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.
– Written by Mo Mulheren, the Second District Supervisor for the County of Mendocino and the county’s alternate commissioner on the Mendocino County Inland Water and Power Commission.