Amid pleas to ‘Santa Trump,’ dam removals stay on track as feds rule out takeover of PG&E’s Potter Valley plant
Federal government intervention is seen as a last resort for residents who oppose the proposed decommissioning and new water diversion facility to be built as Scott and Cape Horn dams are to be torn down.
Despite pleas from leaders of regional farm bureaus, Lake County and communities including Cloverdale and Lake Pillsbury, President Donald Trump’s administration says it has no intention of assuming control of the Potter Valley hydroelectric power plant that’s slated for decommissioning by PG&E.
The decommissioning, if approved, is likely at least a decade away and would involve tearing down the Cape Horn Dam in Mendocino County and Scott Dam in Lake County. This would alter the flow of the Eel River to the Russian River, with a new multimillion-dollar diversion facility routing water from both the Eel and Russian watersheds to Marin, Sonoma, Lake and Mendocino counties.
Many North Coast elected officials and residents strongly oppose the plan, insisting it might not provide the four counties with enough water ― especially during dry, summer months punctuated by fire risk. They also worry about the impact on Lake Pillsbury, which would shrink significantly with Scott Dam’s removal.
Potential intervention by branches of the federal government ― especially the Bureau of Reclamation, which oversees dams and water management issues under the U.S. Department of the Interior ― has been seen as a last resort for officials who want to maintain existing conditions.
“The Bureau of Reclamation has a lot more bandwidth. They could take responsibility,” Adam Gaska, executive director of the Mendocino County Farm Bureau said recently. “We’re looking to Santa Trump … to be willing to invest. We are at our last hour here.”
Despite the back and forth, Peter Soeth, acting chief of public affairs for the Bureau of Reclamation, told The Press Democrat on Friday that the federal branch “does not have and is not seeking authority from Congress to own or operate the Potter Valley project.”
That now puts a spotlight on the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, which must sign off on PG&E’s decommissioning plan.
Messages to FERC about the decommissioning process were not immediately returned. But a FERC handbook notes the decommissioning process is lengthy … and could pave the way for the removal of the dams.
“Hydroelectric projects under the [FERC’s] jurisdiction cannot be simply abandoned; surrenders must be approved … in order to ensure public safety and any needed environmental protection,” the handbook reads.
It adds that surrender applications must include a plan “describing the planned disposition of project facilities; an environmental report that describes the existing environment in the project area, environmental effects that are expected to occur upon surrender, and any measures that would be taken to mitigate those effects.”
Strong differences of opinion
Part of the decommissioning plan includes a key component agreed upon in February: a water diversion facility and diversion schedule called the two-basin solution. It would be managed by the newly formed Eel-Russian Project Authority.
The diversions rely on the installation of a new diversion facility called a NERF, or New Eel-Russian Facility, to be built as the Cape Horn Dam is to be removed. When finished, the facility would divert between 30,000 and 40,000 acre feet of water annually during high flows.
That is roughly equivalent to current flow rates, officials with Sonoma Water, the county’s water agency, say.
Many elected and community leaders just aren’t buying that, though.
Several sent letters to the Trump administration over the past three months requesting that the federal government intervene on their behalf.
“The removal of the Scott Dam threatens the region’s water accessibility, economic stability and disaster preparedness,” an April 4 joint letter from the Mendocino, Lake, Sonoma and Marin County farm bureaus to the Trump administration said. “Preserving the Potter Valley Project is the desired outcome to maintain our water supply, allowing Mendocino, Sonoma and Marin counties to continue receiving this water, serving over 600,000 people.
“Communities were built based on this water supply, and communities will be ruined should it go away.”
The Department of the Interior’s acting commissioner, David Palumbo, responded to another letter sent by the Lake Pillsbury Alliance, saying it would look at a December 2023 grant award to Sonoma Water through the Aquatic Ecosystem Restoration Program.