PG&E held a town hall webinar on February 6 to present key details from its 2,086-page Final Draft Application for Surrender of License for the Potter Valley Project. The document outlines PG&E’s plan to decommission the hydroelectric facility, which has been operating under an annual license since its previous authorization expired in 2022. The plan also includes a proposal for a new seasonal water diversion system, the New Eel Russian Facility (NERF), to be developed by the Eel Russian Project Authority (ERPA). If approved, this facility would continue diverting winter water flows from the Eel River to the Russian River while allowing for fish passage.
Tony Gigliotti, PG&E’s Senior Licensing Project Manager, explained that PG&E’s Final Draft Application contains two parts. Volume 1 contains PG&E’s Application to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to Surrender its License. Volume 1 also contains a separate request, the Application for Non-Project Use of Project Lands. This asks FERC to authorize the Eel Russian Project Authority to construct the New Eel Russian Facility. The NERF will be a way to divert some water in the rainy season from the Eel River to the Russian River after the Potter Valley Project is abandoned by PG&E. Volume 2 contains the exhibits, reports, and studies supporting the applications.
PG&E is operating the Potter Valley Project under an annual license from FERC. The previous license from FERC expired in 2022. Prior to 2019 PG&E tried to find a new owner for the hydroelectric station at the Potter Valley Project, but there were no takers. FERC was not able to find any entities interested in taking over the license. That began the surrender process by PG&E. FERC does not have the authority to force an entity (such as PG&E) to own and operate a project.
According to Gigliotti, PG&E cannot go back and ask to relicense the project from FERC. In May 2022 FERC asked PG&E to submit an Initial Plan and Schedule to surrender the project, which PG&E submitted in June 2022. That Initial Plan was accepted by FERC in July 2022.
Without the Potter Valley Project, Russian River water users needed to figure out a way to ensure a reliable supply of water, as over 600,000 people have come to rely on the diverted Eel River water that is sent through a tunnel into the East Branch of the Russian River. PG&E is responsible only for decommissioning the Project. It has no obligation to continue diverting water.
In 2019 the Two Basin Solution was created to seek a proposal for a new diversion. The Two Basin Solution was comprised of Sonoma Water, the County of Humboldt, The Round Valley Indian Tribes, California Department of Fish and Wildlife, Trout Unlimited, and The Mendocino County Inland Water and Power Company. The aim was to restore fish passage in the Eel River, while providing water security to the Russian River users.
The Two Basin Solution was succeeded by the Eel Russian Project Authority, a JPA comprised of the County of Sonoma, Sonoma County Water Agency (Sonoma Water), and the Mendocino County Inland Water and Power Commission, with a board seat also assigned to the Round Valley Indian Tribes.
After consulting with engineering and environmental experts, ERPA has selected a design for a new seasonal diversion facility that will allow fish passage to the tributaries upstream of Scott Dam, while continuing to divert water from the Eel River to the Russian.
PG&E continued to find a regulatory pathway for ERPA’s construction of the new diversion, called the Non Project Use of Project Lands. PG&E will ask FERC to give permission to ERPA to construct the NERF diversion, as long as it does not impede PG&E’s decommission plan. The construction of the NERF diversion will need to take place simultaneously with PG&E’s deconstruction of Scott and Van Arsdale dams.
Gigliotti spoke about the two proposed actions. The PG&E proposed action, and the NPUPL proposed action. These are two separate proposed actions, as PG&E will not be involved in constructing or operating the NERF. The “no action alternative” described in the Final Draft Application is not a real alternative, because FERC has demanded a surrender plan. That means PG&E cannot walk away and leave the dams up.
Sonoma Water’s Environmental Resources Division Manager, David Manning, explained that ERPA was formed to administer NERF. ERPA will be responsible for construction permits for the new construction at Cape Horn Dam.
Both PG&E and ERPA will be required to submit many studies, reports, and plans concerning the construction-related impacts to multiple federal, state and local agencies. The majority of the 2086 pages in the Draft Application are these types of studies, performed previously.
Construction is expected to take three seasons. This means three years, but the years may not be consecutive. FERC is only concerned with the safety of the dam removal. Silt is one of the main concerns.
A large hole will be drilled in the dams’ face during the low flow summer season. A plug called an “adit” will be placed in the hole. When the dam is finally ready to be taken down and sediment released, explosives will be used to remove the adit, and all the sediment will wash downstream. This has to be done during a very wet winter when the sediment is guaranteed to wash away. Full riparian restoration is not included in the three seasons, that work will be ongoing.
NERF’s first project will be to remove sediment at Cape Horn Dam, then construct a new pump station, a conduit to the diversion tunnel, and a retaining wall. On the Russian River side of the tunnel, NERF will install an energy dissipation valve to allow water to be discharged in a controlled way into the East Branch of the Russian River. The dewatered area behind Cape Horn Dam will be required to use as a spot for construction of the new NERF facility. Eventually after PG&E’s license is surrendered, those facilities become the responsibility of ERPA to operate. They will not be licensed by FERC.
This will be a fish friendly facility, with screens preventing the fish from going through the tunnel. Water will be pumped rapidly past the fish screen, so the fish won’t enter the tunnel. The design was developed in concert with the Eel River fishery interests and tribes. It will not affect the ecological integrity of the Eel River, according to Manning.
The diversion is designed to work seasonally. During low flow summer season, there will be no diversion of Eel River water. When water is abundant in the winter, a small portion can be diverted to be stored in Lake Mendocino. (Nobody yet knows what will happen during a severe, prolonged drought, and that possibility was not addressed in the webinar). There will be no impediment to lamprey, salmonids, or other native fish above the former Scott Dam and tributaries. The remnants of the spillway and fish hotel at Cape Horn Dam is in the 60% design phase. The intent is not to impede fish passage or recreational use of the river.
PG&E will leave access roads to the Project in place, and will improve these access roads during construction. PG&E will repair the roads its construction equipment uses. There will be no direct impacts to the local airport.
PG&E will leave the Trout Creek Creek Campground in place. Interested parties are invited to bid on operating the campground in the future.
Post removal, PG&E will restore the Eel River and tribal lands, regenerate former reservoir lands behind the dam, and monitor flooding and bridge safety downstream.
PG&E and ERPA will continue to work on management plans after the Final Application is submitted on July 29. The public will be able to view and comment on the management plans before they are finalized.
There will be mitigation plans for wildlife at Lake Pillsbury. Once Scott Dam is removed, the environment will change from a lake to a river. The impacts of this are addressed in the Final Draft Application. There is a potential for an elk management plan.
What is the start date? There is no regulatory timeline. PG&E believes the earliest FERC will respond with an order is 2028. PG&E will need a year or two to begin construction. Estimates are that construction could begin in 2029, at the earliest. There is no regulatory or statutory timeline from FERC.
ERPA will need federal, state and local funding to construct and operate the NERF. There is no specific timeline for raising the funds. The Boards of Sonoma Water and the Inland Water and Power Commission of Mendocino County (members of ERPA) are working to raise funds.
The slides shown on the webinar are available at this link, but the webinar itself was not recorded. PG&E’s website about the Potter Valley Project: https://www.pottervalleysurrenderproceeding.com/. The password is PV_Surrender.
PG&E will collect and review the public comments prior to submitting the Final Surrender Application, but will not respond to individual comments. The public comment period is open until March 3. After the Final Surrender Application is filed with FERC, the public may submit comments to FERC.
Submit comments by email to PVInquiryPGE@pge.com, or mail comments to:
Tony Gigliotti
Senior Licensing Project Manager
Power Generation
P.O. Box 28209
Oakland, CA 94604
Thanks for a clear and detailed report!
“there is a potential for an elk management plan”, so they will kill the herd of over 100? What about the bald eagles, ospreys, beavers, and other fish? Is there a “management plan” for them also? There is no mention that the silt released downriver is contaminated with mercury from the cinnabar mines covered up by Lake Pillsbury. PG&E will monitor flooding downstream, because when we have rain events like we are currently having everyone on the 150 miles of river between Potter Valley and Ferndale will suffer from the flooding. Are they going to restore those communities too? Lake Mendocino and the Russian River do not lack water in the winter months but they do dry up in the summer even on wet years. Without Scott dam there will be no water in this fork of the Eel to help the farmers and vineyards in Mendocino and Sonoma counties water their crops. Why are we going to spend $500 million to decommission and rebuild dams instead of keeping the existing infrastructure and making them fish friendly?
Exactly. This is gonna hurt in ways we have never seen before. Not just agriculture, but every living thing that our rivers and dams support.
Returning our ecosystem to it’s original, undisturbed state is more important than agriculture, drinking water, recreation, and wildfire control
Keep California Wild and Scenic
Yeah, screw the modern world, let humans move back into caves & and take refuge in trees once more!!
Stupid comment.
The modern world is adjusting to the changing climate and this Dam’s decommissioning is one piece of that adjustment.
Monica,
Why in the world would you write such an informative article and leave out why Lake County was left out of the discussions and deliberations? After all, Lake Pillsbury, Scott Dam and most of the Eel River above Scott Dam are located on Lake County.
Ya’ll can thank your ancestors for this predicament. I know it hurts, but this are the ramifications of Global Industrial Culture. It doesn’t just hurt the earth and the animals, eventually it comes around to you in this CIRCLE. You’re not separate AND you’re not special!! You’re greedy!! Infected!! Delusional and cognitivly dissonant. An empire was built on quicksand and ya’ll are still trying to defend the shoddy construction.
Crying about loosing introduced Elk? Why? How hypocritical?! In the same breath you don’t care about the river and fish? You’re being selectively speciesist. The contradiction is asinine.