Directors of a Riverside County water agency said to be interested in a pair of Eel River dams, 600 miles away from their jurisdiction, held a public meeting Thursday night that proved revelatory.
It shed light on a recent trip by Elsinore Valley Municipal Water District directors and representatives of a neighboring water agency to the North Coast waterworks.
It also gave both supporters and opponents of dam removal on the Eel River a chance to weigh in on the seemingly far-fetched, Trump-era move by the Southern California entities in a complex Northern California water dispute.
The updates and public input came in a May 14 board meeting of the Elsinore Valley Municipal Water District, which now has an ad hoc committee dedicated to “exploring opportunities associated with Potter Valley,” according to Director Chance Edmondson.
Potter Valley refers to the Potter Valley Project, the pair of dams and a shuttered hydropower plant that together have impounded Eel River water and funneled supplemental flows into the upper Russian River for more than a century.
Water flows into the Eel River at Scott Dam, which was created for the Potter Valley Project.
(File photo/The Ukiah Daily Journal)
Edmondson said six people traveled to the project site in Mendocino and Lake counties in the first week of May to look at the project. Edmondson, who drove, noted he got a speeding ticket from the California Highway Patrol along the way.
“I apologize to the individuals in the van with me,” he said during the board meeting.
PG&E no longer wants to operate the Scott and Cape Horn dams and the 118-year-old downstream power plant that used to generate electricity while diverting a share of the Eel River into the upper Russian River. Those supplemental flows support farms in Potter Valley and boost downstream supplies for customers in Mendocino County and northern Sonoma County.
Kent Porter / The Press Democrat
With a backdrop of Hull Mountain in the Mendocino National Forest, a couple take to Lake Pillsbury from Pine Point, Wednesday May 14, 2025. (Kent Porter / The Press Democrat)
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Kent Porter / The Press Democrat
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With a backdrop of Hull Mountain in the Mendocino National Forest, a couple take to Lake Pillsbury from Pine Point, Wednesday May 14, 2025. (Kent Porter / The Press Democrat)
PG&E has embarked on a federal process to decommission the dams, and a coalition of local governments, tribes and environmental groups from Sonoma, Mendocino and Humboldt counties worked in recent years to reach a solution to guide river management and Eel-Russian diversions geared to the day the dams come down.
That project would free up the headwaters of California’s third-longest river for its ailing salmon and steelhead trout runs and help restore long-slighted water rights for local tribes.
The Press Democrat
This map shows the location of Scott Dam, impounding Lake Pillsbury, and Cape Horn Dam, creating Van Arsdale Reservoir, on the Eel River, the Potter Valley power plant, and the diversion tunnel that feeds the powerhouse and supplements flows in the East Fork of the Russian River. (The Press Democrat)
But local opponents, including Lake County, site of Lake Pillsbury, the larger of the two Eel River reservoirs, along other farm and water stakeholders, have lobbied the Trump administration to step in.
Elsinore Valley’s interest in potentially taking over parts of the Potter Valley Project was announced in April by Trump’s agriculture secretary, Brooke Rollins, in a social media post on X.
Directors of that 163,000 resident district made their first trek north in April.
The news Thursday about a second trip came as officials also noted interest on the part of another Riverside County entity, the Beaumont-based San Gorgonio Pass Water Agency as potentially another Potter Valley suitor.
Darcy Burke, the Elsinore Valley board vice president, and one of its most outspoken proponents for the district’s involvement in Potter Valley, was one of the officials on the most recent trip. She said the delegation met with residents of Potter Valley, the Mendocino County region that relies heavily on diverted Eel River water to grow its vineyards, orchards and feed crops.
“We visited people who are going to be impacted,” she said. “We are very interested and this was a good investment of our time.”
The north end of Potter Valley in Mendocino County basks in sunlight on May 14, 2025. (Kent Porter / The Press Democrat)
Burke said both Elsinore Valley Municipal Water District and San Gorgonio Pass Water Agency have “signed a letter of intent.”
“This is exploratory to see if there’s anything there to diversify our prospective portfolios,” San Gorgonio Pass Water Agency Executive Director Lance Eckhart told The Press Democrat on Friday, May 15. “What we do as a state water contractor is move water around and store it locally and in other places. We’re looking around for win-win solutions and to collectively utilize resources.”
Eckhart said the letter of intent was an agreement reached between the two Riverside County entities and did not involve PG&E. While it should be a public document, no records of the letter — nor any agenda documents signaling the agencies previously discussed such an agreement — existed on either district’s website as of 5 p.m. Friday.
PG&E representatives did not return requests for comment before that time.
Not every Elsinore Valley board member is pleased with the district wading into the Potter Valley dispute.
“I think we’re getting ahead of ourselves without the board agreement,” said Director Harvey Ryan, who represents the Southern California-based Santa Rosa Regional Resources Authority on the board. “I haven’t been involved in it.”
Ryan said he was concerned about using ratepayer dollars to explore a situation “when we don’t have any real skin in the game.
“I don’t think there has been enough information to make a rational decision on where we stand on this and what we should be taking,” he added.
Elsinore customers pay between $1,200 and $1,400 per acre-foot of water while San Gorgonio water customers have some of the highest rates in the state, at roughly $2,800 per acre-foot. Potter Valley Irrigation District customers pay $35 per acre-foot for general water deliveries. Additional fees vary from $125 to $175 for some agricultural customers. An acre-foot of water can supply two to three households for a year.
The Eel River system is not connected to the State Water Project, the vast system of reservoirs and canals that stores and conveys water for Central Valley farms and millions of urban residents to the south.
Some Northern California residents watching Thursday’s meeting online voiced their concerns about Elsinore Valley’s involvement.
“I am really curious. … Are you putting together a plan to even discuss what the project would take? It seems like you have a lot of vapor wear in here,” Sonoma County resident Neil Hancock said.
Alicia Hamann, director of Friends of the Eel River, also wondered how the district planned to purchase and operate the power plant, which PG&E shuttered in 2021, deeming it outdated and too expensive to operate.
The Eel River east of Potter Valley is summertime slow and lazy creating a spot for day use with water backed up by the Van Arsdale Reservoir at the Cape Horn Dam, Friday, June 7, 2024. (Kent Porter / The Press Democrat) 2024
Others — especially Potter Valley residents — said they support the district’s involvement, even if they’re holding their cards close.
“This is a very important source of water in Potter Valley,” said Dave Verse, who criticized what he said was an impervious stance taken by PG&E and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, which oversees licensing for hydropower projects. “Unfortunately, those of us who live in the area haven’t been able to get PG&E or FERC to listen to us. I have confidence you’re a successful entity.”
Amie Windsor is the Community Journalism Team Lead with The Press Democrat. She can be reached at amie.windsor@pressdemocrat.com or 707-521-5218.