GROUP PURSUES ‘PLAN B’ FOR SCOTT DAM REMOVAL
Huffman optimistic about future of Potter Valley Project
Chances are slim to none that a group of Northern California agencies, known as the TwoBasin Partnership, will raise the funds required to take over the license for the Potter Valley Project — a water diversion system in the Eel River basin — by April 2022 but the organization remains undeterred.
The Two-Basin Partnership — California Trout, Humboldt County, the Mendocino County Inland Water & Power Commission, the Round Valley Indian Tribes and Sonoma County Water Agency — requested an extension on its license transfer application to provide agencies additional time to work out a water plan and to develop strategies for dam removal and restoration of the Eel and Russian river basins. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, commonly known as FERC, denied the request in late September.
Rep. Jared Huffman (D-San Rafael) facilitated initial discussions to create a “two-basin solution” for the project and established the Potter Valley Project Ad Hoc Committee in 2018. Huffman remains optimistic and urged the groups to press forward.
“I think it’s important to emphasize that this is not the end of the world for those of us who have worked hard on the twobasin solution and believe it’s the right path forward,” Huffman told the Times-Standard. “This could actually be a faster and better way to get there.”
If the Two Basin Partnership cannot raise adequate funds and complete the required studies for the application, the Potter Valley Project will likely face abandonment and decommissioning, Huffman said.
“It’s not final,” he said. “That’s not something the Two Basin Partnership or PG&E has officially stated but it’s very hard to imagine — given the timeframes, the amount of money that would be needed to complete the study plans and FERC’s denial of the extension — how the license transfer application could be successful at this point.”
Huffman said FERC’s denial of the extension is a blessing in disguise in two ways.
“One, PG&E is going to have to pay for all of this decommissioning so it won’t be up to the partners to scramble for public funding and figure out a way to fund these $18 million in studies between now and next year,” he said. “Secondly, the entire goal of this license transfer was to maintain a hydro project that loses $9 million every year. The annual operating losses — even if the coalition had been successful — were going to present some difficult economics. Having this decommissioned and no longer having to be a money-losing hydro project in some ways makes it an easier lift.”
Pacific Gas and Electric Co. has been looking to rid itself of the Potter Valley Project and the costs associated with it for years. In January 2019, PG&E submitted a letter to FERC providing notice that PG&E would not submit an application to relicense the project which is set to expire in April 2022.
The Potter Valley Project has been offline since early sum
mer because there was not enough water in Lake Pillsbury to be diverted to generate electricity, said PG&E spokesperson Paul Moreno.
“That’s when we stopped generating power from the project,” he said. “While the powerhouse is nonoperational, we conducted a maintenance inspection and we discovered that a transformer that’s necessary for power generation was operating outside of acceptable parameters. Because the continued operation of that equipment could create a risk, we decided not to put that transformer back in the service. We’ve done an evaluation of repair alternatives and
concluded the transformer will need to be replaced to meet its operational and safety standards.”
Moreno said the work could take between 18 and 24 months to complete.
Craig Tucker, a natural resources policy consultant working with Humboldt County, added that the powerhouse failure raises some questions.
“What it tells me and really underscores is it’s a pretty expensive proposal to upgrade all that infrastructure,” he said. “It’s old, it doesn’t work that well and figuring out how to come up with the dollars necessary to make a capital investment in the reversion infrastructure becomes the issue.”
Like Huffman, Tucker emphasized the need to develop a new approach.
“Humboldt County and
our partners in the Two Basin Partnership are committed to figuring this thing out and having that win-win,” he said. “It’s okay that Plan A is not working. We will come up with a Plan B because it’s really important for the region to restore salmon runs, and at the same time, to make sure that communities have adequate water supplies. It’s just something we have to do as we look towards the future.”
Hank Seemann, deputy director for Humboldt County Environmental Services, echoed Tucker’s statement and said it is essential to “preserve the partnership.”
“From Humboldt’s point of view, the most critical aspect is removing Scott Dam and modifying Cape Horn Dam to eliminate those barriers to fish passage because
there’s really high-quality habitat for salmon and lamprey,” he said. “… Mendocino and Sonoma need help addressing their water needs. The Eel River does have an abundance of water in the winter so it makes sense that there could be a winter diversion of water but there would not be storage in Scott Dam and Lake Pillsbury.”
Without the partnership, Seemann said there is a risk that “certain parties may try to delay PG&E decommissioning the facility and string out the process for years and years.”
Assuming there is no license transfer when the license expires in April, Moreno said PG&E will pursue an annual license.
“It is basically a license extension,” he said. “We will continue to operate the project under the existing
license conditions until there’s another license holder or should PG&E be directed to decommission the project. If they were to direct the decommissioning, then PG&E would develop a decommissioning proposal with public input and submit that to FERC. Meanwhile, the annual licenses would be renewed.”
Alicia Hamann, executive director of Friends of the Eel River, urged PG&E and the partners to pursue the most efficient option.
“Friends of the Eel River would like to see the partners withdraw their Notice of Intent to relicense as soon as possible so that we can move on pursuing the surrender of PG&E’s license,” she said. “We believe that license surrender is the most logical and efficient path to project decommissioning
and dam removal. Dam removal is the single best move we can make for Eel River fisheries right now.”
Huffman acknowledged that relinquishing the Notice of Intent is a “different way of meeting the needs of both basins” but said, “I think it can still work.”
“The Eel River stakeholders have been willing to commit to that water supply certainty for the Russian River and the Russian River stakeholders have been willing to commit to dam removal on the Eel River side. Those are the two pieces that hold this together,” he said.
More information on the Two Basin Partnership can be found at twobasinsolution.org.