Wednesday, November 6, 2024

Danger Looms as Plans to Remove Scott and Cape Horn Dam Progress—Letter to the Editor

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Cape Horn Dam [Photo by Sarah Reith]

Dear Editor-

As plans for the full and expedited removal of the Scott and Cape Horn Dam on the Eel River, Potter Valley move forward, our natural resources are in danger. The larger Scott Dam is located where water is stored at Lake Pillsbury, and the smaller Cape Horn Dam constitutes the creation of the Van Arsdale Reservoir. 

District 2 Congressional candidates Tief Gibbs & Jared Huffman have touted their support for providing an upgraded fish passageway while completely disregarding the impact on stakeholders.

According to their congressional opponent, Chris Coluombe, the dam removal will cost the taxpayers an estimated $500M, constituents and firefighters will face further fire risk due to reduced water availability, and agricultural producers will face the impact of starving our land of water.

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The bulk of tribal voices aside from James Russ, President of the Round Valley Indian Tribes Council have been ignored since the inception of Huffman’s Potter Valley Project Ad-Hoc Committee. Per Redheaded Blackbelt‘On June 17, 2019 the Wiyot Tribe and Round Valley Indian Tribes walked out of an ad hoc committee meeting in solidarity with the Bear River after Bear River, a federally recognized tribe, was asked to leave by Congressman Huffman’s staff’.

Prior to the formation of the Eel-Russian JPA, the Russian River Water Forum represented interests in Sonoma, Mendocino, Lake, and Humboldt Counties. The group’s consultant, Kearns & West includes PG&E, FERC, NOAA and an excessive number of local, state and federal government agencies within their client portfolio.

Following the Tubbs Fire, California’s elected officials lobbied $2M for PG&E with monies intended for the fire victims via Rebuild North Bay. Being that PG&E funds Congressman Huffman’s campaign, is the decision to move forward with the dam removal monetarily influenced and have these business dealings been fully transparent?

Thanks!

Kindest Regards,

Adina Flores

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15 COMMENTS

  1. I agree, yes, follow the money. These politicians do not care about the people and economy of the north bay that depend on our scarce water resource. We have been dependent on those dams for our water storage. We need more water storage, not less.

  2. this opinion piece is pretty vague around what specifically is at issue, or why? one infers the writer is “against” the dam removals, but provides little analysis of pros & cons apart from the most cursory “resistance to change” comments. certainly there is a lot of evidence on the harm that dams have done to fauna, especially breeding salmon, and the benefits of dam removal have been seen elsewhere where these have occured. of course commercial interests (in this case, farmers) want to keep their water supply, at the expense of environmental impacts; isn’t this how the earth got so messed up in the first place? finally the article ends with some vague allusions to corruption, agency overreach, etc…but no real facts or evidence.

    Why/how did this even get published? there seems to be a pretty low bar at Mendofever for getting stuff published.

    • I agree this article belongs in the round file ( trash can) my 11year old could right a 1000% more intellectually stimulating piece and give fair representation of all parties opinions on the dam removal. I honestly have been day dreaming of these dams being removed since I was a toddler. Van Arsdale was practically my back yard for many years and I was born and raised on a ranch with a view of Lake Pillsbury. Mr.Van Arsdale started this mess over 100 years ago and the health of the Eel has been declining since day one of construction. Free the Eel!

    • The issue is that Huffman is working hand & hand with federal, state & local agencies to control our natural resources, while PG&E funds his campaign. Our water resources will dwindle and cause major risks during fire season. The voices of communities of color have been ignored, as Huffman speaks on their behalf. These decisions are driven monetarily & are detrimental to the stakeholders.

      • Communities of color? You’re pandering. Last I checked, white is the majority of people in Mendocino County. Aren’t communities of color and all other racial backgrounds equal in this? They aren’t diverting water away from one tribe or one neighborhood, it’s the whole damn community. We’re in this together, stop trying to create something that isn’t there.

        • You’re not understanding that this effects multiple counties. We are already located on stolen land, and the tribal voices have not been fully included in this process. Thank you for further proving my point.

          • Tribal voices are leading much of the discussion. The only reason why Bear River folks were asked to leave that Ad Hoc meeting back in 2019 is because they had showed up unannounced. If they had simply requested to join and provided the names of representatives they would have been welcome.

            Check out this video from the last meeting of the Russian River Water Forum to see presentations from a wide range of Tribes discussing their interest in protecting the environment.

            And of course Huffman is working with fed, state, and local agencies to make this transition successful. That is his job.

            Oh – and have you seen the statement from CalFire about their lack of concern losing Pillsbury as a firefighting resource – they site Clear Lake as a fine alternative.

  3. I used to think Congressman Jared Huffman was in favor of restoring more salmon habitat. Now I think he is favoring PG&E’s lobbying. Something is up with taking down Scott Dam when such an action has the same cost as repairing it, and allowing most of the counties in his district to have much-needed water.

      • Actually Scott dam does not need repairing. It needs a group of concerned people that have received water for 100 years for free to come together and take over running the dam operation. (Bad pun) Then PG&E wouldn’t have to remove the dam and spend $500+ million. I’m sure they would agre to that. Then invest in a fish diversion process if they care about the last 2 miles of the eel above the dam for the salmon and save $500 million.

  4. The new Eel-Russian Project Authority has five board members, 2 of which represent Sonoma County interests. The Round Valley Indian Tribes (who occupy a completely separate branch of the Eel River) also have a seat on the Board. If the Sonoma County interests form an alliance with the Round Valley Tribes, they will be able to control the activities of the new agency, which could be detrimental to Southern Mendocino County Water Interests. Sonoma County Water has just secured a $2 million dollar grant to advance a plan for a “fish-friendly” water diversion from the Eel River to the Russian River. Sonoma and North Marin County water users are worried about their water supplies, especially if there are no more transfers from the Eel. Based on my limited knowledge, the only public agency with actual water rights for Eel River diversions at the Van Arsdale dam is the Potter Valley Irrigation District. And I know of no Sonoma County Water rights that extend upstream beyond Lake Mendocino. Sonoma County Water has a long history depleting Lake Mendocino water while keeping Lake Sonoma fuller. So this feels as though the camel has just got its nose under tent. I think our local representatives need to find a high-power water rights attorney to be sure that nothing is given up without fair and reasonable compensation, and that water users in the upper Russian River area receive adequate allocations.

    • Sonoma County wants to keep Lake Mendocino relatively full even during years of the most severe drought, and I figure you are correct there are no water rights to divert from the Eel to keep this lake up. But they’ll do it anyway. How will they decide how much will be allowed to be diverted during a drought year? In 2021 Lake Mendocino was so low. My understanding is that more water cannot be released from Lake Sonoma (Warm Springs Dam) because of the downstream fish habitat. That project was a bust, not delivering on it’s intended purpose. Maybe I’ll try to do a little research into what Sonoma Water claims their water rights are. They have a right to control, within limits, Lake Mendocino releases but beyond that I don’t know.

  5. The bigger issue here is that there is a real lack of acceptance and understanding of the surface and groundwater resources in the Russian River Watershed, partially due to the Eurocentric lens and perception of unlimited natural resources we were brought up on. This is not a Mediterranean climate (there are no redwood trees in the Mediterranean) there are many distinct micro climates in the watershed, with annual precipitation levels ranging from 12″ to over 40″. There needs to be realistic surface and ground water budgets based on what a healthy watershed can provide, not what is demanded by unsustainable systems.

  6. Not sure how anyone would perceive those silted up dams as a threat at removal. A temporary nuisance well planned for by Federal , State, County , Cities, and Private, hydrologists, geologists, biologists, microbiologists environmentalist, and resource boards. Threat, after twenty years of timeline management and scientific endeavor.
    A threat to a few water skiers I suppose.

    The opinion piece appears purposely vegue regarding the actual voices and their intent. Many first Nations groups have taken the position of being removal and simple stopped much commenting once removal was the choice. Unfortunately the Huffman character came out of the woodwork once developed money started flowing. He became involved in subsidizing the tunnel and dam. Follow the bucks.

    The writer of opinion would like us to believe The sky is falling , the sky is falling.

    Oh no, Santa Rosa will no longer be able to Crap in the water from the Eel.

    What a terrible tragedy. The Eel river water will go down the Eel River and the Russian River water will go down the Russian River.
    Will the Gods ever let the Sun shine again.

    You mean migrating fish will have access to the entire Eel. Won’t they all get lost and fish as we know them will cease to exist.

    Will Elk wander wildly and feel totally abandoned. Think of the cost of therapy recover their list self esteem.

    Don’t get me started on the poor Klamath. there’s been swimming holes lost. Oh the Humanity of it all.

    HumOns, screw up the environment and then declare that’s how the environment was meant to be.

    We have Egos of unimaginable proportions.

    On a more serious note these Dams are from a different time of real unknowing. The limited power is not cost effective. Silt levels have become problematic. Hundreds of miles of impaired water are being freed to accept rehabilitation as habitat. Piece by piece society has learned better methods with less negative impacts to maintain Human needs.

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MendoFever Staff
MendoFever Staff
Editor's Note: Whenever an article's byline reads "MendoFever Staff", the contents of that article were not composed by any of our reporters. Types of writing that will be attributed to "MendoFever Staff" include press releases, letters to the editor, op-eds, obituaries— essentially writing that is not produced by a reporter.

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