On December 7, 2023, the Russian River Water Forum Planning Group met in Ukiah, facilitated by Ben Gettleman, Jim Downing, and Henry DeRuff of Kearns & West.
On December 5, the Sonoma County Supervisors and the Mendocino County Inland Water and Power Commission voted to create a new Joint Powers Agreement to form the Eel-Russian Project Authority, an entity authorized to negotiate with PG&E regarding takeover of the Potter Valley Project diversion facilities. The proposed redesigned diversion will be called the New Eel-Russian Facility.
The Eel-Russian Project Authority will be governed by a five-member board. Sonoma County, Sonoma Water, and the Round Valley Indian Tribes will each have one seat, and MCIWPC will have two seats, initially filled by Janet Pauli and Glenn McGourty. The other 3 board members have not been announced. The RVIT is not a party to the JPA, but will have a seat on the board. The JPA is a public entity governed by the Brown Act. The meetings will be open to the public.
The August 2023 Proposal to acquire the diversion facilities submitted to PG&E by Sonoma Water, MCIWPC, and RVIT, was revised and has been resubmitted to PG&E. The Revised Proposal adds the following parties: California Department of Fish and Wildlife, California Trout, Trout Unlimited, and Humboldt County.
Scott Dam and Lake Pillsbury are slated for removal. There are three options for Cape Horn Dam. One is total removal, with no diversion of water from the Eel River to the Russian River. The other two options include lowering or removal of Cape Horn Dam with a seasonal diversion.
Pam Jeane, of Sonoma Water, explained that the JPA parties are now working on the design of the new facility and on finding funding. Keeping the diversion open is what the former Two Basin Solution group had intended, with the co-equal goal of restoring the Eel River fisheries and habitat. The Eel-Russian Project Authority must manage to do this without delaying the PG&E deconstruction schedule. According to Sonoma Water’s December 5 press release, PG&E’s final draft surrender application is scheduled to be released in June 2024. The final application is expected to be submitted to FERC in January 2025.
Still to be decided are water rights and funding. Per Jeane, the Water Rights Working Group did not reach a consensus on what the existing water rights are and chose not to release the data, as it could not be confirmed. Allocating water and securing financing are the biggest issues yet to be solved.
Next on the agenda were presentations on the current and future habitat restoration efforts on the Eel River.
Nikcole Whipple, of Save California Salmon, and a member of the RVIT (but speaking solely on behalf of Save California Salmon, as she is not the RVIT representative on the Planning Group), spoke about the legal rights of the RVIT. Tribal water rights are governed by a myriad of state and federal agencies and laws. Whipple said, “The tribes are first in time and first in right.” The Eel River was the third largest salmon-bearing river in California, and it surrounds the RVIT lands. RVIT is comprised of seven tribes that are recognized and “the seven confederated tribes have not relinquished our water rights to our ancestral lands. . . .”
Louis Santana, fisheries ecologist with the Robinson Rancheria Tribe, gave his talk on ecological restoration while holding his toddler son. He had childcare issues, but that did not stop him from presenting. Santana spoke about the Clear Lake Hitch, formerly abundant. The hitch were an important source of food and trade. Santana said, “The natives lived on a fish economy.” Historically, fishing was family bonding and socializing time, and there was enough to go around. The tribe would migrate from Clear Lake to the Coast seasonally, a vast area of importance. The land under Lake Pillsbury was a traditional elk hunting ground. The tribe is already working on scientific projects, including population assessments in the creeks, water quality monitoring, habitat assessments, spawning surveys, and invasive species management.
Stony Timmons, Crew Lead on the salmon and ecological restoration, described projects to restore creeks on Robinson Rancheria lands, including removal of the invasive Himalayan Blackberries, restoring tule reeds, and cultural burning.
Mike Shaver, Environmental Director, Potter Valley Tribe, with lands on the Eel River near the diversion facilities, said the tribe is working with the EPA on creek clean-ups. “When PGE stepped away from creek cleanup, the Potter Valley Tribe stepped up.” There are new monitoring sites for stormwater, runoff, groundwater, river water, and road maintenance projects around Lake Pillsbury, and above the main stem of the Eel.
Anna FarPorte, Environmental Director, Sherwood Valley Band of Pomo Indians, spoke about the tribe’s environmental program to save salmon on Outlet Creek, which flows into the Middle Fork of the Eel River. The tribe is working with the Mendocino County Resource Conservation District on water quality management, pollution monitoring, education, and the creation of a native plant nursery. They are expanding water quality monitoring in Little Lake Valley, a former lake drained to provide cattle grazing. Juvenile salmonids are being collected, and water turbidity is being measured before the dams come down, to compare the data with numbers in future years.
CalTrout’s Charlie Schneider spoke of returning to abundance on the Eel River. A 2010 report commissioned by CalTrout concluded that historically there were between 500,000 and 1 million fish per year in the Eel. This declined precipitously to a current estimate of only about 8,000 Chinook salmon per year. This significant drop is not solely caused by dams, but also by logging, road building, and predation by the Pike Minnow. An experimental weir has been set up on the South Fork of the Eel for Pike Minnow removal. Pike Minnows are voracious predators of juvenile salmonids. The reason CalTrout says dam removal is a priority is that it allows fish to reach the cool headwater habitats. Last year a hatchery dam on Cedar Creek in Legget was removed.
Vivian Helliwell, Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations, spoke of her 50 years experience fishing commercially for salmon and crab. Thirty years ago, a family could make a living in the thriving commercial fishing industry. In the 1950s Noyo and Eureka Harbors had large fishing fleets. “Now it’s like a ghost town,” said Helliwell. Many people went out of business when the government closed fishing on the Eel. Sport fishing on the world-class Eel River was a driver of the economy, supporting hotels, restaurants, gear shops, and fishing guides. She believes the fish can rebound, but they need cold water at the right time of year.
Craig Bell, former river guide and commercial fisherman, publicly commented about the Pike Minnow. The serious loss of salmon harvest began in 1994. It is estimated that the Pike Minnow will eat 30% of all smolts in the Eel. Bell said that a bait bucket of Pike Minnow was dumped into Lake Pillsbury in the 1970s, started breeding, and were washed into the Eel River during high flows. (This explanation of how the non-native Pike Minnow wound up in the Eel is also posted on the Potter Valley Irrigation District website.) Bell accused the CDFW of dragging their feet in catching and killing Pike Minnow. Bell said “The Eel River is like Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring,” and “I hope to live long enough to see a young man go down to the Eel River and catch a salmon to feed his family.”
Jeane concluded the meeting by announcing that funding for the Russian River Water Forum was running out, and Sonoma Water did not receive grant funding to continue. Working Groups will no longer meet. There will be one or two more Planning Group meetings to discuss PG&E’s expected revised draft, to be scheduled sometime next spring. The RRWF made progress in bringing all parties together and identifying common ground. Jeane expects that the RRWF website will stay up after the group disbands so that the information gathered to date will be available. RRWF Planning Group meeting videos and presentations are available here.
The Eel-Russian Project Authority does not yet appear to have a website. Information in the meantime will most likely be announced by Sonoma Water or MCIWPC.
Previous Coverage
I can’t even read these articles anymore about Lake Pillsbury. I just skip over them now because I get so aggravated reading them. Reading about the elimination of the dams and the loss of the lake. I was half raised up there. The biggest goal in my life now is to leave California. Losing Lake Pillsbury is pretty much the nail in the coffin for me. I’m done explaining why. I’ve given my 2 cents on this platform over and over till I’m blue in the face. California – you can have it. I’m out of here as soon as finances permit it. Hopefully Tennessee bound. You won’t miss me nor will I miss you.
why no coverage of the Lake Co. BOS meeting on Dec 8th for a different point of vue.
I find the statement that past water rights is not clear and not released or validated…yet then a list of whom is first on the list, to get water rights, is mentioned?
This tells myself..in my opinion. That is what this dam removal, is all about. Bears, deer, trout, otters, eagles, turtles, regional birds, all use Pilsbury when summer ends in drought times. I’ve seen all this wildlife myself, on the banks. The good deeper water goes downstream…so they go away. This wildlife, doesn’t matter, to anyone but me? There is other ways to save salmon. But no one wants to see alternatives. Or save the dam, which saves the lake. If water goes away, and future droughts continue..as they always do. It will be a ecological disaster for the above wildlife, as hot August endings, will leave the region, waterless. It’s about water control going downstream. Nothing else.
Yes exactly. What about the 500 elk that live around the lake? When the lake is gone they will migrate somewhere. Most likely into lake county and potter valley and start destroying ranch land. More than they already do.