PG&E

Trump administration offers plan to stop dam removal on California river

Kurtis Alexander, SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE

The Trump administration injected a surprising twist into the fight over Northern California’s Eel River on Tuesday, offering up a potential plan to stop the removal of two dams in the basin — though how serious the plan is remains to be seen.

In a social media post, U.S. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said she had been in touch with a Southern California water agency that was interested in buying the Scott Dam in Lake County and Cape Horn Dam in Mendocino County and continuing their operation.

Such a move would run counter to longtime plans by Pacific Gas and Electric Co., the owner of the dams, to remove the facilities as part of the retirement of the century-old Potter Valley hydroelectric project.

Read more at https://www.sfchronicle.com/california/article/trump-river-dams-pge-22218529.php?

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Trump administration intervenes in dispute over future of Potter Valley Project

Phil Barber, PRESS DEMOCRAT

See also the article by the Lost Coast Outpost

Opponents of a plan to remove two Pacific Gas & Electric-owned dams from the Eel River in Lake and Mendocino counties have officially won a huge ally: the Trump administration.

Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins on Friday filed a notice to intervene in the utility giant’s bid to decommission its waterworks in the rural area, which also include a century-old power plant that helps to shunt Eel River water into irrigation canals that support Mendocino County’s Potter Valley and dump into the upper Russian River, boosting supplies for farms and hundreds of thousands of urban dwellers in the North Bay.

PG&E’s application to decommission the so-called Potter Valley Project is being considered by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, or FERC, which oversees licensing of the nation’s hydroelectric facilities.

Read more at https://www.pressdemocrat.com/2025/12/20/trump-administration-intervenes-in-dispute-over-future-of-pges-potter-valley-project/

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Lake County governments opt to delay Sonoma Clean Power expansion

Jeff Quackenbush, NORTH BAY BUSINESS JOURNAL

Lake County’s decade-long consideration of an alternative to Pacific Gas & Electric as the supplier of power to residents and business has been pushed back again.

Both the Board of Supervisors and Lakeport City Council on Tuesday declined to move forward with joining Sonoma Clean Power.

The supervisors failed to secure support to vote on approving the partnership during their morning meeting. And Lakeport’s council members, looking to the county’s move, also opted for more study. That followed the Clearlake City Council’s divided vote Oct. 2 against joining.

The offer required all three to join together. Because of the lead time required by the California Public Utilities Commission for implementing a community choice aggregation power provider in an area, Sonoma Clean Power had been hoping to review Lake County decisions at its November board meeting, allowing service to start in May 2027.

Read more at https://www.pressdemocrat.com/2025/10/22/lake-county-governments-opt-to-delay-sonoma-clean-power-expansion/

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‘Surprise’ drop in Lake Pillsbury water release stokes fears

Amie Windsor, PRESS DEMOCRAT

A planned-for reduction in the amount of water Pacific Gas & Electric Co. is releasing from Lake Pillsbury caught Potter Valley farmers and ranchers off guard earlier this month during a key point in the summer growing and ranching season.

PG&E says stakeholders should have been expecting the dip in water pressure, which occurred on Aug. 5. But Janet Pauli, a rancher who is president of the Potter Valley Irrigation District board, says the utility failed to communicate about the change, which had been quietly approved by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.

“Did we anticipate it? Yeah. But until FERC granted it, there was no reason for us to change what we were doing. Instead of giving us a ‘heads up,’ PG&E dropped their flows extremely rapidly,” Pauli said. “It was a surprise, and for a little while it was a problem.”

As the Potter Valley agricultural community panicked over keeping cattle and crops sated, rumors erupted on social media that PG&E had begun cutting off the water supply from Scott Dam in advance of the structure being torn down as part of the decommissioning of PG&E’s Potter Valley Project, which includes a shuttered hydroelectric power plant.

Read more at https://www.pressdemocrat.com/2025/08/21/surprise-drop-in-lake-pillsbury-water-release-stokes-fears-about-pges-potter-valley-project-decommissioning/

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A to-be-drained lake, a PG&E plan, and the promise and peril of California’s next big dam removal

Amie Windsor, PRESS DEMOCRAT

LAKE PILLSBURY — A cool May breeze lapped across the surface of this reservoir in remote Lake County, where a couple made their way out in a boat across otherwise serene waters, taking advantage of the brightest bit of afternoon sun.

This man-made retreat, four square miles of water impounded by a dam across the upper Eel River, feels durable. It’s filled with hungry trout and black bullhead, prey for the sharp-eyed bald eagles, egrets and herons that hunt these waters.

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.

Read more at https://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/news/potter-valley-dam-pge-mendocino/

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Op-Ed: A two-basin deal is the only solution

Joe Parker, PRESS DEMOCRAT

The Two-Basin Solution shares water resources and restores fisheries, benefiting the Eel and Russian rivers.

Our ancestors have hunted, gathered and fished in the upper Eel River watershed for millennia. They lived in harmony with the river and its surrounding ecosystem, intuitively understanding the intertwined nature of the cycles of the river and the cycles of life itself. Their knowledge of the river has been handed down over time, each successive generation adding to that knowledge and passing on to the next the sacred obligation to protect and preserve the river.

No other sovereign has this connection to the upper Eel watershed. This has been, and will always be, our river. We are the Round Valley Indian Tribes.

In the early 20th century, without our consent, the Potter Valley Project dammed our river and started diverting significant portions to generate electricity, after which the water was made available, at no cost, to users in the Russian River watershed. All the while, our community endured the loss of a critical part of our economy and culture: the decimated Eel River salmon fishery.

These impacts are not limited to a degraded fishery and economic hardship, but also significantly severed our spiritual and cultural connection to the river, leading to a diminished quality of life for members of the Round Valley Indian Tribes, while Eel River water flowed free of charge to benefit Russian River users. Quite simply, the Potter Valley Project dams and the water supply they generated have benefited others while we have paid the costs. This can no longer stand.

Read more at https://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/opinion/sonoma-county-lake-mendocino-russian-eel-river/

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Historic pact reached on future Eel River water flows into Russian River

Mary Callahan, PRESS DEMOCRAT

  • A historic agreement has been reached to manage water flow from the Eel River to the Russian River.
  • The deal establishes limits on diversions, focusing on fish protection.
  • Water rights are transferred to the Round Valley Tribes, supporting river restoration efforts.

Officials from three counties and the Round Valley Indian Tribes have reached a historic agreement that paves the way for continued diversions from the Eel River to bolster flows in the Russian River.

The agreement represents a critical development for anyone whose water comes from the Russian River.

The complex accord resulted from years of negotiations to preserve supplemental flows in the Russian River, the water lifeline for residents, ranchers and wildlife in Sonoma and Mendocino counties. The agreement also supports the restoration and fish recovery in the Eel River, which was crucial to securing support from environmental interests, tribes and Humboldt County residents.

It is, at last, the “two-basin solution” envisioned by regional stakeholders in 2019 and even earlier, when Pacific Gas & Electric first raised questions about whether to continue operating the small, aging hydroelectric plant in Potter Valley through which Eel River flows have been redirected.

The utility is now on track to decommission the plant, tear down Scott Dam, which impounds Lake Pillsbury in Lake County, and Cape Horn Dam 12 miles downstream, where Eel River water has long been diverted.

Read more at https://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/news/eel-river-diversions-russian-river/?ref=moststory

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