LAKEPORT — On Tuesday, the Lake County Board of Supervisors amended a resolution it passed in June regarding the future of the Potter Valley Project, removing verbiage indicating the county would stand opposed to the removal of Scott Dam, which forms Lake Pillsbury.
The change is meant to allow the county to continue its participation in a regional group that has formed with the intent to take over control of the Potter Valley Project, as PG&E, the project’s current owner, plans to release its responsibility for the project.
Humboldt County recently made a similar amendment to a resolution it had passed in June, which had highlighted that county’s stance in support of dam removal.
“Before, the letter indicated that we had taken a stance,” said Lake County District 3 Supervisor E.J. Crandell, in whose district Lake Pillsbury and Scott Dam are located. The revised resolution, he said, will “state that we want to come to the table.”
That table, at which sit the County of Humboldt, the Mendocino Inland Water and Power Commission, Sonoma Water, Friends of the Eel River, Round Valley Indian Tribes, California Trout, and others, is the regional group planning to fund a feasibility study that would determine the possibility of taking control of the Potter Valley Project.
The project consists of two nearly hundred-year-old dams—the Scott and the Cape Horn—that divert water from the Eel River to the Russian River, creating Lake Pillsbury and Lake Van Arsdale and generating a small amount of hydroelectric power. This water diversion provides water to roughly 600,000 Northern California residents and provides recreational opportunities for the community around Lake Pillsbury. The project is also linked to the significant reduction of native fish populations in the Eel River.
Crandell brought the leaders of the Lake Pillsbury Alliance—a group advocating for keeping Scott Dam in operation to maintain the ecosystem and human community that have formed around Lake Pillsbury—to the board meeting to voice their position on the Potter Valley Project’s future.
Lake Pillsbury Alliance leaders Carolyn Cinquini and Frank Lynch called Tuesday for “honest and true feasibility studies” regarding continued operation of Scott Dam and highlighted the benefits Lake Pillsbury brings to Lake County.
“There is really a community there,” said Lynch.
Friends of the Eel River Conservation Director Scott Greacen, who attended the meeting along with FOER Bay Area Director David Keller, took issue with the Lake Pillsbury Alliance’s position of opposing dam removal, warning the County of Lake not to take that same stance.
“That boat won’t float,” Greacen said.
Devin Jones of the Mendocino County Farm Bureau expressed support for Lake County’s decision to amend its resolution in order to continue being a part of discussions about the Potter Valley Project.
“We fully support the continuation of the conversation with Lake County,” Jones said. “I think it’s critical to have that conversation.”
