Turnout was sparse for Pacific Gas and Electric’s July 1 Open
House at Eagle Peak Middle School in Redwood Valley — a missed
opportunity for local residents to meet directly with PG&E
leadership, including North Coast Regional Vice President Dave
Canny. The event, held inside the school’s gymnasium, featured
a range of informational booths on wildfire prevention,
vegetation management, customer support programs, and updates
on the Potter Valley Project. Representatives were stationed
around the room to answer questions and share materials with
attendees. PG&E’s plan to decommission the Potter
Valley Project was a key topic. Tony Gigliotti, PG&E’s
Senior Licensing Project Manager for Power Generation, was
available to explain the utility’s surrender application and
decommissioning timeline. … When asked about the lack of
silt mitigation plans, PG&E stated that those details would
be addressed during the upcoming environmental review
process.
When it comes to the planned decommissioning of PG&E’s
Potter Valley Project ― the hydroelectric power plant and two
related dams in Northern California ― there seem to be two
schools of thought in Sonoma County. One: Save the dams,
at all costs. … Two: Accept the inevitable, at all costs. …
Now, as Pacific Gas & Electric Co. prepares to file its plans
by July 29 to the federal government to decommission the
project, the rift between those two schools is widening. The
chasm was on display during a July 1 town hall hosted by the
Sonoma County Farm Bureau at the Finley Community Center in
Santa Rosa. … The questions revolve around how hundreds
of thousands of customers would continue to have access
to water once PG&E stops diverting water from the
Eel River to the Russian River ― a move that is likely still a
decade away.
… To many of its visitors, and the several hundred people who
live along its 31-mile shoreline deep within the sprawling
Mendocino National Forest, Lake Pillsbury is the region’s
heartbeat. But Scott Dam, at the foot of Lake Pillsbury, and
another, smaller dam on the river 12 miles downstream, have
also become a headache for Pacific Gas & Electric Co., which
owns both dams. And that’s creating a controversy that’s drawn
interest from everyone from those who live on Lake Pillsbury,
to North Bay communities whose water supplies are linked to
both dams, to federal agencies now under control of President
Donald Trump. … PG&E is on track to decommission
those dams, and under a historic agreement reached earlier this
year, both are being slated to be torn down in what would be
the nation’s next big dam removal project, freeing up the
headwaters of California’s third longest river to help revive
its troubled salmon and steelhead trout runs.
… For more than a century, hydroelectric dams have diverted
water through the valley from the northward flowing Eel River’s
watershed to the southerly Russian River’s east fork, where the
two wind within a mile of each other near the Lake County
border. The local ecology, economy and culture have adapted
accordingly. Now that the alteration is no longer
profitable, Pacific Gas & Electric is looking to undo the
diversion by removing the dams, with potentially devastating
ramifications for the communities that have grown to depend on
the water they store and divert. … A coalition of
considerable political force has aligned behind PG&E’s
effort to relinquish its license for the Potter Valley
Project. Environmental nonprofits, tribal
representatives and elected officials, including Rep. Jared
Huffman, have endorsed the removal of Scott Dam, citing seismic
risk, fish habitat restoration and historical justice for the
Round Valley Indian Tribes as core motivations.
The vastly different viewpoints around whether or not the
Potter Valley Project should be decommissioned — and dismantled
— took center stage at a special event in Lakeport at the end
of May. The Lake County Chamber of Commerce hosted the Lake
Pillsbury and Potter Valley Project town hall on the evening of
Wednesday, May 28, at the Soper Reese Theater in Lakeport. The
Potter Valley Project includes the Potter Valley powerhouse,
Cape Horn Dam and Van Arsdale Reservoir, Scott Dam and Lake
Pillsbury. Pacific Gas and Electric Co. has operated the
project for decades but in 2019 the corporation abandoned its
license for the hydroelectric facility after determining it was
“uneconomic” for its customers to maintain. The negotiations
about the future of the project, and in particular Lake
Pillsbury — located in northern Lake County — have seen Lake
County largely sidelined by larger regional and political
interests.
This special, first-ever Foundation water tour will not be offered every year! Join us as we examine water issues along the 263-mile Klamath River, from its spring-fed headwaters in south-central Oregon to its redwood-lined estuary on the Pacific Ocean in California.
Running Y Resort
5500 Running Y Rd
Klamath Falls, OR 97601
