Redwood Chapter Editor's Note: Sierra Club Redwood Chapter supports the ongoing demonstrations for Black Lives Matter and opposes police brutality. We stand with our allies for social and environmental justice.
By Victoria Brandon
Chair, Redwood Chapter
Redwood Chapter learned recently about a proposed project that could lead to the restoration of the South Fork Eel River as a free-flowing stream capable of supporting runs of threatened salmon and steelhead. Various aspects of the project would affect four of the Chapter’s six Groups.
Since early in the last century fish passage has been blocked by a small Pacific Gas & Electric facility called the Potter Valley Project, which consists of Scott and Cape Horn dams, a small hydroelectric plant, and a system of pipes diverting water to the Russian River basin, where it is used for irrigation. PG&E now intends to step away when its license expires in 2022, leaving the facility’s future in doubt and potentially presenting significant risks and liabilities to local communities and the environment.
To fill this void, a working group calling itself the “Two-Basin Partnership” composed of California Trout, Humboldt County, the Mendocino County Inland Water and Power Commission, the Sonoma County Water Agency and the Round Valley Indian Tribes has developed a decommissioning plan to present to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. The proposal would include removal of Scott Dam, modifications to Cape Horn Dam to improve fish passage, and construction of new infrastructure to maintain reliable water supply to the Potter Valley area and exports to the Russian River. Project objectives explicitly include improved conditions for threatened and endangered native fish, maintenance of reliable water supply, respect for tribal rights, and mitigation of impacts to Lake County. A new entity would likely be established to oversee the operations of the project and generate revenue for it. For more information, visit pottervalleyproject.org.
Removal of Scott Dam would result in the draining of Lake Pillsbury, a 2000-acre reservoir in northwestern Lake County used for boating, fishing and camping. Although many of those recreational uses would cease or change with the removal of the lake, others could be developed to take their place. Concern has also been expressed about loss of the lake’s function as a fire-fighting resource, and impacts to surrounding wildlife such as the resident herd of Tule Elk. Obviously, concerns like these will have to be addressed, along with others that have not emerged at this early stage of the project, but we remain cautiously optimistic that the benefits to the watershed and its endangered fish species can be realized.
Stay tuned!