Lake Pillsbury’s fate sparks heated debate at Cloverdale town hall

A packed town hall in Cloverdale, led by Mayor Todd Lands, addressed PG&E’s controversial plans to decommission two dams on the Eel River—Scott and Cape Horn Dams. The meeting, which featured a panel of speakers, focused on the potential impacts of PG&E’s decision to abandon the Potter Valley Project (PVP) and its consequences for water supply, environmental concerns, and local communities.

Background

The PVP consists of two dams, Scott Dam and Lake Pillsbury in Lake County, and Cape Horn Dam and Van Arsdale Reservoir. Water from these dams is pumped year-round through a mile-long tunnel into Potter Valley and into the Russian River. The PVP is owned by PG&E and is governed by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. 

In 2019 PG&E announced plans to abandon the unprofitable PVP and was unable to find a new owner. FERC does not have the authority to force PG&E to own and operate a project. In January 2025, PG&E released its 2000-plus page Final Draft Surrender Application. PG&E plans to file its Final Surrender Application to FERC at the end of July 2025. See PG&E’s remarks in MendoFever article on PG&E February 6 Town Hall Webinar.

PG&E and Congressman Huffman’s office were not represented on the panel.

The Panelists

Mayor Lands said, “Cloverdale did not have a seat at the negotiating table, even though they are severely affected.” The City Council and Fire Department of Cloverdale are “extremely worried” about a safe and reliable water supply for the future. Land continued “This is not a partisan issue. . . . This isn’t an attack on those that have been working to find solutions, and we thank them for all of their hard work they put in over the years.” 

James Gore, Sonoma County Supervisor is willing to listen to other points of view. Gore attempted to convey the feelings of those on the Eel River side. Many in Humboldt County and Lake County are not happy with the proposed solutions. “If you go up in Humboldt right now, they’re having similar meetings like this, but what they’re telling their Board of Supervisors and other people, is that you failed because you were supposed to shut that down, because that’s an original water theft. You took our water from the Eel River, and you burrowed a tunnel, and you created a project that is a basically an energy project, and you delivered free water for the next 120 years.” Under FERC regulations, PG&E cannot sell water under an energy license. 

- Advertisement -

Sonoma Water determined that maintaining an aging dam was not worth the liability. The decision to build a new diversion facility was difficult. “There’s nobody who’s running around giving high fives right now. It is more of just a tough, grinding conversation that yielded a result that will sustain the amount of water that we have gotten over the last 10 years.” 

David Manning, Sonoma Water, which manages 650,000 customers in Sonoma County, and parts of northern Marin County. Sonoma Water is legally obligated to maintain a certain amount of water in the river to support recreation, health and safety, water supply, and water for fish and wildlife. 

Until the early 2000s, 150,000 acre-feet was diverted through the tunnel annually. In the mid 2000s, the National Marine Fisheries Service told PG&E to cut back to approximately 60,000 acre-feet per year. Manning said, “Much more recently, due to several factors including drought . . .those diversions have been more like 30 or 40,000 acre-feet.” 

The Eel Russian Project Authority, a Joint Powers Authority, was created at the end of 2023. Sonoma Water, Sonoma County, Mendocino County Inland Power and Water Commission, and Round Valley Indian Tribes al hold board seats on ERPA. The purpose is to build a new diversion facility after PG&E removes the dams. 

A Water Diversion Agreement will support the Two Basin Solution, both fish migration and habitat of the Eel River, and continued water diversion from the Eel to the Russian River. 

Manning showed a poster of the proposed NERF run of the river diversion, that will function “when there’s enough water in the Eel River to safely extract that water and leave enough water in the river for the Eel River’s fish population.” This is a “very different paradigm than having the reservoir there able to store water and then release it year-round.”

Lake Mendocino is not large enough to store the diverted water year round. There will be a need for more water storage. 

Manning said, without a diversion, “. . . in the fall, it’s so significant that about 20% of the years, the storage in Lake Mendocino without the diversion would be zero.” 

Gore and Manning drew little applause. Speakers who advocated for keeping Lake Pillsbury intact drew cheers.

- Advertisement -

Chris Coloumbe, former Congressional Candidate, spoke in a simple manner, repeating the themes that “our community needs water,” and “there is nothing more important than the water.” He noticed while traveling the region that “70% of us have no idea what’s going on. . . . We must have more water if we are going to survive as a region. . . .I can tell you empirically that if this dam disappears, we will experience economic collapse. . . .if we go forward with this proposal as it stands, we will not have water in Lake Mendocino six years out of 10.” Coloumbe did not provide a citation for the six out of ten years statistic.

Frost Pauli, Mendocino County Farm Bureau. “In 2021, we saw natural drought, and we saw the State Water Board come to our farms and tell us that water flowing in that river was not our water, and we couldn’t pump it. . . . That’s what we’re looking at in the future. . . . The economic impacts from whatever happens with the Potter Valley Project is going to affect everyone, not just farmers like me.” In the last 20 years, California farmers saw a 1400% increase in the cost of regulatory compliance. Between 2012 and 2022, 15,000 farms in California went out of business. Pauli’s priorities are to keep the diversion and add additional storage. Elected officials should delay removal of any infrastructure until all of the questions have been answered. 

Madeline Cline, Mendocino County Supervisor explained that water supply, water resources, water rights “. . .is beyond complicated. There is so much gray area, there are so many levels of government, nonprofits, and then a private company that has decided to go through this decommissioning process. . . . this uncertainty alone impacts us all of us, economically, the future of our property values, our businesses, our families.” 

Eddie EJ Crandall, Lake County Supervisor stated that as former Chair of the Robinson Rancheria Tribe, and having relatives on both the Eel and Russian Rivers, he understands both positions. He advocates for Lake Pillsbury and the headwaters of the Eel River, which are in Lake County. He wants to minimize and mitigate adverse impacts to Lake County and Lake Pillsbury businesses and residences. Crandall respects Round Valley Indian Tribes’ sovereignty, but pointed out that there are tribes in Sonoma, and they do not all agree on the solution. “PG&E is the one that is doing this. We’re paying for it, we’re at odds with each other because of it.” 

Bruno Sabatier, Lake County Supervisor, said we have been told this is “a done deal.” Lake County has not been allowed a seat at the negotiating table. 

Sabatier said two of the largest fires in California occurred in or around Lake Pillsbury. “But we never really talk about the amount of fires that the lake was used to stop before they became large. We have a massive National Forest that surrounds that lake . Without that lake, we will start seeing more large scale fires.” 

Sabatier suggested that PG&E upgrade the power station and transformers with high tech equipment, saying “I’m not sure if you know the CPUC did approve for PG&E to raise your rates so they can pay for the decommissioning. So again, public money is going to pay and it’s not even close to enough.” Because of silt and debris left behind after dam removal, “they want to flush everything down the river. . . . Basically Lake County will have either a SuperFund site or at least one pretty giant massive landfill left over from all of this.”

Dayna Ghirardelli, Sonoma County Farm Bureau Executive Director spoke about the July 2023 economic impact report commissioned by the Farm Bureau to study the impact of dam decommissioning on all of Sonoma County. “The total amount of income lost at only 10% reduction is $65 million dollars with 297 jobs lost, with a tax revenue loss of $2.24 million.” 

David Taber runs the Palomino Lakes water company serving about 300 customers with well water. He said, “. . .we are totally dependent on Russia River water.” Taber advised people who own and depend on a well to check the State Water Resources Control Board website to find out the type of water right they hold. Riparian, river underflow, and surface water rights are vulnerable to being shut off in case of water rationing. “Groundwater rights are a bit safer,” said Taber, who is collecting signatures to form a new water district in the Alexander Valley to provide water security. 

Mayor Lands said, “‘Seasonal diversion’ is the key. The flow will only go into Lake Mendocino during high water or flood times,” when Cloverdale does not need the water. If Lake Mendocino will go dry two out of ten years, Lands said, “With one year of less than average rainfall, that turns into three to five years out of the ten.” He called for “. . . a guarantee in writing for a minimum amount of water that is to be diverted into Lake Mendocino year round, and then a minimum released into the Upper Russian River from Lake Mendocino.” 

- Advertisement -

Lands cited page 125 of Sonoma Water’s report listing three different solutions, with only one solution providing water security for both the environment and the humans, but was not allowed to be further explored because, “It didn’t meet the project related goals and objectives of the resource agencies, non-governmental organizations and impacted Native American Indian Tribe. . . .” 

See MendoFever’s April 3, 2024 article on The Russian River Water Forum meeting discussing design alternatives.

Jason Jenkins, Cloverdale Fire Chief, recounted his experience in the Pacific Palisades fire, where the hydrants lost water. Hydrants in Cloverdale have gone dry in a previous fire. 

Q&A Session. Some people did not give their name, or were difficult to understand. Some of the same points were made by several speakers.

Melissa Spingler, Cloverdale Planning Commissioner. California has mandated that every city build low-income housing. With water in short supply, this doesn’t leave room to build middle-class housing. “No one disagrees that housing is a critical need,” but that the state is “choking small cities like ours.” 

Carol Cinquini, Lake Pillsbury Alliance. Every Two Basin Partners study contained the phrasing “additional information is needed, additional studies are needed.” 

Guinness McFadden, a farmer in Potter Valley and member of the IWPC, said Congressman Huffman “actually tried to prevail upon FERC to hustle up the demolition of the dams,” but that FERC insisted on following procedure. 

Summary of the rest of the comments:

• Use the Norwegian model to build a better fish ladder and retrofit Scott Dam with seismic improvements.
• Eel River fisheries are in decline because international fishing limits have been moved closer to shore, where giant international boats overfish. We lost funding for our fish hatcheries. 
• Without diversion water for the Potter Valley Irrigation District, wells that rely on water recharge may go dry.
• The Eel River has multiple forks where there are no salmon that are not affected by Lake Pillsbury. The current system takes only a small amount of Eel River water.
• There is no sense in destroying the communities by tearing out 80,000 acre feet of water storage, costing an estimated $1.5 billion. 
• The Tule Elk herd, and other wildlife at Lake Pillsbury is dependent on the lake.
• Lake Mendocino is not deep enough for the Canadian Super Scooper firefighting planes to use. Those planes do use Lake Pillsbury.
• A lot of us are fresh out of tiny violins for PG&E and their negligence in our community.

Editor’s Note: A portion of the article was removed as it included comments from two speakers that focused on personal criticisms of panelists rather than addressing water issues or providing substantive analysis of the Potter Valley Project.

- Advertisement -