Washington claim raises new twist in Potter Valley Dam dispute

A claim from Washington that a Riverside County water district may be interested in the Potter Valley Project has put a new outside player into a fight that still shapes Eel River flows, fish restoration and North Coast water politics. The question for Humboldt is not just who might buy into the project, but whether that interest would change anything after PG&E has already moved to surrender the dams.

The Potter Valley Project is not a side issue. The century-old inter-basin diversion began in 1908 and includes Cape Horn Dam and Van Arsdale Reservoir on the Eel River, plus Scott Dam and Lake Pillsbury. PG&E says the project can generate up to 9.4 megawatts of power, but it also says the current federal license expired on April 14, 2022 and that it has operated under annual licenses since then. FERC directed PG&E on May 11, 2022 to file a surrender plan and schedule, and PG&E filed its Surrender Application and Decommissioning Plan with FERC on July 25, 2025.

That timeline matters because PG&E draws a hard line between a hydroelectric relicensing path and the surrender process now underway. The utility says it no longer has the ability to transfer the hydropower operating license at this stage. In PG&E’s telling, that closes the old path for anyone hoping to keep the project as a conventional power facility, even if qualified parties could still pursue control of some conveyance features that might matter for future water deliveries.

That is where the North Coast stakes sharpen. PG&E says it continues to work with Sonoma County Water Agency, Mendocino water interests, tribal governments, Humboldt County, CalTrout, Trout Unlimited and state wildlife officials on what comes next. The New Eel-Russian Facility, or NERF, could use some existing infrastructure after Cape Horn and Scott dams are removed. Sonoma Water says an Eel-Russian Project Authority was created at the end of 2023 by Sonoma Water, Sonoma County, the Mendocino County Inland Water and Power Commission and the Round Valley Indian Tribes after a revised regional proposal was submitted in November 2023.

By July 2025, that coalition had already signed a Water Diversion Agreement for the New Eel-Russian Facility. Signers included the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, CalTrout, Humboldt County, Mendocino County Inland Water and Power Commission, Round Valley Indian Tribes, Sonoma County, Sonoma Water and Trout Unlimited.

Friends of the Eel River says the new Washington claim should not obscure the bigger reality: the dams cannot be relicensed as hydroelectric facilities under the current federal process, and they remain seismically risky. California dam-safety regulators use reservoir restrictions when deficiencies are identified, and a September 2023 state report said PG&E had taken #3 Forebay out of service while preparing a surrender application. For Humboldt, the real turning point is still the same one: whether the region can steer the post-dam future before someone else tries to steer it for them.