Rollins tweet stirs Eel River dam-removal concerns on North Coast

A single tweet from U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins put fresh pressure on the already fragile Eel River dam-removal process, raising fears on the North Coast that a politically charged detour could slow a project now moving through federal and county approvals.

The April 21 post claimed a Southern California water district wanted to buy the Potter Valley dams for hydroelectric power and irrigation. The district, Elsinore Valley Municipal Water District, later pulled back from that framing and described its interest as exploratory, not a firm plan. Even so, the reaction was immediate in Humboldt County, where the fate of Scott Dam, Cape Horn Dam and the Potter Valley Project has become a defining issue for fisheries, water reliability and regional planning.

Friends of the Eel River’s Alicia Hamann and Scott Greacen said the tweet landed in the middle of a process that already has a legal track. Pacific Gas & Electric filed its license surrender application and decommissioning plan on July 25, 2025, and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission accepted it on October 31, 2025, opening a public comment period. Humboldt County says PG&E is preparing to decommission the hydroelectric project, which includes two dams, a diversion tunnel and a 9.4-megawatt powerhouse.

That timeline matters because local partners have already spent months trying to shape what comes next. On July 22, 2025, the Humboldt County Board of Supervisors approved a water diversion agreement, following an earlier memorandum of understanding adopted on February 11, 2025. The deal brings together the Round Valley Indian Tribes, California Department of Fish and Wildlife, CalTrout, Humboldt County, Mendocino Inland Water and Power Commission, Sonoma Water and Trout Unlimited, among others, to support dam removal while preserving some water supply through a new Eel-Russian facility. CDFW committed $18 million in February 2025, with $9 million for design and capital costs and $9 million for an Eel River Restoration Fund.

The stakes extend far beyond a social media flare-up. Friends of the Eel River says the project blocks access to more than 288 miles of historic cold-water habitat in the upper Eel watershed, and the group says dam removal could begin as early as 2028. At the same time, the Potter Valley Irrigation District says the water diverted from the Eel supports agricultural production in Potter Valley worth more than $34 million, underscoring why any delay carries real economic weight for local farms.

Elsinore Valley Municipal Water District serves about 160,000 residential and commercial users in western Riverside County, nearly 600 miles from the dams. A March 26, 2026 board paper trail showed two members of its Water Supply Ad Hoc Subcommittee had recently traveled to a Potter Valley Irrigation District meeting, though the minutes do not describe the discussion. For North Coast leaders and tribes, the broader fight is about whether outside pressure will disrupt a negotiated transition that ties together tribal sovereignty, salmon recovery, Russian River water security and the future of the Eel itself.