Letters 4/4/2025

• Scott Dam: What About The Fish?
• Potter Valley Project/Scott Dam Seismic Risk Danger
• Bring Back VOA
• Long John/Tubby Tunes On KZYX
• Time For A New 5th District Supervisor
• An Unaccountable Leader
• Either Or
• An April 1 Memory
• DOGE
• The Truly Shocking

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SCOTT DAM: WHAT ABOUT THE FISH?

To the Editor:

Before Scott Dam comes down, I suggest a trial run to “Save The Salmon”. A test if you will, to actually gauge the survive-ability of fish in the warm tributaries above Lake Pillsbury.

If the USFWS honestly believe that fish will survive and return in the tributaries above Lake Pillsbury I suggest the following:

1. Develop a comprehensive eradication plan for the Pike Minnow, regardless the outcome. Is the Plan currently being used on the South Fork working??
2. Set up a hatchery just below Scott Dam. Collect the eggs from all fish reaching that point in the river and hatch them. Plant them in all of the available streams above the dam. We have done this in the past at numerous times and places on the Eel River. There is recorded evidence that the program was extremely successful. The first was between 1897 and 1916, the Hatchery was on Price Creek a few miles upstream of Ferndale.

After this, one was operated on Steelhead Creek located between Fort Seward and Alder Point and operated until 1942 and shut down because of the war. It worked then, why not now?

3. When appropriate, collect them and return them below the dam. (is this called trap & haul)?

And/or

4. Rear the eggs and when appropriate release them back into the river to return to the ocean as normal. Monitoring of progress required.
5. I have reviewed a copy of the 2024 Eel River Watershed Restoration and Conservation Program. The leaders are California Trout, Stillwater Sciences and Applied River Sciences. The technical advisory committee: NOAA, NMFS, USFS, BLM, UC Berkeley, CDFW, Wiyot Tribe and the Eel River Forum participants. This comprehensive plan does not have to wait for the removal of Scott Dam. Thousands of miles of prime habitat need your help now! Check it out. www.caltrout.org

Steven Elliott & Roy Branscomb

Potter Valley

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POTTER VALLEY PROJECT/SCOTT DAM SEISMIC RISK DANGER

Editor,

The Pacific Gas & Electric Company (PG&E) is surrendering the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) license for the Potter Valley Project (PVP). PG&E identifies this action as a business decision because of the project’s failure to produce revenues that offset its operating costs, even though PG&E customers pay higher rates for delivered energy than just about everywhere else in the Unted States.

In our opinion, PG&E has determined to rid itself of the PVP for a different kind of economic consideration, after determining that the Scott Dam represents an economic liability that the company cannot afford. A key factor in this determination is the increased understanding of the seismic hazards represented by the Bartlett Springs Fault Zone (BSFZ), which runs through Lake Pillsbury approximately 5,000 feet (about a mile) east of Scott Dam.

As part of the PVP relicensing process, FERC held an auction for potential alternative licensees for the PVP. No takers made offers to accept the ownership of and responsibility for this existing hydropower license, for the same reason that PG&E does not want the responsibility for these existing conditions: a recognition of the outstanding risk that the BSFZ represents for the PVP licensee.

The history of the PVP doesn’t need to be repeated here, but the scientific understanding of Earth sciences that has developed in the past century, which is critical in considering the best options for the future of the PVP, is less well-known. The geological framework represented by plate tectonics is particularly significant in understanding the circumstances presented for the PVP. The dynamics of plate tectonics were not understood in the early 1900s when the Cape Horn and Scott Dams were designed and constructed. Over this past century, the scientific understanding of plate tectonics (including the Bartlett Springs Fault Zone) has developed continuously, and most of our current understanding of how tectonic dynamics affect northwestern California has developed fully only in the most recent 30 years.

A short summary of western California’s geological history shows that until about 28 million years ago the western continental margin was a “subduction zone” with the Farallon Plate subducting beneath the western margin of the North American Plate. West of the Farallon Plate was another plate (the Pacific Plate), with a surface movement direction toward the northwest. When the margin between the Pacific Plate and the Farallon Plate reached the edge of the North American Plate, the relative dynamics of the plate boundary changed to become a “transform margin”, with the Pacific Plate moving northwest relative to the North American Plate. This margin is known today as the San Andreas Fault Zone (SAFZ).

The SAFZ is not just a line on a map, but a 50-mile-wide zone of fault activity on a number of collateral major faults in addition to the San Andreas Fault itself. The Bartlett Springs Fault Zone is the easternmost fault in the SAFZ. The BSFZ extends 50 miles from the Middle Fork of the Eel River southeast to Round Valley, past Lake Pillsbury and Bartlett Springs to just north of Cache Creek. Related faults in the same alignment system to the south include Wilson, Hunting Creek, and Green Valley faults.

Nobody we know can accurately predict when a seismic event might occur. However, based upon the length of the fault zone and other criteria geologists can estimate the potential magnitude of a major seismic event. Recent studies have identified the Bartlett Springs Fault as capable of producing an earthquake of Moment Magnitude between 6.7 and 7.2 (as documented by geological studies published by B.L. Melosh et al. 2024, V.E. Langenheim et al. 2023, and J.C. Lozos et al. 2015).

Earthquakes with magnitudes between 6.7 and 7.2 are major seismic events. Prior events within the memories of individuals living in northern California that fall within this magnitude range include the 1994 Northridge Earthquake (M6.7), the 1992 Cape Mendocino Triple Junction Earthquake (M7.2), the 1989 Loma Prieta Earthquake (M6.9), and the 1980 Eureka (Gorda Plate) Earthquake (M7.3).

The 1992 Mendocino Triple Junction event (M7.2) resulted in damage in Ferndale (in Humboldt County) very similar to the damage that occurred in Ferndale from the 1906 (M7.9) event in San Francisco. The 1980 Gorda Plate earthquake (M7.3) resulted in a collapsed Highway 101 overpass near Humboldt Bay. The 1989 Loma Prieta Earthquake (M6.9) was on an oblique fault very close to the San Andreas Fault in the Santa Cruz area, and may be more directly indicative of effects associated with the Bartlett Springs Fault at Lake Pillsbury. The event was memorialized on TV because it occurred at the start of a World Series game in San Francisco. Long sections of the I-580 freeway in Oakland collapsed during the quake, and a large part of the Marina District in San Francisco was damaged because of liquefaction in the poorly consolidated fill on which it was built.

An earthquake in this magnitude range on the Bartlett Springs Fault in the vicinity of Lake Pillsbury could result in an immediate failure of Scott Dam as a consequence of the seismic shaking per se. Moreover, the existing large landslide at the south end of the dam, on which the south abutment is based, would likely be mobilized (as occurred widely in northwestern California in 1992 with the Triple Junction event), leading to the destruction of the south end of the dam, and the rest of the structure would follow. This location was not then, and is not now, a safe location for a dam.

Dams do fail and while the specific dynamics are different, the St Francis Dam failure in Los Angeles County in 1928 is a relevant example. A common joke among geologists is that a sure way to find a new fault is to look for an older dam, an indication of how significant a risk geologists consider fault movement to be with respect to dam safety, particularly for older structures. Geological science clearly indicates that the BSFZ represents a significant risk of failure for Scott Dam.

While we have yet to see the internal studies conducted by PG&E for the Scott Dam, we suspect that those studies say the same. We strongly believe that discussions among members of the public and their elected decision-makers about the future of the Potter Valley Project should include a greater appreciation of these geological realities.

Bob Schneider, Bachelor of Science, Geology, UC Davis

Chad Roberts, Senior Ecologist, Ph.D., Ecology, UC Davis

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BRING BACK VOA

Editor:

In September 1980, I started a six-month position with Africare to set up clinics in refugee camps in Somalia. Upon arriving, I realized I was cut off from my family and the rest of the world. The only exception was when I was traveling with my young Somali counterpart, Abdulahi Potan.

Abdulahi would get up at 3 a.m. to listen to the Somali language news broadcast of Voice of America. Memorization skills were valued in Somalia. Abdulahi would repeat the broadcast to me the next morning — my lifeline to the world. This was how I learned about John Lennon’s assassination, Ronald Reagan’s election, the Iran hostage release and the Oakland Raiders’ Super Bowl win.

VOA has been providing this lifeline to billions since the early dark days of World War II. Autocrats all over the world have tried to silence it by confiscating radios, jamming frequencies and arresting listeners. Brave people all over the world chose to listen anyway.

Now, our American autocrat has silenced these broadcasts. Congress needs to listen to Van Morrison’s song “Wavelength”: “I hear the Voice of America calling on my wavelength, saying come back baby, come back.”

Please bring VOA back.

Rick Denniston

Santa Rosa

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LONG JOHN/TUBBY TUNES ON KZYX

Editor,

I was part of the original crew at KZYX… joined before the Oct 1989 sign on. Sean Donovan had the knowledge to get the station on the air… yes, some folks did not like him because of his brusque manner, and some folks also didn’t like Marco because he was a malcontent… and I’m a radio guy who was in the middle. CPB is a 2 edged sword… yes, they can help pay for equipment, vital what a station is starting, but also has requirements as to paid staff levels. Sean is like a radio gypsy, starting stations (such as KHNS, Haines, AK) and that’s how he makes his living. Nobody was FORCED to join the effort for a radio station… all contributions and efforts were voluntary, and the people knew what the deal was with Donovan heading the effort… no secrets there…

I don’t know how often KZYX polls the community to see what the listeners like & don’t like. I do know there ARE some folks that DO like NPR, and that’s fine, nothing wrong with that. I don’t know how much of the budget is going to buy & outfit the new headquarters & studio in Ukiah (a substantial cost), n or the funding sources. As I understand it the owners of the Philo location want to do something else with that property, and the microwave signal to Cold Springs transmitter site was having vegetative growth impair the link.

I’ve been involved with several radio & tv stations as a DJ, Board member, & Manager… and even built & licensed KPHT Fat 99…mostly non comm, but also commercial stations too.

The recurring issue I see with KZYX is its revolving management staff. It’s rare to see a GM there for more than 2 years, and the infighting between internal factions on the Board, and from outside, like the guy who wanted the FCC to cancel the license.

I’m a big fan of stability, but also see dangers of entrenchment. We’ve seen both amateurs and professional (such as Nicole Sawaya) folks run the station. Some folks think the station should be like a commune, but that again leads to infighting and instability..

Some folks will always love KZYX, some will always want to change it to fit how they think it should be run… the Big Question is: can KZYX survive itself ???

PS, folks might remember my Tubby Tunes radio show on KZYX starting Fall 1989. I’m now self-syndicated on several of Mendocino County’s best non-comm radio stations… More info on my FB page LongJohn95454

LONG JOHN/TUBBY TUNES
Laytonville

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TIME FOR A NEW 5TH DISTRICT SUPERVISOR

Editor:

Before I launch into the many reasons I think Mendocino County’s Fifth District should replace Ted Williams as their supervisor, I want to make a point. We will call it Point A: I fully realize that our tiny county is adrift in a massive sea of state, national, and international forces, and the County Supervisor is a pretty low rung on the political ladder. Thus I don't want to hold Ted to account for things he has no say over. My critique will center on the fact that he does have a platform. He has political capital, and pretty much never uses it. He could be organizing with and advocating for his constituents and create partnerships for things they need.

With the upcoming election in 2026, it is certainly time for the Fifth District to consider just how voters should replace Ted Williams and just who his replacement will be. The truth is his eight years have been marked by abject failure in our County. When he and I were both running for the seat in 2018, when my stroke took me out of the running before our November run-off, Ted was selling himself as the young, can-do outsider who was going to get our County working again. By any metric he has failed his constituents.

Perhaps the clearest example is the recent dismissal, by Judge Ann Moorman of the farcical case against Chamise Cubbison, County Auditor and Tax Collector. The case was a clearly vindictive prosecution by DA David Eyster. But the way Williams and our BOS threw Chamise under the bus is truly shameful. On just the DA’s say so, they removed an elected official from her office (shades of Elon Musk?) thus throwing the County’s financial affairs into chaos, and exposing the County to a potentially expensive wrongful termination lawsuit. To anyone who is paying attention those offices should never have been combined. But Ted ignored that advice too, and forced Chamise into an impossible position. I still maintain contacts in the SEIU since they endorsed me in 2018 and morale of County employees is at an historic low

On other fronts, can anyone identify even one move that has been made to establish affordable housing for working people, or even one initiative for decent wages? See Point A. Admittedly, I may have missed some, but it seems pretty quiet out there. We remain a wine and tourist dependent economy. Who can raise a family on those wages? Again, I’m not aware of a single effort by Williams in this area. In fact when we were both running in 2018, the County stood to benefit from the legalization of marijuana. We were loaded with legacy growers who had generations of farming knowledge, and were looking forward to no longer having to hide. They were looking forward to full economic participation in County affairs.

I remember at a candidates cannabis forum Ted said he would get the County permitting application down to 1 page and a $25 fee. This was a chance for some real living wage jobs, It was an exciting time! I still maintain some of my contacts in that community, and not a single one feels like Ted did Jack S*@! In fact most of them have quit trying and have moved on or even sold their land. Refer again to Point A.

In considering his replacement I would recommend someone who is not interested in career moves outside our County. It should be someone who is interested in maintaining their roots in our community; I know some Coastlib Dems have been whispering in Ted’s ear about Sacramento, maybe even the governorship. Even I found that hard to believe until his ill-fated Assembly run. Clearly he sees his current position as a rung on his career ladder.

An opposing candidate must have laser sharp focus to keep the campaign on County affairs. When John Redding ran against Ted in 2022, John is a Republican, and with the fear of Trump at such a peak fervor, Ted easily kept the focus on national issues that a BOS would never have been involved with, and John was unable to keep the focus on relevant county issues. So Ted’s opponent needs to stay on point, and expose his actual record.

It will be difficult. He is surrounded by a remarkable cadre of enablers and apologists who fall for his charm. But I believe it can and must be done for the health of our community.

Thank you,

Chris Skyhawk

Fort Bragg

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AN UNACCOUNTABLE LEADER

Editor:

All bureaucratic entities, whether governmental or corporate, have some degree of mismanagement and/or waste. They aren’t perfect, and the bigger they are the more difficult monitoring their operations becomes. We have a network of such watchdogs, like the recently fired inspectors general and the Office of Management and Budget, which reports to the president. The primary goal here is stability and efficiency. Without it, any system of governance is in peril.

To have an untrained goon squad like the DOGE, whose employees reportedly are paid up to $200,000, to guide the firing of tens of thousands of government workers without an analysis of resulting impacts is not much different than a rogue billionaire buying a social media giant, then gutting it, only to see it shed half its value and market share. Sound familiar?

Meanwhile, the new regime is not held accountable. Flaunting an unsubstantiated stream of “savings” is what scammers do. How about a new Department of Presidential Excess — or DOPE — since Donald Trump apparently has an open checkbook? It cost taxpayers $1 million for him to attend the Super Bowl and $750,000 to drive a car around the oval at the Indianapolis Speedway. A bumpy ride indeed.

John Brodey

Santa Rosa

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EITHER OR

To the Editor,

I was drafted into the Army in 1967, a 19-year-old boy from Brooklyn, as green as they come. I grew up really fast the next year when I was deployed to Vietnam, and in each and every letter I sent home to my family, I put this on the outside of the envelope in large capital letters: I.A.C.W.B. (“It’s a cruel world, baby.”)

Though I became cynical in how I viewed the war effort, I made it back in one piece, and I consider myself to this day to be a very lucky man.

What President Trump and Elon Musk are doing to the veterans is an abomination. Mr. Trump has made it clear that he views people risking their lives serving the nation in the military as losers. And now, in a miserable attempt to trim wasteful government fat, he is putting veterans at even greater risk.

I’m all for eliminating government waste, but why target Veterans Affairs? How about turning your trimming knife to the Pentagon and the bloated defense budget, which grows every year?

If I want to lose weight, I can do it one of two ways: I can limit eating fattening foods and cut calories so that the weight comes off without putting my health at risk.

Or I can cut off my legs.

Len DiSesa

Dresher, Pennsylvania

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AN APRIL 1 MEMORY

Editor:

It was April Fools’ Day, 1967, and I was sitting in high school concert band with a sousaphone wrapped over my shoulder. Rather than warming the group up with the standard two minutes of regimented scales and études, our band director, with a twinkle in his eye, laid down his baton and said: “Kids? Do something even if it’s wrong.” Within seconds, the flutes were trilling, bassoons bumbling, trumpets screeching, French horns crooning, trombones glissading, tubas oomping. The band room filled with discordant, shrill, uncontrolled, high-decibel chaos. Dang, it was fun and effective! In the end, we were certainly warmed up.

I am reminded of that long-ago “do something even if it’s wrong” direction as I observe the daily actions and orders from our current administration in Washington. They are proving to be all those descriptors from that April 1 in concert band. With the exception of fun or effective.

Dave Delgardo

Cloverdale

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DOGE

Dear AVA,

I’ve been mulling over this ‘DOGE’ nomenclature. I’ve heard it before from history. Not from the name of Elon Musk’s favorite crypto-currency, though I’ve heard that attribution before, too.

What professor Google has enlightened is that Doge is an Italian cognate of ‘Duce’, derived from the Latin term ‘dux’, meaning ‘spiritual Leader’ or ‘military commander’.

Sound vaguely familiar?

The Doge was the highest ranked civilian Magistrate in the Italian Republics of Venice and Genoa. We’re talking 10th to 15th Century CE here.

The Doge ran it all it all -- everything -- with impunity and absolute sovereignty. Beginning to sound a little bit more familiar?

To put a finer point on this: Trump is President of these United States. Elon Musk is the DOGE. Both pretend to rule with the impunity and absolute sovereignty.

Except they -- regrettably for them -- are trying to reign in -- enact -- a polity that hasn’t existed for decades. Centuries. They are doing their utmost to resurrect it now. It ain’t gonna float.

The Republican led houses of Congress are supine. All that is needed to silence their (rightful) outrage at the Executive Branch’s incompetent shenanigans for the past 2 months is, ‘Hey, if you disagree or challenge El Presidente’s or Doge Musk’s political aberrations, then we have all the money we need to confront you with a Primary challenger in the MAGA/DOGE mold. Wanna take our bet against you?
I really don’t want to get too far over my skies here, but I see only two stoppers for the Trump/Musk team.

The first are the courts, which have thus far held fast to the fundamental tenants of our Constitution. Gonna finally be up to the Supremes. John Roberts and Amy Comey Barrett just might -- might -- find their ways to protect the Republic from this (toxic) Unitary Executive theory the Heritage Foundation and other monarchical oriented rightists so fervently believe in. They -- the monarchists -- just might be willing to stop at nothing to formally enact a de facto  extra-Constitutional DOGE to govern our America. We’ll see. So far the courts are not cooperating with them. Whew!

‘May you live in interesting times’ is both a Chinese curse and blessing. Pick it, or take both. Either way, what’s going in in Washington DC is way out of my -- and your -- pay grade. All we get to do is 1) fully inform ourselves, 2) make as much noise as we can, 3) send our Republic’s defenders as much money as we can afford and show up to resist this MAGA nightmare in whatever way(s) we can.

Enough from me on this. Anyone care to comment?

Lee Edmundson

Mendocino

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THE TRULY SHOCKING

Editor,

Regarding ‘It shook me to my core’: Pro-Palestinian protesters disrupt Israel Philharmonic concert in S.F.’ (Bay Area, SFChronicle.com, March 25): Bombing hospitals, schools and killing tens of thousands, and creating what a U.N. official called the ’largest cohort of child amputees’ in recent history, all this is fine, but demonstrating and displaying a Palestinian flag, ‘shook me to my core,’ according to one San Francisco Symphony audience member.

One can only wonder whether that core has a conscience.

Many of my family members were killed in the Nazi Holocaust, and as a Jew who grew up as a Zionist, I am ashamed, disgusted and disheartened that Zionist Jews support ethnic cleansing and genocide of Palestinians.

Never again, as we say, means never again for anyone.

Blair Sandler

San Francisco