Take Action: Stop the SoCal Water Grab
- Friends of The Eel River
- 4 hours ago
- 3 min read
Perhaps you’ve heard the news that a water district 600 miles to the south is exploring options to try to purchase the Potter Valley Project. This is extremely concerning, and is plain and simple a Southern California water grab. This move is supported by the Trump administration, and unfortunately, some local politicians like Todd Lands, who is running for Sonoma County Supervisor. Not only could this be a disaster for the Eel ecosystem, but it would also remove local control of water supply from Russian River water managers and local ownership of water rights from the Round Valley Indian Tribes.
Why This is Ludicrous
By now, you all understand the many ways in which the PVP is a failed hydroelectric project. It no longer generates electricity; its aging infrastructure, sedimentation, and seismic risk make it unreliable and dangerous; it violates the Endangered Species Act and blocks access to hundreds of miles of cold water habitat; and it has long been uneconomical. This is not a project worth investing in.
So why would a water district in Southern California be interested? That’s what we want you to ask the Elsinore Valley Municipal Water District at every one of their meetings over the next few months.
PG&E has made it clear that the project cannot be relicensed under the current (now expired) FERC license – any new owner would have to start from scratch with a new license. That’s a heavy lift for a project that needs millions of dollars of improvements just to generate electricity again. Not to mention the many millions more needed to bring it into compliance with modern environmental law. Or the likely impossible task of making the structure seismically sound.
And the Eel is not connected to the State Water Project, so there is currently no way to divert the water down to SoCal. But we need to be wary of efforts to establish the connection.
But of course, we all know that the Trump administration will stop at nothing to harm the interests of Tribes, environmentalists, and most Californians.
Talking Points
You can make comments or ask questions during public comment on non-agendized items at the start of the meeting, or you can be really persistent and comment on agenda items throughout the meeting, relating them to the Eel River. Click here to see their agendas, which should be posted 72 hours before each meeting.
Have any board members met with the California Division of Safety of Dams, and do they fully understand the seismic risk at Scott Dam?
Do they have a complete picture of the financial losses at the project and understand that PG&E is surrendering its license due to longstanding economic losses?
Are they prepared to invest tens of millions to rebuild the failed transformer at the powerhouse, and many millions more to bring the facilities into compliance with modern laws?
Do they understand that the project cannot be relicensed under the current FERC license and that they would have to start from scratch, establishing a new license?
How do they plan to get water from the Eel down to Riverside County? Or is diverting water for their rate payers even part of the plan?
What do they have to say to the Round Valley Indian Tribes and other Eel River Tribes from whom the water was stolen a century ago?
Is the board aware that regional stakeholders in the Eel and Russian River basins have been negotiating and working together for nearly a decade and have already invested millions in developing a proposal to share water resources while also restoring the Eel? That deal includes restorative justice for the Round Valley Indian Tribes; are Lake Elsinore constituents comfortable standing in the way of that progress?
Join the Meeting
Meetings of the Elsinore Valley Municipal Water District are every other Thursday at 4 pm. The next meetings are on May 28, June 11, June 25, July 9, and July 23.
For now, the Zoom and phone call meeting IDs and passwords remain the same for each meeting. Be sure to double-check at the bottom of the agenda for each meeting.
By Zoom, go to: www.zoom.us/join
Enter Meeting ID: 843 2592 5336
Meeting Password: 92530
By phone call: (720) 707 2699
Enter Meeting ID: 843 2592 5336
Meeting Password: 92530
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