one or two rains to end it, although one rain may be all that is needed to awaken dormant vegetation or spur crop growth.”
Look like they are heavily reliant on groundwater levels, reservoir storage, and pasture/range conditions. Our state cannot continue to produce ag products for the entire world, and it should not be our goal to do so, this is especially true for beef.
Drought conditions should be judged only on precipitation, not ag interests.
Crying wolf by declaring droughts based on ag interests has desensitized the public, hampering important responses to actual droughts.
Do you think that we aren’t coming out of an “actual” drought?
Hope you will enjoy all your food being imported and paying 30 to 40% of your income to eat not to mention not knowing what chemicals they use to grow it.
I have ranch in Orland, no drought there Kym, mt shasta has what ? 15 foot of snow, keep listening to your politicians, I’m sure they need more tax dollars to battle this so called lamedemic, I mean drought, crack me up.
Redding area has gotten over 64 inches of rain this winter and March and April and May still to come. Still in a drought, keep listening to your politicians, crack me up.
Redding has 30 inches to date
This proposal is CORPORATE, not political.
The difference being?
I remember when I was a kid being told that the American gov’t was not run the people, it was run by the generals. General Motors, General Electric, General Dynamics…
So corps don’t have lobbyists? Lobbyists aren’t tied to politicians? Crack me up, not political. Where there is money, you’ll find a politician. A business can’t reach corporation status unless they have a dirty politician in their back pocket, where you people been? This is how corporations make it big, with the help of tax payers. Americans need to pay attention before you vote.
Do you vote?
I used to vote , then I realized both parties are only after working peoples money.
Lone Ranger, I just drove over Shasta Lake. It is waaay down. I’m not going to bother looking it up but I can assure you, it’s not looking good and not a lot of spring runoff in the mountains. Shasta is loaded but lower elevations not much.
It is however well above previous historical drought levels.
https://cdec.water.ca.gov/resapp/ResDetail?resid=SHA
It will be full or close by the end of june.
It’s 95% of the average now.
It was wayy lower in the 70s ,but the continued weather cycle seems to end the so called drought every 5 to 6 years. This rainy season just begun and shasta up 110 ft, only 40 to go,they’ll be flooding park marina drive in redding shortly, crack me up .
You should have looked it up cause you way wrong
Lake Shasta was full in 2018 and 2019. Its averaging 9” rise per day in March 2023
The tunnel dug to establish Lake Pillsbury was a terrible mistake against nature, should have never happened. Environmental awareness was not a “thing” Long before the Scott dam eco systems thrived. Afterwards it has been 100 years of salmon population decline. Tragedy of human error once again. Hindsite takes 100 years.
No tunnel was dug to establish Pillsbury. The diversion through the tunnel became operational in 1908, over a decade before Pillsbury was created by Scott Dam. The debate over the future of the dams and the diversion has been complicated by deliberate misrepresentations and the inability to grasp basic facts.
The tunnel was all part of the process. It should have never been done. Mixing ecosystems never tends to result in anything successful.
Does this mean you’ll be forming Friends of Mad River to take down the dam that impounds Ruth Lake?
Not a bad idea. Nature should be restored whenever and wherever possible.
Nature is being restored, the corona is seeing to that, crack me up. But keep believing your politicians, they can stop it with multiple injections.
That dam is actually beneficial since it is above the natural range of andronamous fish and keeps the mad flowing in the dry months. Not so with Scott and Van Arsdale dams.
So the reservoir would still exist without the tunnel? Or are you wrong?
When the tunnel was built, it was supplied by a diverting dam. IDK how much water it held. The fact a larger dam was built means it was likely significantly smaller than what is called Lake Pillsbury now. The point is that Truth Be Told was right because what he simply said was the tunnel was not made to form Lake Pillsbury. It existed before Lake Pillsbury.
It partially existed more like a Vernal pool that expanded when the river flows were high but it was not an always reservoir. Kind of like the little Lake Valley up in Willits very similar process. The water flows were such that it kept the rivers really clean and the gravel beds pristine for egg laying.Cool wayer pools 75% deeper than any that still exist today. The silt and sediment buildup from agricultural activities, Road grading, logging etc release silt. Once the dams were in the flows were not adequate enough to keep up with regular silt then the excessive amounts of additional silt. The silt suffocated aquatic life, clogs gills. Once that occurred the salmon Reds were pretty much done. Its a process. People forget process. A lot of results are not instantly seen, nor in one’s lifetime.
Yes, Lake Pillsbury would still exist without the tunnel…
The Pillsbury reservoir is actually upstream from the tunnel.
The tunnel feeds into Lake Mendocino…
Lake Mendocino would still exist without the tunnel, but I would venture to say that it’s source of water could be somewhat compromised without the tunnel…
Lake Mendocino’s primary inflow is from the East Fork of the Russian River…
However…
“Eel River water is metered from Pillsbury reservoir to the much smaller Van Arsdale reservoir ten miles below. From there, water flows thru the ridge to a generating station in Potter Valley. This water then joins with the East Fork of the Russian River and about ten miles later it enters Mendocino reservoir. Without this additional water, the Russian River would be pitifully small during the summer months. Old-timers tell of some stretches of the river where no above-ground flow connected the occasional pools.”
– California Creeks-
Without the diversion Lake Mendocino is projected to fill 2 out of 5 years due to the relatively small watershed of the East Fork of the Russian. If Huffman wants the dam(s) gone and truly supports a two basin solution he’d be working overtime to secure funding to raise the Coyote Valley dam as was originally intended. Otherwise the water supply and regional economy for about 600,000 people who rely on the diversion, in whole or in part, take a big hit.
600,000 people don’t depend on it. Wine grapes, cattle, and lawns depend on it. There would be plenty of water for people in Mendocino and Sonoma (provided they use it wisely) if most of it wasn’t diverted to vineyards, pastures, and lawns.
Don’t leave out the fish, we keep them rivers high in the summer so we have abundance of fish, crack me up.
They have Lake Sonoma for water. And the entire Russian watershed.
Water users in in the Upper Russian River depend upon Lake Mendocino water which is augmented by Lake Pillsbury.
Lake Sonoma water doesn’t kick in until below Healdsburg..
Tough shit.
I don’t care about that.
That’s their problem that they need to solve without draining the Eel River…
They have had plenty of time to fix it…
But they haven’t…
I believe Huffman is already supporting a proposal to raise Coyote Dam and has been for some time
Not true! This is not correct. Cape Horn Dam and the diversion facilities were built in 1908 to divert water to the East Branch of the Russian River to produce electricity for the City of Ukiah and surrounding area. Not long afterward the power company learned that the Eel River flows in the late summer and fall were insufficient for consistent power production. Consequently, about 1921-22 Scott Dam was built 12 miles upstream, forming Lake Pillsbury, providing a reliable year-round source of water. PG&E acquired the project around 1930.
If Scott Dam is removed, the issue will be the same: There will be little to no water flowing from the upper mainstem Eel River in the late summer and fall months until the rains come.
Our friends seeking removal of the dam are unaware that removal will have the opposite effect for salmonid populations. In my 70 years of exploring the Eel river watershed the climate has changed. At one time Hull Mtn and Snow Mtn had snow pack well into July, creating the cold water pool through summer. Today with snowpack melted in April… the river above the dam evaporates into the Lake County heat. Charlie Schneider is wrong to say the habitat below the dam doesn’t make up for the habitat above the dam… Without the cold water being released from the bottom of the dam, the Eel will suffer. There is more damage to the Eel created by mans development of roads, homesteads,sediment, than the gift of cold water storage. Removing the dam only exacerbates the sediment damage. Also the river above Pillsbury is a small fraction of the total Eel river watershed. The Middle Fork flowing out of Hammerhorn, and the Yolla Bollys is immense in comparison. Removing the dam will only produce a parched river canyon with no one being happy…
The cold water from Pillsbury doesn’t make it any further than Cape Horn Dam at Van Arsdale reservoir. That’s about a 12 mile stretch, and it is already pretty warm by that point. Even if the flows are low in the headwaters, it will benefit steelhead, which rely on deep pools, and Chinook, which don’t oversummer in the river. BTW, have you ever checked out the Middle Fork Eel River up around Hammerhorn Creek in the summertime? The flow is a trickle. The summer steelhead that survive there are only able to make it because of the deep, thermally stratified pools. It’s more like a serious of ponds than a river at that point.
Brings to mind what has happened to the Benbow Lake area.
Very rare for snow to last beyond the end of may. It may this year, however. Happens periodically. Look at the historical flows. They have mostly been affected by poor logging and agricultural impacts.The fish survived in deep pools in the headwaters, just like the middle fork, before the dams. Juvenile migration happens in the spring for those of smolt size, two years for steelhead and coho, several months for chinooks. Removing the dams will help. In the meantime, late summer releases will help.
Very much agree with this. Dam removal is best for the river long term. Short term, gotta keep that cold water coming out of the bottom of the dam. That means keeping more water in the reservoir later into the summer and not sending it all over the hill in June to water vineyards. More water in storage = more cold water in late summer when it’s needed.
Setting climate debate aside, there is still a growing need for water in the state and groundwater is not recharging nearly as quick as our reservoirs can fill. We don’t drive cars from the 50’s and debate amongst each other whether or not they’re the solution to transportation. So why do use dams from the 20th century and question their efficacy? My humble opinion is that the solution is not found in the question dam or no dam. I believe a step in the right direction is to modernize our water infrastructure. Modernizing dams and pioneering new water conservation technology is the step we will be forced to take. Whether we decide to do it now or when we are in a DIRE crisis is up to us. Politics are an echo chamber that stunts innovation. Repeating buzzwords back and fourth will not save us. Technology won’t give us a silver bullet or magic rain cloud, but it will allow us to stop digging our own graves.
Real solutions will involve lifestyle changes that, thus far, very few people have been willing to embrace.
I find this comment rich in hypocrisy. What lifestyle doesn’t rely on water?
I find the comment hilarious, it will be good for a political speech though, crack me up.
Lifestyle changes, you got me rollin, we can’t even figure out how to vote.
The sheer number of people having the dam vs. no dam argument here when PG&E, PG and Fing E, is saying this dam might fail during an earthquake is staggering. When the company with the worst safety record tells you a dam is a ticking time bomb it is wise to listen. I can’t even begin imagine how bad the risk here actually is.
The reservoir has been filling with over 100 years of sediment…
Approximately 1/4th to 1/3 of the reservoir’s useful capacity has been displaced by accumulated sediment…
The dam was designed to hold back water, not wet sedimentary Earth.
If there is an earthquake, it might not have to be a very big one, to cause liquifaction of the submerged sediment the reservoir, applying such forces to the dam, that it could not sustain.
It might not take any earthquake at all, it might only take a few more years of accumulated sediment…
That might be what they are hesitant to divulge…
Van Arsdale Reservoir is almost completely filled in with sediment…
If Scott Dam fails, it will take likely take out Cape Horn Dam, and Van Arsdale Reservoir right along with it…
??
Looky what I found…
I found it by Googling…
“Scott Dam structural weaknesses”…
And Bingo…!!!
It looks like the vicious rumors I recalled are true…
And they’ve known about’ this for 26 years, if not since the Dam’s inception, over 112 years ago…
https://onepetro.org/ISRMEUROCK/proceedings-abstract/EUROCK96/All-EUROCK96/ISRM-EUROCK-1996-181/50676
‘The Foundation of Scott Dam: A Case Study of a Complexly Heterogeneousfoundation
ABSTRACT:
“The case history of Scott Dam is an engineering tale of trouble that is finally coming to a close with a major repair. This concrete gravity dam was constructed on a weak deformed shale with blocks of hard sandstone that is now known to represent a tectonic melange. Even more difficult geotechnical conditions are to be found immediately upstream and down and on the left abutment. Questions of foundation inadequacy and questionable safety have plagued its owner, Pacific Gas and Electric Company, and with the recent discovery of an active fault only one mile from the dam, it became urgent to reestablish the reserve of safety of the dam under a range of loading conditions. The problem of characterizing the shear strength of melange was attacked by means of fundamental research at the University of California. The results of this research drove a detailed investigation program, which has now led to preliminary design of a strengthening scheme. The lecture will discuss the problems that arose during construction in 1920/21 and in the intervening years, the pre-existing and current model for the shear strength of the foundation, and the recent investigations.”
1 SITE CONDITIONS
“Pacific Gas & Electric Company’s Scott Dam is a concrete gravity dam on the Eel River, in a remote, rugged region of Northern California, near Ukiah. Its reservoir, Lake Pillsbury, provides an important downstream water-supply, as well as nourishing recreation on the Russian River, a fishery, and a small hydro plant. Despite its modest height, 39.6 m, Scott Dam has been a source of controversy and concern since its construction in 1920/21. The reasons are related to the poor quality of its melange foundation, consisting of deformed, fractured shale with blocks of hard graywacke. The melange is contained in a wedge bordered both upstream and down by locally softened serpentinite and on the left side by an active landslide.”
2 HISTORY
“To build the dam, concrete was poured in monoliths starting from the right abutment and working left. Weathered, softened rock on the right abutment was removed by hydraulic monitor to a depth in places as much as 5 meters in a somewhat frustrating effort to find rock of more satisfactory condition than softened, deformed shale. A conspicuous outcrop of hard graywacke was the intended foundation abutment on the left bank. By the end of the 1920 construction season, the dam had not been completed and the rainy season approached. In order to pass the winter storms it was elected to supplement the low level outlet’s discharge capacity by channeling the river to flow around the partially completed concrete on its left end; thus flood discharge would run against the left bank. This contradicted the warning of Stanford geology professor J.e. Branner who, as consultant in 1910, noted that the left abutment included conspicuous “landslips … caused by the removal of the natural supports of the banks”; Branner counseled that this would continue if stream water were allowed to run against the left bank.”
And this…
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/275187122_Evaluating_Safety_of_Concrete_Gravity_Dam_on_Weak_Rock_Scott_Dam
‘Evaluating Safety of Concrete Gravity Dam on Weak Rock: Scott Dam’
Abstract:
“Scott Dam is owned and operated by Pacific Gas & Electric Co. (PG&E) as part of the Potter Valley Project. Although it is an unimpressive concrete gravity dam [233 m (765 ft) long with maximum water surface 33.4 m (110 ft) above tailwater], the dam has unusually complex and weak foundation rocks; this condition caused design changes during construction, numerous subsequent special investigations, and several corrections and additions. A main stumbling block to clarification of the dam safety issue for Scott Dam has always been difficulty in characterizing the foundation material. This paper discusses an approach to this problem as well as how the safety of the dam was subsequently confirmed, following a comprehensive program of research, investigations, and analysis from 1991 to 1997.”
What about the eel river the Scott dam needs to be removed so that the eel river runs the way it is supposed to . Northern California needs its water to stay in the northern area for the fish and weed
When you go against natural things bad things happen and most of the time it’s not us who pay the price but our children and there children and mabee the plan worked 100 years ago but not now
https://www.pgecurrents.com/articles/3687-water-levels-lake-pillsbury-lower-year
Stop diverting and stealing the public’s Eel River water for the private financial gain of a select few at everyone’s expense!
Scott Dam and the Potter Valley Project are really complicated issues.
Some things not mentioned in this article:
And again, none of this matters now because the dam is an enormous safety risk and liability for PG&E and will surely be removed to mitigate that risk (paid for by PG&E that has made money operating the dam for the past 80 years). You’re making the case for a different dam, one that isn’t obsolete and falling apart.
“Enormous safety risk” is overstating the facts. From PG&E’s press release:
“….Even so, the probability of a seismic event causing severe damage to the dam remains relatively low on an annual basis (estimated to be on the order of a 1-in-900-year event). The most effective means of reducing risk in the near term is to store less water in the reservoir and the most feasible way to store less water is achieved by leaving the spill gates open – which in years past have been closed from April through October. Mitigating risk to seismic performance by reducing the reservoir storage is an action to meet PG&E’s safety standards and those of our dam safety regulators.”
I’m not willing to trust PG&E on safety given their record and it would be foolish to take what they say in a press release as “facts”.
Didn’t this all start with try to shut down the dam because of money? Then used the native American to get it roll more. And now we are using a earthquake get to the ball moving more ? Or are we talking two different things here? Just a little confused ot the matter.
It is time for nature to return and control the fate of the Eel threw natures natural process of time.
White people and their needs are going to be impacted but water rights are only temporary and should not impact the Salmon.
My personal water rights are only temporary as I was informed by the waterboards.
So the people with water rights on the Eel should not impact the Salomon and we should look for water in other places.
Every person regardless of race needs water not just white people.