![\"Water](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/PVPUPDATE.jpg\")
Water flows into the Eel River at Scott Dam, which was created for the Potter Valley Project.\n(File photo\/The Ukiah Daily Journal)<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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 \u201cexploring opportunities associated with Potter Valley,\u201d according to Director Chance Edmondson.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Water flows into the Eel River at Scott Dam, which was created for the Potter Valley Project.
\n(File photo\/The Ukiah Daily Journal)<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
\u201cI apologize to the individuals in the van with me,\u201d he said during the board meeting.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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\nKent Porter \/ The Press Democrat<\/p>\n
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)<\/p>\n<\/li>\n
![\"Cape](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/EEL1.jpg?w=620\")
\nCape Horn Dam is part of the Potter Valley Project. (Kyle Schwartz\/Courtesy of CalTrout)\n<\/p>\n<\/li>\n
![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/TPD-L-kp0424_Project_02.jpg?w=620\")
\nThe Van Arsdale Dam on the Eel River, Thursday, April 23, 2026, north of Potter Valley. (Kent Porter \/ The Press Democrat)<\/p>\n<\/li>\n
![\"Round](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/tpd-l-jparker042326-01.jpg?w=620\")
\nRound Valley Tribal Council president Joseph Parker, Tuesday, April 21, 2026, in Covelo. (Kent Porter \/ The Press Democrat)<\/p>\n<\/li>\n
![\"Audience](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/bdf81427-b764-5889-8b02-fd1fc1aa87f7.jpg?w=620\")
\nJohn Burgess \/ The Press Democrat<\/p>\n
Audience members listen to plans and economic forecasts on Tuesday, July 1, 2025, at a Potter Valley Project town hall at the Finley Center in Santa Rosa. (John Burgess \/ The Press Democrat)<\/p>\n<\/li>\n
![\"From](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/d551d90d-6d2c-5aab-bff0-e9199d8d1a43.jpg?w=620\")
\nJohn Burgess \/ The Press Democrat<\/p>\n
From left, PG&E Hydro Licensing Director Janet Walther, Sonoma County Supervisor David Rabbitt, Sonoma Water Division Manager David Manning and SSU Economics Professor Dr. Robert Eyler take questions Tuesday, July 1, 2025, at a Potter Valley Project town hall meeting at the Finley Center in Santa Rosa. (John Burgess \/ The Press Democrat)<\/p>\n<\/li>\n
![\"Lake](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/b8d2e74f-92cd-5e34-86f8-869bcaf67960.jpg?w=620\")
\nChristopher Chung\/The Press Democrat<\/p>\n
Lake County Supervisor Eddie Crandell speaks during the Potter Valley Project town hall meeting in Cloverdale in March. Crandell and fellow Supervisor Bruno Sabatier were hoping the federal government would intervene in PG&E\u2019s efforts to decommission the Potter Valley power plant. (Christopher Chung\/The Press Democrat)<\/p>\n<\/li>\n
![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/33326262-3665-4462-b961-663961643663.jpg?w=620\")
\nThe east fork of the Russian River flows from the Potter Valley hydroelectric generation plant Monday Oct. 20, 2014 in Potter Valley. The Eel River, in which a percentage is pumped in to the east fork by diversion, will be scaled back in the winter months due to repairs at the pumping station. (Kent Porter \/ Press Democrat) 2014<\/p>\n<\/li>\n
![\"Guinness](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/7da879bb-304a-50ec-b725-31bf6ec4127d.jpg?w=620\")
\nKent Porter \/ The Press Democrat<\/p>\n
Guinness McFadden brought in wheels from New York to help adjust flows of diverted Eel River water at his private powerhouse in Potter Valley, Wednesday, May 14, 2025. (Kent Porter \/ The Press Democrat)<\/p>\n<\/li>\n
![\"Guinness](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/73b26707-661b-562c-b3a8-c60e4e781df0.jpg?w=620\")
\nKent Porter \/ The Press Democrat<\/p>\n
Guinness McFadden checks on the flow of diverted Eel River water at his private powerhouse in Potter Valley, Wednesday, May 14, 2025. (Kent Porter \/ The Press Democrat)<\/p>\n<\/li>\n
![\"Water](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/1BB88F84-FD64-42F1-B29D-12EFF6C67781.jpg?w=620\")
\nPG&E<\/p>\n
Water drawn from the Eel River spills from a tailrace behind PG&E’s Potter Valley Powerhouse and becomes the start of the East Fork of the Russian River. (PG&E)<\/p>\n<\/li>\n
![\"'Save](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/95e4c0e4-1ab3-5a7e-8baa-0d266165ba09.jpg?w=620\")
\nAmie Windsor \/ The Press Democrat<\/p>\n
‘Save Lake Pillsbury’ signs can be spotted throughout the Lake Pillsbury watershed, including Potter Valley. (Amie Windsor \/ The Press Democrat)<\/p>\n<\/li>\n
![\"Decades](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/4815a167-a7dd-5568-a5d3-a558557c642a.jpg?w=620\")
\nKent Porter \/ The Press Democrat<\/p>\n
Decades of signatures from visitors to Lake Pillsbury cover support poles inside Soda Creek Store Wednesday, May 14, 2025. (Kent Porter \/ The Press Democrat)<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Show Caption<\/p>\n
Kent Porter \/ The Press Democrat<\/p>\n
1 of 13<\/p>\n
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)<\/p>\n
Expand<\/a><\/p>\n 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<\/a> geared to the day the dams come down.<\/p>\n That project would free up the headwaters of California\u2019s third-longest river for its ailing salmon and steelhead trout runs and help restore long-slighted water rights for local tribes<\/a>.<\/p>\n The Press Democrat<\/p>\n 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)<\/p>\n 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.<\/a><\/p>\n Elsinore Valley\u2019s interest in potentially taking over parts of the Potter Valley Project<\/a> was announced in April by Trump\u2019s agriculture secretary, Brooke Rollins, in a social media post on X.<\/a><\/p>\n Directors of that 163,000 resident district made their first trek north in April.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n Darcy Burke, the Elsinore Valley board vice president, and one of its most outspoken proponents for the district\u2019s 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<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cWe visited people who are going to be impacted,\u201d she said. \u201cWe are very interested and this was a good investment of our time.\u201d<\/p>\n Burke said both Elsinore Valley Municipal Water District and San Gorgonio Pass Water Agency have \u201csigned a letter of intent.\u201d\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cThis is exploratory to see if there\u2019s anything there to diversify our prospective portfolios,\u201d San Gorgonio Pass Water Agency Executive Director Lance Eckhart told The Press Democrat on Friday, May 15. \u201cWhat we do as a state water contractor is move water around and store it locally and in other places. We\u2019re looking around for win-win solutions and to collectively utilize resources.\u201d<\/p>\n 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\u00a0records of the letter \u2014 nor any agenda documents signaling the\u00a0agencies previously discussed such an agreement \u2014 existed on either district\u2019s website as of 5 p.m. Friday.<\/p>\n PG&E representatives did not return requests for comment before that time.<\/p>\n Not every Elsinore Valley board member is pleased with the district wading into the Potter Valley dispute.<\/p>\n![\"This](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/D091FE02-260C-488B-929C-D60DFED92F55.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/POTTERVALLEYSTORAGE-08.jpg\")
The north end of Potter Valley in Mendocino County basks in sunlight on May 14, 2025. (Kent Porter \/ The Press Democrat)<\/p>\n
![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/3698a400-e58e-54be-811a-79214f6cf9ac.jpg\")
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<\/p>\n