BREAKING: Trump admin to review Potter Valley Project dam removals
There’s been a massive development in Northern California's latest water wars.
The Trump administration has stepped into a David-and-Goliath struggle in Northern California where agricultural communities are fighting to preserve the Potter Valley Project, a 100 year-old hydroelectric dam system that provides water for 600,000 residents and is slated for removal by Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E).
The Bureau of Reclamation is reviewing funding for the project to “ensure consistency” with President Trump’s day one executive order to remove any “undue burden” on American energy production, according to an April 14 letter to local Aaron Sykes.
“Your February letter is consistent with other perspectives we have heard in recent weeks from the Lake County area, and will be taken into account as the potential for funding to this project is reviewed by agency leadership,” writes acting commissioner David M. Palumbo. “The Bureau of Reclamation is committed to our mission of supplying water and power to the West and will continue to develop strategies to help ensure water supplies for current and future generations.”
Palumbo identified two potential funding sources: the Aquatic Ecosystem Restoration Program and the Inflation Reduction Act. Local political leader Chris Coulombe has previously noted that the latter legislation designates some $550 million for reliable local water infrastructure, among other relevant earmarks.
Coulombe believes the federal government could use the Strafford Act to purchase a private asset from PG&E, which no longer wants it, and manage the dams under the Department of Interior, using funds already federally designated to improve water infrastructure and rural power facilities to make needed upgrades.
“This will likely create more electricity availability for the region, while protecting our water supply and therefore cost of living,” says Coulombe, who calls the effort to save the dams a true “underdog initiative.”
In an statement to SFGATE, Mendocino County Farm Bureau president Estelle Clifton said the federal government’s involvement makes sense, pointing out that one of the dams, Scott Dam, is located in the Mendocino National Forest.
“A sensible outcome of PG&E abandoning their energy project, will be for it to be owned and managed as a federal water use project through the Bureau of Reclamation,” Clifton said.
Northern California’s David-and-Goliath struggle for water
“I’m working on this issue because I’m passionate about keeping a reliable water source needed by 600,000 people,” says Sykes, who serves on the board of the Lake Pillsbury Alliance, a local advocacy group. “I’m hoping Trump will stay true to his word about maintaining and increasing water storage in the West, and direct the Army Corps or Bureau of Reclamation to take over the Potter Valley Project.”
Last month, the Lake County Board of Supervisors asked the Trump administration to intervene in saving the Potter Valley Project. This was followed by a similar letter from a coalition of four local farm bureaus in Lake, Mendocino, Sonoma, and Marin counties.
It’s one of the firsts sign of hope in the community’s desperate grassroots bid for federal relief. A letter writing campaign to an insider at Secretary Doug Burgum’s Department of the Interior (DOI) received a tepid response. In correspondence seen by UNWON, senior advisor to the secretary Scott Cameron said DOI has only “peripheral involvement,” and reiterated that the dam belongs to “private corporation.” In another, Cameron asked a community member, “What precisely would you like the federal government to do in this matter?”
Sykes sent his email through the White House website. He said he expected a boilerplate response.
“I’m grateful that someone actually took the time to read it and send it to the correct government agency to look into it and respond,” he says. Sykes owns a construction company in Santa Rosa and serves as a volunteer engineer and EMR with Lake Pillsbury Fire. “I’m encouraged by the content of the response to see it wasn’t a generic reply.”
Proposed “solutions” leave out the rural and tribal communities most vulnerable in dam removal
At a town hall held in Ukiah earlier this month, Congressman Jared Huffman accused “right wing influencers” of spreading a “fire hose of disinformation” and “politicizing” the dam removals.
Huffman vowed that legislators were working on alternative solutions, including raising Coyote Valley Dam to increase storage at Lake Mendocino. Insiders say this leaves out some of the most impacted rural communities including Potter Valley and Lake County.
“Without the constant year-round diversion water Scott Dam provides, increasing the capacity of Lake Mendocino by raising Coyote Valley Dam seems like a distraction, as there won’t be enough water to fill it,” Sykes says. He points out that Scott Dam is not located in Huffman’s district. “If Scott Dam and year-round diversions remain in place, then I think increasing Lake Mendocino’s capacity is a great idea.”
Sykes says no one, including Huffman, has yet addressed the Potter Valley Project’s role in fighting several of the most deadly fires in state history.
“As a firefighter, we pumped over 5 million gallons of water from Lake Pillsbury while fighting the August Complex Fire. That saved the water trucks a five-hour plus round trip to the next closest lake. Pillsbury was used to fight the Mendocino Complex as well. Both fires were stopped finally at Lake Pillsbury. That’s not a coincidence.”
I am very happy to hear reporting from your area. Please keep it coming
Former Firefighter out of High Rock Camp, mid 1970’s.
Heartfelt congratulations on your status as a Right Wing Ingkuencer! Keep him honest!