An update on the plans to remove the dams created for the Potter Valley Project and build a new water diversion facility at Cape Horn Dam was presented Thursday during an online meeting hosted by Pacific Gas and Electric Company officials.
Most of the meeting was comprised of a presentation by Tony Gigliotti, the Senior Licensing Project Manager for PG&E, who provided a detailed outline of the long and multi-faceted process involved in the utility’s application to decommission and surrender its hydroelectric plant located in Mendocino County.
“There is one application with two separate processes: 1) Decommissioning of the facility, and 2) Construction of the new diversion facility,” said Gigliotti, stressing multiple times that in order to accommodate the wishes of a third party (called the Eel-Russian Project Authority) to continue water diversions from the Eel River to the Russian River that began more than 100 years ago when the Potter Valley Project was first built, PG&E “found a solution that does not delay the decommissioning process (with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission),” and that is to categorize the plan for a new diversion facility as “non-project use of project lands.”
As for the design of the new diversion facility, David Manning from the Sonoma County Water Agency (the coalition hoping to using the PVP’s water tunnel as part of a new diversion facility includes Sonoma Water, Mendocino County Inland Water and Power Commission, Humboldt County, Round Valley Indian Tribes, California Trout, Trout Unlimited, and the California Department of Fish and Wildlife) showed renderings of both the current Cape Horn Dam, and how the facility could be transformed.
Manning described the facility’s design phase, which he said was funded by a grant from the federal Bureau of Reclamation, as being “60-percent complete.” When asked questions after his presentation, Manning noted that the intent of the facility was “not to impede either recreation or fish passage,” and would not impede lamprey passage, either.
Watch video of Manning describing the design of the new diversion facility here: https://fb.watch/xBegd27GTQ/
When asked if there was a timeline in which the Eel-Russian Project Authority had to prove that it had the funds necessary to complete the project, Manning said “no, ERPA does not have a specific timeline. We are, of course, interested in federal, state and local funding, but there is no specific timeline for the raising of the funds and the construction of the project.”
As for PG&E’s timeline, it is currently collecting comments on its application to FERC to decommission and surrender the PVP until March 3.
“Toward the end of March, we hope to have those (comments) compiled and posted to the website so the public can see all the comments we received,” said Gigliotti, noting that “we will not respond to comments individually, but we will address them as appropriate within the document.”
When asked for more details about the process of removing both dams created for the PVP, Gigliotti said the removal of Scott Dam would be a “three-year process, with the first year involving lowering the reservoir, then installing a large hole, then plugging the hole, then when the reservoir comes back (during a high-flow year) we remove the plug, possibly with explosives, allowing the sediment to be flushed down.”
However, given that a “high-flow year” may not immediately follow the first year of the project, the first two years of the project may not be consecutive years, he said, explaining that “the first year will be preparing the site, then we need a wet, high-flow year to remove the sediment.”
As for Cape Horn Dam, Gigliotti said that dam “is anticipated to be removed at the same time” as Scott Dam. As far as construction of the new diversion facility, Manning said the plan was to build it at the same time that Cape Horn Dam was being removed in order to minimize disruption and intrusion.
With about 10 minutes left in their scheduled 90-minute presentation, PG&E officials opened up a Q&A session that was then extended another 10 minutes as more than 150 people were still signed on at the end of the allotted time.
PG&E officials said that Thursday’s presentation was not recorded, but that the slides shown would be uploaded to the project website for public review “by close of business (Friday).”
That website is https://www.pottervalleysurrenderproceeding.com/
Contact Tony Gigliotti at Tony.Gigliotti@pge.com for questions and to obtain the password for the documents page. Also, Gigliotti said people interested in continuing operating campgrounds or other recreational facilities at the dam sites should contact him directly via email.
(Ukiah Daily Journal)
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