San Francisco NGO blocked Lake County from talks to take over dams

AENN

Cal Trout singe-handedly kept the county where Scott Dam and Lake Pillsbury are located from a seat at the table for talks to take over the Potter Valley Project from PG&E.

Keely Covello Apr 25

Cal Trout, a green group based in San Francisco, blocked Lake County from talks to assume local management over two fated dams, Supervisor Eddie “E.J.” Crandell revealed in an interview released Wednesday.

“They said no, but the others said yes, and we weren’t allowed to be at the table,” says Crandell, chairman of the Lake County Board of Supervisors and vice chair of the Robinson Rancheria of Pomo Indians. “That’s where the frustration is.”

Supervisor E.J. Crandell is chairman of the Lake County Board of Supervisors and vice chair of the Robinson Rancheria of Pomo Indians

After federal regulations and water cuts made the hydropower operation unprofitable, in 2019 Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) announced they would not renew their license to operate the 100 year-old Potter Valley Project. A group of stakeholders called the NOI Parties was formed to examine options for the future of the dams, which in addition to power, provide water to 600,000 users and hundreds of farms and ranches from Mendocino to Marin County. Losing the hydropower project could mean losing access to agricultural and residential water flows if PG&E removed the dams as part of their surrender. One option on the table was for local groups to take over management of the dams from PG&E.

NOI members included Mendocino County Inland Water & Power Commission, Sonoma County Water Agency, the county of Humboldt, Round Valley Indian Tribes, and Cal Trout. Lake County, where Scott Dam and Lake Pillsbury are located, was not represented.

“We know where we stand,” says Crandell, chairman of the Lake County Board of Supervisors and vice chair of the Robinson Rancheria of Pomo Indians. “We’ve always stood in this position to advocate for Lake Pillsbury because it’s the main thing that’s kept us whole when it comes to fires.”

Lake Pillsbury has been the essential firefighting tool used to fight major fires in Lake County including the August Complex and Mendocino Complex fires.

Crandell says Lake County explored options to join the NOI Parties. They were required to bring $100,000 as a condition of entry.

“We ended up getting that,” Crandell says. “We met with each and every agency and we had really good meetings with Round Valley, Mendocino Inland Water, Sonoma. They were all actually in favor of us joining. There was just one group that did not, and that was the Cal Trout group.”

California Trout is a powerful San Francisco-based NGO that purports to defend wild fish in the state.

In a letter to FERC, then-Congressman John Garamendi wrote,

Apparently, the ‘notice of intent’ parties’ standing rules require approval of all current members before another party may join. CalTrout – a nongovernmental organization that will likely have no official role in the future governance of the Potter Valley Project under the to-be established regional entity – voted to block Lake County from joining its peer county governments (Mendocino, Sonoma, and Humboldt) as a ‘notice of intent’ party. This is not acceptable.

Crandell takes issue with characterizations in the media that no one in the community stepped up to take over the dams when it was an option.

“How are we going to really take it over as a county? We don’t have the resources, you know, we would want to partner with people to do so. And that’s what we thought the NOI would have been.”

Cal Trout is a San Francisco-based NGO dedicated to “healthy waters and better fish” in California.

Will Cal Trout financially benefit from dam removal?

California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) has committed $18 million to the dam removal efforts, including $9 million toward the Eel River Restoration Fund. Water users will pay into this fund, between $750,000 and $1 million a year. Cal Trout and other NGOs could receive portions of this fund.

For groups who stand to financially gain if and when the Potter Valley Project is removed to have a seat at the table for discussions about its future while taxpayers and community members who will lose water are excluded from participation, seems like a fairly blatant conflict of interest.

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