At the August 15, 2024 meeting of the Redwood Valley Redwood Valley County Water District Board, General Manager Jared Walker reported a sharp drop in water flows into Lake Mendocino after PG&E received permission from FERC to reduce the flow to 5 cubic feet per second. The City of Ukiah and the Ukiah Valley Water Authority have protested this drastic cut, arguing it creates an artificial drought and harms the Russian River. The Board also reviewed recent water use, consolidation with Ukiah, and upcoming audits at their latest meeting.
General Manager Jared Walker reported on the reduced flows into Lake Mendocino. PG&E was granted a variance by FERC to reduce flows through the Potter Valley Project into Lake Mendocino to 25 cubic feet per second, with the option to go as low as 5 cfs. A week after the variance was granted, PG&E dropped the flows to 5 cfs. The City of Ukiah sent a Request for Rehearing to FERC on July 29 , on behalf of the City of Ukiah and the Ukiah Valley Water Authority (which includes Redwood Valley), objecting to the 5 cfs amount. Ukiah’s position is that FERC and PG&E have caused a “manufactured drought,” that is unnecessary in a normal water year. There is no need to reduce the flow that drastically, as it will reduce the lake level, and impact the Russian River below Lake Mendocino.
A lot of water was sold during the recent extreme heat wave. Redwood Valley so far has used approximately 250 acre-feet of water from Lake Mendocino, and 1,000 AF is still available. The Board discussed the weekly email newsletter from Elizabeth Salomone, General Manager, Mendocino County Russian River Flood Control and Water Conservation District. Every week it includes a chart showing the water level in Lake Mendocino. At the meeting Walker said in July the lake was 5,000 acre-feet lower than this time last year. As of this writing, the latest chart in the newsletter shows a level closer to10,000 AF lower than a year ago. (The weekly newsletters are packed full of state and local water information. Sign up here for the weekly email).
There is not much news on the Eel-Russian Project Authority. The Board discussed the Mendocino County Inland Water and Power Commission’s (the entity doing the main negotiating on the ERPA) desire to calculate estimated costs for the water that will come through the new diversion. There is no plan to generate a significant amount of electricity, even though there is a 400 foot drop, because one of the negotiation points regarding building the new diversion is that it will not be under control of FERC. This severely limits the amount of electricity that can be generated. Most equipment in the powerhouse will remain. PG&E previously stated that the transformers need repair, and repair was estimated to cost $10 million.
Consolidation with Ukiah is going well. Office staff from the District met with the City of Ukiah Human Resources staff. It was suggested that a mock payroll be run, so there will not be any surprises when Ukiah takes over the payroll.
The first check has been received from the Small Community Drought Relief Grant Project. This will go towards paying for a new municipal well which has been in the works for two years.
The Board discussed annexation into Mendocino County Russian River Flood Control and Water Conservation Improvement District through LAFCO. A draft Memorandum of Understanding states that the RRFC will handle the process of completing the annexation, and the District will pay 60% of RRFC’s expenses for this. The District is hoping to pay for this using grant funds previously received from the California Department of Water Resources. Permission to reallocate the funds has not yet been received. It is a matter of going up the chain of command at DWR to explain this complicated situation, as so far a junior person has been assigned to the case.
The Ukiah Valley Water Authority meeting went well, and the consolidation is progressing on schedule. Director Bree Klotter wanted to know if costs for the consolidation are being tracked. Walker said so far there haven’t been a lot of costs. There will be expenses for the hired consultant working on merging the billing programs, and the other items, such as installing backflow meters, haven’t yet been billed. The City of Ukiah will run the UVWA. The Willow Water Company management office on Laws Avenue will most likely be maintained because office space is tight at the City. Two District bank accounts will be closed. The approximately $100,000 will be transferred to the general account.
A customer called into the meeting because she received a water bill for over $4,000. She was told by the office staff that the Board Members would have to decide what to do about her situation. Despite not seeing any water or wet spots on her family’s two acres, served by a domestic account from the District, she was told that there was a water leak. The water was shut off. Neither the District employees, nor her husband, could find a leak. Her husband took three days off work and dug up the water lines. The District employees felt that perhaps the leak was under concrete. She can’t afford the $4,000 bill, especially since they couldn’t locate the leak.
Board President Adam Gaska told her that the Board cannot take action on non-agenda items, but that the Board will put this on the agenda for next month. The customer will not incur late fees while the investigation continues. Stay tuned until next month.
Working has begun on the road leading to the pump house at Lake Mendocino. They hope to be able to get a crane truck to the pump station to repair the equipment before winter. Employees were able to access the lake pumps to pump ag water during the July heat wave.
Existing water meters are being replaced. The goal is to finish replacing all meters before the end of the year, when the official consolidation with Ukiah will begin.
The contractor for Energea still has not replaced the solar panels at the water treatment plant. In the meantime, the old panels are in use, and the District is paying reduced fees for power generation.
The District’s auditor will begin the audit of last year’s financials. He will meet with the Board before the end of the year to review the draft audit.
Next month the Board will discuss the Municipal Service Review and Sphere of Influence Report required by LAFCO. The next Board meeting will be on September 19, at 5:00 PM.
5 cfs is 3,231,792 gallons per day diverted.
That’s alot of water, maybe it’s time to stop watering your lawns.
Perhaps get out of the Ag industry all together….they suck the vast majority of water.
Last I checked I think private households use only 4 percent of our collective clean water in the US. The rest is used by industry and ag, with historical water rights.
I say drink water not wine, and grow your grass if you can afford the water bill. The whole saving your shower water thing is insanity.
Exactly.
I believe the water flows all the way to Marin.
P, G, and E is raking in the profits! We’re paying the price and our governor and state legislators won’t reign them in. FERC, CPUC, PGE they don’t care about us.
Per the PGE and the PVP:
My moderately educated guess is that PGE is keeping the flows as low as possible to reduce upkeep costs and the likelihood of litigation from various Eel River stakeholders.
FYI
Points of fact:
PGE may be raking in profits but the PVP is far from the cause of any raking, except for the profits derived elsewhere that are raked into the PVP, as the Right to Abandon or Decommission has not yet been Approved by FERC, thus PGE remains Responsible to the Eel River and Russian River water rights holders.
The FERC license for P-77 does not provide PGE rights to consume or use the water itself for any purpose except generating power as it passes thru the PVP Powerhouse.
They only control the penstocks/valves at Scott and Cape Horn Dams and the Tunnel Inflow to Potter Valley and the Powerhouse outflow…nothing else.
After that, PGE is out of the loop.
Inland Power & Water Commision, Sonoma Water, & City of Ukiah have the Water Rights.
PVP water that reaches Marin is pumped there from Sonoma County to the North Marin & Marin Municipal Water Districts.
The Russian River does not flow into Marin County.
It turns west, northwest of Santa Rosa.
The whole of the PVP is a massive money pit for PGE, especially now that no power is generated.
The PVP generating facility is rated at 9.4Mega-Watts, which may sound like a lot but in modern times this a relative pittance of power for such a wide ranging project with numerous major facilities, enormous upkeep costs, and the major impacts that are primarily upon the Eel River.
Long term average power generation of only 2.9MW.
Scott dam generating facility was never brought online, as originally intended, to power the Lake Pillsbury area.
There’s no way to stay profitable producing power there anymore. Is far too much upkeep costs.