Although some interesting points were made, both pro and con, Tuesday’s Board of Supervisors discussion of a proposed resolution to, sort of, oppose the removal of Scott Dam and the “Potter Valley Project” came down to the two Republican supervisors who proposed it (Bernie Norvell and Madeline Cline) versus the three Democrats (John Haschak, Maureen Mulheren and Ted Williams) who opposed it.
Supporters saw the resolution as an expression of Potter Valley’s resentment about various negative impacts that PG&E’s planned removal of the Potter Valley Project Eel River diversion infrastructure would have. Opponents saw it as belated attempt to muddy the waters and undermine the years of work that has gone into decommissioning planning so far resulting in a partial work-around diversion known as the NERF (New Eel River Facility (basically a pumping station to withdraw water from the Eel during high winter flows and pipe it over the hill and down to Potter Valley and on into Lake Mendocino).
The Democrats had an alternative resolution, but after the Republicans rightly complained that nobody had seen the alternative until just before the Tuesday meeting, that resolution — sure to pass with three votes from the Democrats — was postponed to a later meeting where it can be properly agendized and discussed. Not that it will matter much either.
Most of the points made were familiar to anyone interested in the subject. Why anyone would think that the Supervisors’ after-the-fact opinion on the subject holds any major weight in what appears to be an inexorable decommissioning process is mystifying.
The only point that was new (ish) to us was that even in the unlikely event that the dams are not removed, the capacity of Lake Pillsbury (behind Scott Dam) has already been substantially reduced because of large amounts of silt that have built up behind the dam which will only worsen the longer the dam stays up.
We were surprised that opposition to the proposed resolution included Potter Valley resident Janet Pauli, the long-time right-leaning self-made expert on the Potter Valley project who basically said the NERF was the best Mendo can do since the dams will be removed some day and everyone might as well accept the fact and start planning accordingly.
Questions remain about what kind of storage for Potter Valley can be incorporated in the decommissioning plans. Without storage upstream of Lake Mendocino, Potter Valley will likely experience significant periods of water shortages for ag and residential purposes when the dams are gone. But storage these days is expensive with some saying it could cost as much as $500 million for whatever they seem to think is enough and nobody knows who would pay or how much.
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