Potter Valley Project – Enviro Updates

Trump administration offers plan to stop dam removal on California river

April 21, 2026

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.

WaterEel River, endangered species, PG&E, Potter Valley Project, Russian River

Riverside water district interested in taking over Potter Valley Project

April 21, 2026

LOST COAST OUTPOST

Statements From PG&E and Friends of the Eel on SoCal Agency’s Potter Valley Dam Bid

This morning, Brooke Rollins, the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture, tweeted that a potential buyer has expressed interest in taking over the two dams near the headwaters of the Eel River, in Mendocino and Lake Counties.

That buyer is the Elsinore Valley Municipal Water District, which serves around 160,000 residential and commercial users in western Riverside County.

It’s not yet clear how serious the district is, or why it wants to assume water and power operations far from the customers it serves, but in her tweet Rollins celebrated the fact that a buyer could potentially disrupt PG&E’s efforts to abandon the dam system, which hasn’t produced power in many years and has been massively inefficient for many more.

WaterEel River, endangered species, Potter Valley Project, Russian River

Round Valley Indian Tribes respond to Trump administration’s attempt to thwart Eel River dam removal

January 31, 2026

Amie Windsor, PRESS DEMOCRAT

James Russ and Joseph Parker, the former and current presidents of the Round Valley Indian Tribes, are seeking to make their reservation healthy again.

That means helping their people, they say, and specifically tackling high rates of diabetes and obesity that affect their tribal nation and many other Indigenous communities.

It also means restoring their land and the river that has been intrinsically linked with their people for millennia.

“We are Native people tied to the resources and rhythms of the Eel River,” Parker said. “Our health is connected to the river.”

Now, the tribal nation is confronting the Trump administration over the river’s future and fighting some of its regional allies to reclaim water rights that have been overlooked for a century.

Water, WildlifeEel River, endangered species, Potter Valley Project, Russian River, salmon, salmon habitat, Scott Dam, water diversion

Op-Ed: If feds want Potter Valley dams, they should buy them

December 28, 2025

PRESS DEMOCRAT EDITORIAL

President Donald Trump’s California derangement syndrome is back as his administration tries to prevent PG&E from removing aging dams in the Potter Valley Project.

Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins has moved to intervene in the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission process to determine whether PG&E may tear down two dams and a mothballed powerhouse. Rollins wants FERC to deny the application.

Agriculture secretaries often get involved in these sorts of proceedings. Major changes to watersheds can impact farmers, after all. What is unusual in this case is that in supporting irrigators, a supposedly pro-business administration undermines private enterprise.

PG&E wants to surrender its license for the hydropower system on the Eel River because it now costs more than it is worth. The dams and powerhouse are more than a century old and are nowhere close to meeting modern standards. They require costly repairs and upgrades to remain safe. PG&E absorbs those costs, and no doubt passes some onto ratepayers.

Water, Wildlifedams, Eel River, endangered species, Potter Valley Project, Russian River, salmon, salmon habitat

Trump administration intervenes in dispute over future of Potter Valley Project

December 20, 2025

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.

Water, WildlifeEel River, endangered species, PG&E, Potter Valley Project, Russian River, salmon

‘Surprise’ drop in Lake Pillsbury water release stokes fears

August 21, 2025

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.

Agriculture/Food System, WaterLake Pillsbury, PG&E, Potter Valley Project, water diversion

PG&E files application to decommission Potter Valley Project

July 25, 2025

Amie Windsor, PRESS DEMOCRAT

The utility formally has filed its plans to shut down the two Northern California dams and century-old powerhouse that comprise the project.

Pacific Gas & Electric Co. has filed its formal plans with the federal government to decommission the Potter Valley Project, which includes two dams and a century-old powerhouse that together have helped connect the Eel and Russian River watersheds to provide water to cities and farms for generations.

The filing marks another step in the power company’s multiyear effort to divorce itself from the two-dam system — Scott and Cape Horn dams — that PG&E officials say has been operating at a deficit of $1 million a year.

“Today’s filing marks the next step of a thoughtful and transparent decommissioning journey for the Potter Valley Project — but it does not change our operational responsibilities or obligations,” Dave Gabbard, vice president of power generation for PG&E, said in a press release.

If approved by the feds — no such request has ever been denied — plans would kick into motion the next large dam removal project on the West Coast.

WaterEel River, endangered species, Potter Valley Project, Russian River, salmon, salmon habitat, Scott Dam