For more than a century, water from the Eel River has flowed through PG&E’s Potter Valley Project into the Russian River watershed, filling Lake Mendocino, supporting farms in Potter Valley, and supplying homes and businesses across Mendocino, Sonoma, and Marin counties. PG&E has decided it no longer wants to operate the Potter Valley Project and has filed a plan to decommission it, including removing Scott Dam and Cape Horn Dam. That wasn’t a decision made by Mendocino County or our local water districts, but our responsibility now is to make sure water continues flowing to our communities and that the infrastructure controlling it stays in local hands, not in the hands of an outside investor.
Some have asked why we don’t just fight to keep Scott Dam and Lake Pillsbury in place. I understand why people ask that question. Lake Pillsbury is important to many people, and losing a lake that has existed for more than 100 years is a big change. But the reality is more complicated than simply deciding that we want to keep it. PG&E owns the project and has decided it no longer wants to operate it. We can’t force a private company to continue maintaining an asset it no longer wants, and no other public agency or private company stepped forward to take over the existing project.
But PG&E is only one part of this conversation. The Eel River has its own communities, tribes, fisheries and environmental interests that have to be part of any solution. Tribes along the Eel River have advocated for restoration of the river and its fisheries for generations, and whatever comes next has to recognize that the Russian River watershed depends on this diversion while the Eel River watershed has legitimate interests of its own…