… Removing the Scott Dam, alongside the removal of the
smaller Cape Horn Dam downstream, both on the picturesque Eel
River, is part of PG&E’s plan to retire a century-old
hydroelectric operation known as the Potter Valley Project,
which the company says has gotten too expensive to run.
… Downstream communities along the Eel River as well as
environmental groups and tribes have cheered dam removal as a
way to restore the river’s natural flows. Long-declining salmon
and steelhead runs stand to benefit from the
restoration. At the same time, the plan has raised
concerns about power and water supplies in Northern California.
… Much less talked about is the fate of Lake Pillsbury.
The various and competing interests surrounding the Potter
Valley Project have now come together in an agreement that
Humboldt County has signed onto. … Approved by Humboldt’s
Board of Supervisors at its July 22 meeting, the agreement
charts the removal of Scott Dam and Cape Horn Dam, as well as
the continuation of water diversion through a new facility
built and operated by a new joint powers authority (JPA).
PG&E now operates the Potter Valley Project (PVP) but is
getting out of it and will submit a decommissioning plan to the
Federal Energy Regulatory Commission by July 29. … The
agreement supports a transfer of PG&E’s water rights to the
Round Valley Tribe, which will lease the rights to the new JPA.
In addition to lease payments, the JPA will make separate
payments into an Eel River Restoration Fund.
This special, first-ever Foundation water tour will only be offered once! 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
