Congressman Jared Huffman launches "investigation" into efforts to save Potter Valley dams
Rep. Jared Huffman threatens the community fighting for their water they should "come clean" now, before his party retakes the House.
Congressman Jared Huffman (D-California) has launched an “investigation” into efforts to save the Potter Valley Project, a 100-year old dam system PG&E plans to demolish and upon which 750,000 residents—largely in Huffman’s district—rely.
His investigation was predicated by the announcement that a Southern California water district may be interested in purchasing the dams, resuming hydropower production and continuing water deliveries for farms, ranches, and residential users along the North Coast.
Huffman sent demand letters to Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins and Interior Secretary Doug Burgum as well as to the prospective buyer, the Elsinore Valley Municipal Water District (EVMWD), calling for records and information about efforts to acquire the dams.
Huffman’s office did not return a request for comment.
Huffman has previously described dams as unwanted: “They tried to give this thing away, nobody wanted it.”
Previously, Huffman has said the dams were for sale but unwanted.
“PG&E offered all of this up for sale several years ago,” he told a crowd of constituents at a Ukiah town hall in April 2025. “Nobody wanted it. Nobody was dumb enough to buy a project that they could lose $6 million a year on.”
He said seismic issues have rendered the dam unsafe, and would require “many more millions of dollars a year in money nobody has” to repair.
“So look, they tried to give this thing away, nobody wanted it,” Huffman said.
Now that a buyer has emerged, he is describing the potential purchase as a Southern California water grab.
“The Trump team just admitted they are plotting a massive water grab,” he said in a video posted to his Instagram account. “They are pushing a scheme to force PG&E to sell its water rights and infrastructure on the Eel River in my district to a Southern California water district that wants more water supply.”
He said the move was designed to target him.
“Trump sees this as a way to troll liberals in Northern California like me and governor Gavin Newsom,” Huffman said.
Dam removals are publicly estimated to cost $500 million, though a PG&E insider who asked to remain anonymous says internal estimates put dam removals at $1-2 billion. Huffman’s office confirmed in 2024 those costs will be paid by PG&E customers.
EVMWD board member says they have “no intention” of “stealing water”
EVMWD vice president Darcy Burke says her district is not going to move water the roughly 600 miles from the Eel River to Riverside County.
“We have purchased out-of-area systems before,” Burke said. “We don’t import that water into our service area, we use the sales from that water to offset rates to our customers here. It’s not like it’s a water grab, that’s not the intent, but it is to have an investment in water anywhere in California. Any water infrastructure, it’s like a high tide lifts all boats right? So that’s why we’re here. We believe in supporting the California farmer.”
She says her board is involved because they see the dam removals as “criminal.”
“I have no intention of stealing your water,” Burke said. “No intention of changing how Potter Valley lives. What we want to make sure is that it’s protected, that somebody else can’t come back and want to take down the dams, that whatever water that you need is still affordable.”
Huffman has long history pushing to remove Potter Valley dams
Huffman has long been a vocal advocate for these dam removal. In 2020, he told the Redwood Times-Standard he saw “removing Scott Dam as the only way to achieve the fish goal.”
In a 2022 letter to the chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), he asked that the dam removal process move forward “expeditiously.”
“The PVP has outlived its usefulness as a hydropower project, but it presents a compelling opportunity for environmental justice and restoration,” Huffman wrote.
Huffman said in a 2014 profile his interest in politics began with opposition to water infrastructure. The article states that Huffman read a book which argued that “overdevelopment of water resources in the American West has caused enormous environmental damage.” This view made Huffman “deeply interested in water issues” and ultimately “drove the young attorney to enter politics.”
Federal government intervened at request of local community
Rollins took action to find a solution preventing dam removals at the request of the community, following a September 2025 letter signed by over 900 farmers, ranchers, tribal leaders, and residents asking for help. The Agriculture Secretary responded in December.
“The Trump administration is listening, and we are committed to working across the government to protect Potter Valley’s water supply and the communities and prime farmland that it serves,” she wrote.
She met with community members from the region for a roundtable in January, and the next month at an event announcing her efforts to combat lawfare against rural and agricultural communities, cited the dam removals in Potter Valley as an example.
Huffman threatens those involved in saving water project: “Come clean.”
As the ranking Democrat on the House Natural Resources Committee, Huffman warns his investigation will gain firepower if Democrats retake the House next year.
“My message to [the Trump admin] and anyone else involved is: you need to come clean,” he wrote in a Facebook post. “And if that’s a problem, it’s going to be a bigger problem at this time next year.”
