Free the Eel River

Eel River | Photo by Michael Wier, CalTrout

California’s Eel River, known as Wiya’t, Taanchow, and Ch'idiyu to the region’s tribes, was once among California’s most productive rivers. Today the river’s salmon, steelhead trout, and Pacific lamprey fisheries are all on a trajectory towards extinction due in large part to two obsolete dams that comprise Pacific Gas & Electric Company’s (PG&E) Potter Valley Hydroelectric Project (Project). The two dams together block salmonid access to historic spawning grounds, juvenile nursery habitat, and cold water refugia that is critical to the future survival of these species in a warming environment. Adding insult to these injuries, the Potter Valley Project also diverted the Eel River’s flow for power production and agricultural irrigation, though in recent months dam safety issues have rendered the Project obsolete for these purposes.

The Eel River holds special significance for the Yuki, Pomo, Wailaki, Wiyot, Nomlaki, Nongatl, Lassik, Sinkyone, Cahto, and other indigenous peoples who have lived along the river since time immemorial. The Eel River waters and fishery populations that sustained these tribes for millennia began to decline with the 1908 construction of Cape Horn Dam and the 1922 construction of the upstream Scott Dam.

PG&E’s license to operate the Project expired in April 2022. With the Project’s power generation facilities permanently offline, and water storage capacity severely reduced due to seismic concerns, PG&E is working on a plan to surrender and decommission the Project, which will continue interim operations until it is decommissioned. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) plays a key role in determining the future of the Eel River in both the near and long-term by: (1) establishing interim dam operating conditions that are protective of Eel River salmon and other native species; and (2) approving PG&E’s decommissioning plan.

Please join us in urging FERC to: (1) ensure that interim operations of the Potter Valley Project are protective of Eel River Chinook salmon and steelhead trout; and (2) require that PG&E’s decommissioning plan include removal of both Cape Horn and Scott Dams.

**This action is only for residents of California.

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Dear Decision Maker,

I am writing to urge the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to take immediate actions to free the Eel River and ensure the recovery of critically endangered salmonids, including federally protected Chinook salmon and steelhead trout adversely impacted by the Potter Valley Hydroelectric Project (Project No. P-77).  Such actions include: (1) the incorporation of recommended interim measures into the Project No. P-77’s annual license; and (2) requiring that full removal of both Scott and Cape Horn Dams be a part of any approved decommissioning plan.

In letters dated March 17, 2022 and October 13, 2022 the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, National Marine Fisheries Service (“NMFS”) described and elaborated on the need for additional consultation under section 7 of the Endangered Species Act (“ESA”) and section 305(b) of the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act (“MSA”), as well as the incorporation of certain interim measures necessary to reduce Project No. P-77 harm, injury, and killing of California Coastal Chinook salmon and Northern California steelhead (collectively, “Special Status Species”) – species protected under the federal Endangered Species Act, 16 U.S.C. § 1531 et seq.  FERC must require Pacific Gas & Electric Company (“PG&E”) to implement the NMFS-recommended interim measures regarding necessary protections for Special Status Species until additional required consultation may occur.  These measures are the absolute minimum needed to prevent extinction of California Coastal Chinook salmon and Northern California steelhead as the decommissioning process unfolds.

Longer term, FERC must require that the project owner, PG&E, include removal of Scott and Cape Horn dams as a component of the forthcoming Potter Valley Hydroelectric Project decommissioning plan.  Without dam removal, the Project No. P-77 will continue to degrade fisheries, water quality, and special status species habitat located within the Eel River watershed.

PG&E has a history of delaying action and species recovery at its numerous hydroelectric projects throughout California.  The company has been permitted to place profit, often through delayed maintenance with catastrophic results, over the people of California and the State’s finite and irreplaceable resources time and again.  Project No. P-77 is no exception to this PG&E rule – in a March 16, 2023 press release, PG&E acknowledged that Scott Dam presents seismic risks, requiring implementation of a mitigation measure that amounted to a 20,000 acre-foot reduction in reservoir storage. When a hydropower dam that no longer produces power is too unsafe to even store water, expedited removal is the only reasonable path forward. FERC must hold PG&E to its proposed decommissioning schedule to put a stop to PG&E’s tactics of delay and obstruction once and for all.

The Eel River is the next best opportunity for a large-scale river restoration and multi-benefit project implementation in California following the Klamath River restoration.  California Trout, Sonoma Water Agency, Humboldt County, Mendocino County Inland Water and Power Commission, and Round Valley Indian Tribes have secured and spent over $5 million in primarily public funding to develop numerous studies that support a dam removal project and continued diversion effort, which is feasible from an engineering perspective and the current economic climate.

Thank you for your consideration of these issues. Free the Eel River.

Sincerely,

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