Bring back Eel River salmon

We now have a chance to end the practice of sucking the Eel River dry by transferring its water to the Russian River.

Since 1908, PG&E's Potter Valley Project has transferred water from the Eel to the upper watershed of the Russian River. The Project's dams block almost 1,000 stream-miles of salmon and steelhead habitat on the Eel and its tributaries, devastating the Eel's once-great salmon runs. In the Russian River, the artificially high summer flow caused by the addition of the Eel's water increases habitat favorable to the pikeminnow, a voracious predator of salmon. In addition to harming salmon in both rivers, the extra water in the Russian facilitates over-pumping that increases sprawl in the Russian River watershed at the expense of the economies of indigenous tribes and the recreational- and commercial-fishing communities in the Eel River watershed.

The Potter Valley Project's ostensible purpose has been to generate power, but the amount of water diverted far exceeds that needed for the small amount of electricity produced by the antiquated generator. The environmental impacts of a "water supply project" must, under California law, be mitigated. For example, in 1995 the Sierra Club argued successfully before the State Water Resources Control Board that the Marin Municipal Water District (MMWD), as a condition of building its dams on Lagunitas Creek, had to undertake other projects to improve salmon habitat in Lagunitas Creek. There is great concern, however, that the SCWA is trying to pass the Potter Valley Project off as a "power-generating project" whose water is merely incidental, even though this "incidental" water is harming salmon in two great river systems.

SCWA is not interested in electricity - or, we believe, in environmental restoration - but it is very interested in water. For many years it has used the Eel River water to cut deals to supply water to several cities and irrigation districts in the upper Russian River watershed. Reducing Eel River diversions will not harm these existing users, but will allow the increased flows needed in the Eel for restoration of its salmon and its communities. If SCWA were to purchase the Project, it would position itself to sell even more water and garner more power to feed the voracious appetite for sprawl in Sonoma and southern Mendocino Counties.

Recently SCWA created an absurd cover story that it should be authorized to operate the Project as a chinook-restoration device for the Russian River. Apparently SCWA wants an image as an environmental agency, yet it would have us believe that a scheme to restore Russian River fisheries justifies continued decimation of Eel River fisheries.

While SCWA states that the Eel River water is not needed to supply its Sonoma and Marin customers, local ratepayers, including those in the MMWD and North Marin Water District (NMWD), are the ones who would pay for the Project. The cost could be very high if SCWA inherits the obligation - which we believe it should - to restore the ecosystems damaged by the dams. But the costs are not known, and SCWA refuses to divulge any information on them.

MMWD, NMWD, the town of Windsor, and the city of Sonoma have courageously taken action to support restoration of the Eel River by requesting that their new 35-year water contracts with the SCWA be amended - either to require higher standards of review and approval before purchase of the Potter Valley Project, or to entirely delete the Project from the contracts.

WhatYouCanDo

Contact these water districts at:

North Marin Water District Board of Directors
P.O. Box 146
Novato, CA 94948-0146
(415)897-4133
fax: (415)892-8043
rroberts -at- nmwd.com

Marin Municipal Water District Board of Directors
220 Nellen Ave.
Corte Madera, CA 94925
(415)945-1449
fax: (415)927-4953
MMWDboard -at- marinwater.org

Tell them that you support their continuing efforts to prevent purchase of the Potter Valley Project by SCWA and to reduce the diversion of the Eel River waters to the Russian River. For more information visit www.eelriver.org