In a surprising turn, the Trump administration is reviewing PG&E’s plans to dismantle the Potter Valley Project — a 20th-century water diversion system anchored by Scott Dam, which forms Lake Pillsbury. The move follows pressure from farm bureaus in Lake, Mendocino, Sonoma, and Marin counties, who say decommissioning the dam would devastate agriculture, local economies, and wildfire preparedness across the North Coast.
In an April 14 letter obtained by SFGATE, the Bureau of Reclamation confirmed it’s reviewing funding for the project to ensure it aligns with a Trump-era executive order prioritizing domestic energy resources, including hydropower.
The Bureau also noted potential federal funding through the Aquatic Ecosystem Restoration Program and the Inflation Reduction Act — both products of the Biden administration — that could give the federal government a path to intervene. Local officials and the Lake Pillsbury Alliance have pushed for the Bureau of Reclamation to take over Scott Dam, citing its importance for regional water security. PG&E, which cites mounting costs and outdated infrastructure, is expected to file its final decommissioning plan by July 29, 2025. If Trump decides to step in, it could mark another high-profile move in California’s ongoing water wars.
Read more at SFGATE here.
How about writing an article about the comprehensive state audit taking place in Mendocino county?
When PG and E burned down Redwood Valley Trump told us to get a rake!!
These Vineyard and Cannabis growers are like junkies looking for the easy govt subsidies. They’ll turn to the most nefarious human being and bow to anyone to save their redundant farm.
Transparency exactly. If they were growing food for mendo it would be a fight.
It has just started.. It is a time-consuming piece of work. We’ll have to wait until it is finished at the end of December.
Didn’t this guy fire 400 employees from the bureau of reclamation back in March ?
Northern California, the last rural stronghold, will soon experience a takeover. Why do we think they commandeered the rail trail? Forced everyone out and brainwashed people into fleeing California, why? So they could have it of course.
Where’s the common sense in this part of the State? It’s like NorCal is loaded with Arkansas morons. The River never should have been damned in the first place. Settlers and farmers have always had a pompous view of the land as if it belongs to them. Settlers killed off the natives – the deer – then the fish. If it lives and breathes Settlers and Dumpsters will kill it. They’ll blame everyone but their own greedy existence and past. And they will pollute the living daylights out of everything.
It does belong to them, the land. The United States of America has something called private property right now most of California is in private property ownership.
About 47 -48% of California acreage is Federal I.e. not private land. The dam is owned by the quasi-private company called PG&E which has no interest in up keeping this dam.
Try finding a place to hunt that isn’t crawling with 2,000 other people on opening day. If so much of California is public land, how come the only public place to hunt around here is Lake Pillsbury and Mendocino national Forest. And when you go there, on opening day it is crawling with thousands of people looking for the same 50 bucks.
It’s the only public place left to hunt around here. That is within a 3 hour drive.
Hunting grounds doesn’t equal public property. Native American reservations are also on Federal lands but are not necessarily public lands. Federal lands make up nearly half the state of CA and that doesn’t even count the state owned land. Hunting is vanity and a privilege not a right.
I don’t know about vanity, but it is a lifelong tradition. I’m fully aware that is a privilege and I pay about $160 a year for a hunting license and 2 deer tags so I can take advantage of that privilege. Unsuccessfully the last few years. I can’t just see a buck on the side of the road and jump over a fence and shoot it. That’s how you go to jail. I can’t just go knock on somebody’s door and say hey remember me, I went to grade school with your kid 40 years ago. Can I shoot this buck in your field. It doesn’t work that way. In California you have to have written permission to hunt on somebody else’s private land. I don’t know anybody with land and wild game on their property that’s willing to let just anybody hunt. That leaves me with public lands and around here you have the BLM, Mendocino National Forest and Lake Pillsbury. Mt. Sanhedrin, Hull Mountain and Lake Pillsbury are where I’ve been hunting my whole life. And all of the campgrounds are at the lake. There are 4 or 5 of them. You can camp anywhere in the national Forest, but there are no campfires allowed outside of a developed campground that time of year and no bathrooms. Unless you want to go really old-school rustic camping. Dig a hole in the ground to squat over and freeze. Which looks like that’s what my future holds. Because the proposal to remove the dam also includes removing all of the campgrounds around the lake and all of the facilities for the public.
You Dumpsters always fire off factless horse manure. It is PGE property. They also own the actual lake portion as well. It is not Federal. Private property in this case is corporate not federal. State has more rights in this case than the Feds. It’s the same Jarboe mentality “shoot first ask questions later” because you refuse to read and know the facts. There is no “quasi-private” BS. You settlers just make it up as you go and then when China gives you the finger it’s “Biden’s Problem.” Get over yourselves.
Stack calm down. PG&E is heavily regulated by the state and gets plenty of help from the state to maintain the utilities across the state. I only said quasi because they aren’t a normal private corp. If you read what I said, it is on point with the response to the prior commenter.
Too many hands in the water and poor decisions from politicians and greedy corporations have lead to this disaster. Save the dams! Water is life!
At least Trump is listening to the counties and indigenous peoples, that this lake & dam, are actually are, physically in. Do we want to be without a substainable water reservoir & new hydropower plant? What is the consequences of demolishing this dam for years to come? In a strange way Trump is actually proactively being visionary about Northern Californians water & electricity future. We saw what happened to Klamath. It’s a disaster!! It blows my mind that some people & politicians are wanting less water storage after all 5 year castostrophic drought and years of horrific fires. We need fire suppression options, all fire suppression options. And we need alternative fish routing. And we need electricity, produced by hydropower. If Trump was a liberal, liberals would be applauding him. This isn’t political. It’s common sense. Hydropower & water storage with new better conditions for the fish, is a really good thing.
California needs a Governor who understands what the People want, not the idiot class in LA and SFO.
You mean the folks that pay for your highways, public utility dams, and generous grants?
Amen
Dump Raper didn’t read any books and has no clue how to handle this. Ask China. They own him.
Settlers went balls deep on Dump and they still don’t realize he’s dumber than a box of rocks with sand in it.
Now get back to your Osteen reruns.
Should there be some rule about rude and disrespectful posts. Take a look at the last administration if you want to understand dumb.
Praise the Lord. I hope The Trump administration saves our community and intervenes and restores the dams so we can continue to have agriculture and water. Taking out these dams will devastate so many counties and the livelihood for so many families.
Asking Dump to save your community is like asking someone to throw you the anchor when you are drowning. Ask Phuckabee Sanders in Arkansas. 🙂
Now get back to your Osteen reruns.
I think it’s too far gone for NorCal “agriculture” to make much of a difference. Agriculture in the state uses about 70% of the water. Most of the agriculture now in Sonoma and Mendocino is actually viticulture. Most of that is watered, directly or indirectly, via the Russian River. And wine/booze sales are in a precipitous decline. Young people don’t drink like their parents and grandparents did. Wineries for the first time in decades are beginning to offer free or nominal cost tastings. And wineries are, to put it mildly, run by mostly multinational corporate ***holes who don’t care about the environment or conservation. They’ll close and abandon those vineyards the minute they’re unprofitable. Leave the water in the streams. Getting rid of that antiquated dam will open up hundreds of miles of coldwater steelhead spawning grounds.
The Vineyards are not the only ones using this water. We all depend on water as we all depend on air. YouTube has an excellent discussion on this matter on the California Insider outlining not only the economic disaster that would result with the demolition of these days, but also the devastating effects on the human, livestock and wildlife populations as well. This is a situation that needs to be carefully evaluated before coming to a offhand conclusion. Please take the time to learn what it would really mean to the residents of this county if we are not able to save these days. More short-sighted management on top of decades of mismanagement is frightening.
AND, let’s keep in mind, PG&E found themselves under water with the Potter Valley Project because they were forced to meet the cost of a continuous barrage of multiple, multiple, multiple layers of environmental hurdles designed to achieve one goal, that Scott Dam be rendered uneconomical.
Let the Bureau of Reclamation operate the lake and the dam and the project. That’s why they exist.
Why did Trump fire 400 employees from this bureau then?
Don’t demolish the Scott dam. Lake Pillsbury is one of the prettiest locations in California. I have visited the area many, many times in the years I lived in Mendocino and Lake counties. The demolishment of Scott dam would have a profound impact on the area. California needs better management not the same old Democrap POS”s.
California needs to get rid of the Traitor Dumper infestation where science and common sense escapes them on a daily basis. The disregard for the landscape and the natives have run their course in the form of murder and pollution. Please go away and stop polluting our beautiful State. Go to Arkansas and Alabama and take your racism with you.
Let’s also remember that Trump, in an effort to get water to the LA fires, ordered the immediate release of water in the Central Valley Project. Problem is, that water feeds the Central Valley Agriculture, in no way travels to Southern California. It was a complete waste of water during winter months. Let’s pray he gets educated on California’s complex water system before he makes a decision here. Save the dams!
Where has ol’ Todd Peckerham been?
I love saying this: I TOLD YOU SO. A lot of people have been writing letters to federal government agencies, including myself directly to the White House, several letters in fact. Now local government is doing the same thing. Thank you to Lake Co. BOS and all the local county Farm Bureau’s. I knew this would pay off. Lake Pillsbury will stand. I firmly believe. SAVE LAKE PILLSBURY. I’ve been saying that for years now.
Asking Dump to save you is hilarious. You probably have an ashtray on your motorcycle.
I don’t own a motorcycle. But I own an ashtray. And I use it.
And China OWNS Dump. 🙂
Hey Bradley CALIFORNIA insider uploaded a new video on the Tube today about the removal of the dams.
Thanks. Watching it now.
https://youtu.be/qjVFB_x7W2Q
Thank you. That was excellent. I’m sending the link to that video to every person I know to repost.
Trump mulls? Puhleeze. That little brain to begin with has been long fried by facial tints and hair dyes.
Whichever way you feel about a decrepit dam, Donald will only make it fail like one of his casinos or his “university”.
And what are your accomplishment? He has far more success than failure and without some failure there can be no success. What a tired position. Yes, let’s keep going down the path of destruction we have been on the past four years.
If there are any shrinks here in Mendo County that specialize in treating Trump derangement syndrome they must be raking in the dough hand over fist and neck deep in cash.
Denise,
You are missing information! Most of our stored water that is ment to headge off drought is being directed to unnatural fish flows, not agriculture! THe envrironmental machine has caused this. Look to your streams and creeks in August that normally are DRY. Where is the water coming from??? You must be a Democrat………….