The decommissioning of the Potter Valley Project is one of the most complex issues I’ve ever reported on, and until now, I’ve hesitated to cover it. The debate over removing the Eel River dams pits environmental restoration against the livelihoods of thousands who rely on diverted water. Advocates argue that freeing the Eel will allow salmon and steelhead to thrive, reversing a century of ecological harm. But on the other side, farmers, ranchers, and entire communities in Mendocino, Sonoma, and beyond depend on that water for agriculture, drinking supply, and local economies. It’s a fight where both sides claim moral high ground, and no easy answers exist.
Through my lens as a journalist, I try to weigh issues with a utilitarian perspective—what benefits the most people? And when I break it down that way, the sheer number of lives impacted by decommissioning compared to the ecological gains of a free-flowing Eel River raises difficult questions. How do we balance the need to restore a river’s natural ecosystem with the water security of entire communities? Do the benefits of dam removal justify the upheaval it will bring to farmers, ranchers, and local economies? Reporting on this has forced me to confront the tension between environmental ideals and human necessity, and I’m left wondering — what does the greatest good really look like in this case?
Read my coverage of the Potter Valley Project here.
Matt, your SF Gate article was great! It really explains all sides of this complex situation. I pray that our water can somehow keep flowing for the people who really need and rely on it, not to mention, the firefighters who depend on our man made lakes to fight the fires that will continue.
Terrible article that misses out on the big news of two weeks that Eel and Russian groups reached a deal to remove the failing dams and build a new diversion and that the state of California is investing millions to help support water supply for the Russian. I don’t understand how you can write about this issue and miss that point. No one wants PG&E’s broken dams, but there is a path to continued water supply.
Ryan exactly. It’s the only topic in mendofever of late, so passe. Just like the Palace hotel. A bunch of old people getting riled up over nothing.
I’d just like to point out that from an environmental perspective, it isn’t so much about undaming the river, it’s about the reverse watershed situation that is almost NEVER mentioned. Why would we increase our dependency from a false source? This is what happens when you suckle from a corporations tit
The communities along the Eel have been waiting decades to have these dams removed. We miss out an an estimated $5 billion in fishing tourism while vineyard are being ripped out all over the state due to the decline in wine sales. The fish are struggling to recover all over the west coast. Your clickbait headlines do nothing but lead people to second guess decades of work by the various parties involved. They have finally come to a 2 basin agreement. Why are you trying to stir up drama around this? Why now? Stay out of it.
Because this is the mendofever. Not to be confused with yellow fever. >o<…
Yellow journalism? Please. Reporting on a historic water deal isn’t ‘stirring up drama’—it’s called doing the job. If facts make you uncomfortable, that’s not my problem.
Let’s start with a better narrative. Who is going to pay for this 100 year old Dam and its ongoing maintenance? Wine sales are drying up and Cannabis is, well, you know not exactly yielding results for Mendo or Lake county.
The answer is no one. The dams were available, no one wanted them. Water users are moving forward with a new diversion that can meet their needs for a fraction of the cost.
Sounds like new costs I.e. not free.
Yes, No public or private entity has stepped forward to invest in the Lake Pillsbury damn. The 100 plus year old dam needs constant and substantial maintenance. If it fails during extreme wet weather the downstream damage would be significant.
One item that rarely gets mentioned is that in dry years recently the Eel has completely stopped flowing to the ocean.
That has nothing to do with Lake Pillsbury, which has the existed for more than a hundred years.
Could it have to do with illegal diversions of water from a certain type of grower in Humboldt county? Hmmmm.
Does thou barkest up the proper trees?
What is the largest and current threat to a fully flowing Eel?
Scott Dam is located far up the river almost to its origin. 97% of the fish habitat is still accessible. A relatively small amount was blocked by the dam.
Installing a fish ladder at Piillsbury would cost a fraction of the amount needed to eliminate the dam and its water storage. This region does not have enough stored water during druoughts.
I don’t think the best solution has been identified yet.
Are special interests controlling this discussion and project? Is everyone represented at the table? Doesn’t seem like it.
The Eel did not dry up, it was flowing under the gravel
Couple facts there was 75 cfs of water getting diverted to the Russian river, That is 33,660 gallons per minute, that is 2,019,600 gallons per hour, that is 48,470,400 per day.
The state told cannabis farmers to get a SIUR for surface water diversions, with no direct diversions from April till November, so that
means they need to store every drop for the season, unless they have a well they can prove is
not hydrologicaly connected, These are the strictest rules in the whole state.
With that said I want to see lake Pillsbury stay a lake I’m just not sure who will pay for it.
Tim, thanks for the clarification on the Eel not drying but running underneath the gravel.
Mr. T may understand that salmon can’t live there either.
There are solutions to problems, addressing all if you look hard enough. Perhaps a channel that doesn’t feed from stored Pillsbury water could be part of a fish ladder solution. Using non-communist cold water.
Just because the Two Basin deal got through with the majority of the public being unaware of the Pillsbury water storage issue doesn’t mean things are over.
The dam still stands. The keyword is now ‘revisiting.’
Lake Pillsbury is fully within the Mendocino National Forest. I’m pretty sure that means Mr. Trump gets to weigh in on all this.
Anyone want to make a guess on what he’ll have to say? He may kinda like dams.
When appropriate they should be torn down. This entire region needs more water storage capacity. An alternative solution should be put in place that retains the needed water storage.
The focus should be on Fish Passage Efforts.
Maybe Mr. T has an ice machine he can lend them. Solar powered preferable.
But seriously, more work should be accomplished so it isn’t an either/or deal.
I like water and salmom.
Be Real your economics are all wrong. PG&E will pay to remove the dams, like they are required to and have been saving for as their dams age out of usefulness and they retire them. They offered the dams up for sale and no one wanted them because they aren’t worth keeping. Water users are moving forward with a new diversion that can meet their needs for a fraction of the cost.
Zero chance the dams stay, it just doesn’t make financial sense for anyone.
Trout and salmon can’t live in warm water. But I wouldn’t expect stupid communists to know that.
Is there a connection between alleged “communist” and “Russian” River?
A little too convenient
President Trump might be stupid but he’s definitely no communist
Ryan, the economics are a factor for sure.
Right now the Marin County water district is hunting for a source of additional stored water and are prepared to pay up. They were never included in discussions.
This effort went through with little public awareness really. Calling it ‘Scott Dam’ was a way to obscure things a bit, far less name recognition.
This region requires more stored water capacity for dry years. A fish passage solution should be put in place, and the needed stored water retained.
Since Lake Pillsbury is within the Mendocino National Forest, people need to be prepared for Trump and the Department of the Interior to weigh in. I’ve heard they have been alerted.
I predict this isn’t over, despite the Two Basin stuff. I’d put the celebration on hold a bit.
The Salmonids of the Eel river are endangered. The dams block miles of spawning habitat. The Russian interests state the need for diversions will cease with their plans to create / improve storage in their own watershed. The dams are in danger of failure due to age and underlying faulting. They are substantially filled in with sediment. Interbasin diversions promote excessive growth in areas. There is every reason to dismantle the dams and stop diversions .
I find it strange that the Humboldt salmon fishing g fleet was murdered by the diversions of the Eel. I grew up in Humboldt and there were basically 2 industries there. Logging and fishing. With the raising of the water temperatures of the river our county lost its second most important industry. No one from the counties that benefited from the diversions shed a tear for their northern neighbors. I have a hard time worrying about them any more than they worried about us. Maybe in a decade or two Humboldt county will once again have a salmon fleet!
Pat, Lake Pillsbury has existed for 120 years.
It is not significantly responsible for the decrease in the number of salmon.
There are so many other factors. Poor logging practices for decades have silted the rivers causing my harm.
Phosphates in the water primarily from fertilizer runoff hurts everyrhing, and causes the blue green algae (cyanobacteris).
All the abalone and kelp offshore of our coast died at one point. Lake Pillsbury didn’t do that either.
Exactly
Pat. Exactly this.
Your comments on the Potter RiverProject are very comprehensive. However, you and every other journalist, public commentary fails to mention the disparity of PG&E’s statements that the project is a money loser for them and post this year a profit of 2.6 billion!
They are constantly demanding rate increases year after year! They have a huge investment in the project and could well afford the necessary infrastructure improvements to bring them up to standard. They are a perfect example of corporate greed. The community’s downstream simply do not understand the true negative impacts they will suffer if the project goes through.
Thank you for your reporting!
There’s no negative. The diversion will be kept. You’re getting worked up over nothing.
It’s not just the diversion continuing in winter months.
It’s the loss of water storage capacity for the dry years. We know it’s a continuing cycle.
Pillsbury holds 6o% the volume of Lake Mendocino. It would be negligent to intentionally eliminate that for a region Which no longer has enough water to meet it’s needs. Newsom has mandated continued building. We need more water storage, not less.
Make a fish ladder work. It costs a fraction of tearing down a needed dam.
We need to think ‘greater good’ and compromise.
Thank God the Trump administration has been asked to intervene in this madness. Maybe he will save like Pillsbury, which is what a majority of people want. I don’t care what the left says or what the right says. Conservative or liberal. It does not matter. We need secure water sources and this one is well established for more than a century. Opening up a few more miles of spawning ground while at the same time releasing thousands of cubic yards of sediment down the river. It just doesn’t make sense. Taking out that damn will not help the salmon population. I don’t care what anybody says. Go visit the Lake from late August till October and see what it looks like. No tributaries are flowing into the lake at that point in the year. The only reason there is water in the river at that time of year below Scott Dam is because it is impounded behind a reservoir. So here we go. I swear most of the people that are for dam removal have never even been to Lake Pillsbury in person. Never camped, never hunted, never fished, never went boating or checked out the entire community that exists around the lake. Small businesses, a National Forest Service Ranger station, a fire department, a 5000 ft. runway and 100s of expensive homes, and hundreds and hundreds of Tule Elk. It’s an entire community and ecosystem all to itself based around this reservoir. It’s like a small town with a year round store. At one point it had a restaurant and a bar and celebrities used to vacation there in the summer. That’s the reason for the runway. Jackie Gleason and Jack Haley, who was the tin man in Wizard of Oz are the ones that developed the Lake Pillsbury Ranch subdivision and built a runway and at one point a pollo field. The rat packs used to vacation there, Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis, Jr, etc. etc. that’s how it got so big in the old days most people don’t even know this about The Lake’s history. Mobsters used to even vacation there with the rat pack. Here I am blue in the face, repeating myself for the last five years
Sense of Place. That’s what will be lost if Lake Pillsbury were to disappear. Sense of Place is an actual term in Geography. And it’s often included in documents such as an EIS or EIR which is required by state and federal law to be considered when reviewing NEPA and CEQA projects. Pillsbury has a whole community around it and it has been visited for a century by thousands and thousands of people that come just to see the lake. Some of them were very famous. I don’t know how many homes are around the lake, but there are hundreds and hundreds. And the store has been there for 50 years or more, 70 years maybe. I don’t know but it will all disappear. My family has been hunting there yearly since the ‘70s. Nobody will want to live there or hunt and recreate there if there were no lake. Including myself, the elk will migrate, they will go south most likely following the river. They will end up in Upper Lake and then Potter Valley and down the Eel river. They will follow the water and they will destroy ranch land and farmland, and every fence they come across. The Lake, it will lose its purpose. It will damage the economy. It will damage water security anywhere south of Powerhouse on the Russian River, and it will devastate Potter Valley. Lake County will you lose tons of tax revenue. The Russian River from Potter Valley to Healdsburg will lose a significant amount of its water supply. Pillsbury water helps supply domestic water customers all the way to Marine County and as many as 600,000 people depend on this as customers. These are all things that must be considered, especially when it comes
NEPA or CEQA projects.
A Negative Declaration will not suffice.
To fully understand just how little water will be available for down stream users and for fire suppression, you need to go to the river as it enters the lake in summer months. Very difficult to do by boat or kayak, hiking to it is the best way to truly appreciate the difference the lake makes to the Eel River downstream. Matt, if you want to do this for a future article I would be happy to guide you on the adventure. All of the dam haters have been very careful to keep future flows from the public. Same with our elected officials. They are designing a water diversion that will only supply irrigation water in the winter. Low flows is the reason the dam was built in the first place.
BEFORE SCOTT DAM COMES DOWN
I suggest a trial run to “Save The Salmon On The Eel River”. A test if you will, to actually gauge the survivability of fish in the warm habitat above Lake Pillsbury.
If the USFWS honestly believe that fish will survive and return in the tributaries above Lake Pillsbury I suggest the following.
1. Develop a comprehensive eradication plan for the Pike Minnow, a must regardless of the outcome.
2 Set up a hatchery just below Scott Dam. Collect the eggs from all fish reaching that point in the river and hatch them. Plant them in all of the available streams above the dam. We have done this at numerous times and places on the Eel River in the past and there is recorded evidence that the program was extremely successful. The first was between 1897 and 1916, the Hatchery was on Price Creek a few miles above Ferndale on the Eel River. After this, one was operated on Steelhead Creek located between Fort Seward and Alder Point and operated until 1942 and shut down because of the war. It worked then why not now?
3. When appropriate, collect them and return them below the dam.
AND OR
4. Rear the eggs and then when appropriate release them back into the river to return to the ocean as normal. Monitoring of progress required.
As a lake county resident… I have to say that not much has been for input here excluding the recent bos activity..all this talk with everyone else mendo, sonoma counties, eel and russian advocates ..the board of supervisors which includes elected native Americans has been lax. I am disappointed on the leadership here. Why is everyone else deciding our fate for the dam?…no takers for upkeep…Yes of course the water..not sure what is going to happen but I notice that no request for input has been made to lake county voters either…no education about it either until it is almost too late to respond… Anyone want to pay for upkeep?