The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, the agency with ultimate authority over the fate of two Lake and Mendocino county dams that have become embroiled in escalating controversy, dealt a blow Monday to one of the newer — and more distant — players to enter the fray, denying a bid by a Southern California water agency to intervene in the process.
“Movants for late intervention are required to ‘show good cause why the time limitation should be waived,’” FERC Secretary Debbie-Anne A. Reese wrote to Riverside County-based Elsinore Valley Municipal Water District. “Here, the District failed to demonstrate that good cause exists … because it did not provide any explanation for the untimeliness of its motion.”
The Lost Coast Outpost first reported the decision, the latest turn in a growing saga that has drawn in the Trump administration as chief antagonist of utility giant Pacific Gas & Electric Co.’ plans to decommission and remove its two Eel River dams, which it contends are outdated and inefficient.
Elsinore Valley had filed its motion to intervene July 9, more than seven months past FERC’s deadline for such motions.
Reese presented the commission’s notice as final. The water district has 30 days to request a rehearing of the decision.
Sylvia Ornelas, who handles press inquiries for Elsinore Valley Municipal Water, said the district learned of Reese’s decision only Tuesday, and is doing its due diligence while evaluating its next steps.
The Scott Dam at Lake Pillsbury, Thursday, April 23, 2026, in Lake County. (Kent Porter / The Press Democrat)
Press Democrat
This diagram shows how water from Lake Pillsbury, through Scott Dam, flows downstream toward Cape Horn Dam and Van Arsdale Reservoir, where a portion of the water since 1908 has been diverted through a tunnel and to the Potter Valley Powerhouse into the East Fork Russian River and on into Lake Mendocino. The plant’s 9.2-megawatt capacity amounted to 0.1% of PG&E’s 7,689-megawatt power production in 2017. (Press Democrat)
Christopher Chung/The Press Democrat
Cloverdale Mayor Todd Lands speaks during the Potter Valley Project town hall meeting in Cloverdale on Thursday, March 20, 2025. (Christopher Chung/The Press Democrat)
Christopher Chung/The Press Democrat
David Manning, environmental resources manager at Sonoma County Water Agency, presents slides during the Potter Valley Project town hall meeting in Cloverdale on Thursday, March 20, 2025. (Christopher Chung/The Press Democrat)
John Burgess / The Press Democrat
People pack a town hall meeting on the Potter Valley Project on Tuesday, July 1, 2025, at the Finley Center in Santa Rosa. (John Burgess / The Press Democrat)
John Burgess / The Press Democrat
Audience members listen to plans and economic forecasts on Tuesday, July 1, 2025, at a Potter Valley Project town hall at the Finley Center in Santa Rosa. (John Burgess / The Press Democrat)
Potter Valley Project
Scott Dam at Lake Pillsbury. (Potter Valley Project)
Water flows into the Eel River at Scott Dam, which was created for the Potter Valley Project.
(File photo/The Ukiah Daily Journal)
Stewart Reid, an independent fish biologist working with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, inspects monitors used to track lamprey at the Cape Horn Dam fish ladder near Potter Valley, Wednesday April 7, 2016. (Kent Porter / Press Democrat) 2016
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The Scott Dam at Lake Pillsbury, Thursday, April 23, 2026, in Lake County. (Kent Porter / The Press Democrat)
The FERC ruling comes amid the slowly advancing push by PG&E to decommission Scott Dam, which created Lake Pillsbury in 1922, and Cape Horn Dam, which created Van Arsdale Reservoir in Mendocino County. Together they form the base of the Potter Valley Project, which sends Eel River water from Pillsbury to Van Arsdale, then through a tunnel to the upper end of rural Potter Valley, and finally into the upper Russian River, where it helps supplement flows for rural residents, farm irrigators and cities stretching from Ukiah to Healdsburg in Sonoma County.
The project produced hydroelectric power and distributed water to ranchers and farmers for roughly a century. But PG&E wants to be rid of the 118-year-old Potter Valley Powerhouse, offline since 2021. The utility says it has been operating the dams at a deficit of $1 million per year.
The Northern California utility company was part of a groundbreaking February 2025 agreement that would remove both dams, transfer Eel River water rights to the Round Valley Indian Tribes and allow for continued diversion to users in the Russian River watershed under periods of strong Eel River flows.
That framework is generally referred to as the Two-Basin Solution. PG&E filed a formal plan to proceed in July 2025.
With the dams gone, the Eel — California’s third-longest river — would be free once again, and its headwaters accessible as spawning habitat for diminished runs of the river’s once-bountiful salmon and steelhead trout.
The agreement immediately set battle lines, with environmentalists, anglers, Democratic Rep. Jared Huffman and an array of local tribes and officials representing Sonoma, Mendocino and Humboldt counties backing the plan. Agricultural interests and Lake County have been staunchly opposed.
One of the Two Basin Solution’s lead voices has been the Round Valley Indian Tribes, who would stand to reclaim long-denied water rights if the dam removal moves forward.
Round Valley Indian Tribes President Joseph Parker on Tuesday said his tribal group is pleased with and thankful for FERC’s decision to exclude the Elsinore Valley Municipal Water District from the process, while acknowledging it is only one milestone along the way.
“It is unfortunate that interests from far outside the Eel and Russian River basins continue to attempt to solve their water issues at the expense of our tribal members and our Two-Basin Solution partners,” Parker said in a statement to The Press Democrat. “Quite simply, they are seeking to upend a local solution that is fair for the communities that live here and we want them to understand that our Tribal Nation will take all steps that are necessary to protect our people, our resources, and our way of life.”
Round Valley Tribal Council president Joseph Parker, Tuesday, April 21, 2026, in Covelo. (Kent Porter / The Press Democrat)
U.S. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins, right, and Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, left, meet with PG&E CEO Patti Poppe in Washington D.C. over the future of the utility’s pair of dams on the Eel River in Lake and Mendocino counties. (Via X post by Secretary Brooke Rollins)
Kent Porter / The Press Democrat
Scott Dam at Lake Pillsbury, Wednesday, May 14, 2025, in Lake County. (Kent Porter / The Press Democrat)
Kent Porter / The Press Democrat
With a backdrop of Hull Mountain in the Mendocino National Forest, a couple take to Lake Pillsbury from Pine Point, Wednesday May 14, 2025. (Kent Porter / The Press Democrat)
Amie Windsor / The Press Democrat
‘Save Lake Pillsbury’ signs can be spotted throughout the Lake Pillsbury watershed, including Potter Valley. (Amie Windsor / The Press Democrat)
Kent Porter / The Press Democrat
Decades of signatures from visitors to Lake Pillsbury cover support poles inside Soda Creek Store Wednesday, May 14, 2025. (Kent Porter / The Press Democrat)
Kent Porter / The Press Democrat file
The August Complex, a series of lightning-sparked blazes that ignited in August 2020, burned 1,032,648 acres in Mendocino, Humboldt, Trinity, Tehama, Glenn, Lake and Colusa counties. It destroyed 935 structures and caused one death. In this photo, fire burns on Hull Mountain above Lake Pillsbury in Lake County on Sept. 21, 2020. (Kent Porter / The Press Democrat file)
Redds, spewing beds for fish are high and dry on Lake Pillsbury, at the Pine Point Picnic area. Wednesday, Dec. 10, 2025, in the Mendocino National Forest. (Kent Porter / The Press Democrat)
Christopher Chung / The Press Democrat file
Rep. Jared Huffman answers questions during his town hall meeting in Petaluma on Thursday, Feb. 20, 2025. (Christopher Chung / The Press Democrat file)
Courtesy photo
Dayna Ghirardelli, executive director, Sonoma County Farm Bureau. (Courtesy photo)
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Round Valley Tribal Council president Joseph Parker, Tuesday, April 21, 2026, in Covelo. (Kent Porter / The Press Democrat)
Opponents, meanwhile, found a powerful ally last December when U.S. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins filed to intervene in the decommissioning process. She also submitted comments urging FERC to reject PG&E’s application to surrender its license for the two dams.
The Trump administration said stopping the Two-Basin Solution would fit with a presidential memorandum titled “Putting People over Fish: Stopping Radical Environmentalism to Provide Water to Southern California.”
It was Rollins who introduced Elsinore Valley Water as a potential partner, posting on social media in April that she had spoken to water district representatives and calling Elsinore Valley “a legitimate buyer who expressed strong interest in purchasing the project from PG&E.”
Water district leadership traveled to Washington D.C. in June to meet with Rollins, U.S. Department of the Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, Bureau of Reclamation officials, PG&E and National Energy Dominance Council staff.
The interest shown by Elsinore, a water district 600 miles away and with a modest 163,000 customers, quickly led to speculation that the district might ultimately take over operation of the dams, but only to sell the water back to local stakeholders, perhaps at an opportunistic rate.
Huffman, who played a central role in brokering the Two-Basin Solution and sits on the House Natural Resources Committee, opened an investigation into the Trump administration’s involvement, saying the move smacked of a “Southern California water grab.”
The debate is unlikely to die down anytime soon. This week alone, FERC has posted at least 34 comments it received in regard to the dam decommissioning, part of a public scoping process with a deadline that closed July 24.
Among those asking the federal agency to slow its roll on approval were Lake County, the Sonoma County Farm Bureau and Republican Rep. James Gallagher, who won a 1st District special election in June and will face Democratic candidate Mike McGuire for a two-year term in the seat this November.
Most of those Two-Basin Solution opponents focused on the water needs of a thirsty agricultural industry, historical enjoyment of Lake Pillsbury’s recreational opportunities and the use of that body of water as a staging ground for aerial firefighting during nearby wildfires.
Lake County Counsel Lloyd Guintivano told Reese that taking down the dams would decrease available water supply by 53,000 acre-feet.
“Based on PG&E’s own assumptions, which neglect multiple potential cost drivers,” he wrote, “Scott Dam Decommissioning, alone, could reach $358 million, while throwing into doubt water supply relied on by 600,000 Californians; population numbers similar to the States of Wyoming and Vermont.”
Sonoma County Farm Bureau’s president and executive director informed FERC it had paid for an independent economic impact analysis by the company Economic Forensics and Analytics. The study estimated that even a 10% reduction in Potter Valley Project water capacity would result in $67.5 million in direct economic losses within the first year, and would likely compound over time.
People and entities also wrote to FERC in recent days with favorable views of PG&E’s plan. Among them were Russian Riverkeeper, Friends of the Eel River, Save California Salmon and the Northern California Council of Fly Fishers International.
Riverkeeper executives noted that the Potter Valley Project simply isn’t as productive as it once was. Annual water diversions have fallen from approximately 150,000 acre-feet a year before 2006 to about 30,000-40,000 acre-feet since 2021, “reflecting regulatory changes, aging and failing infrastructure, seismic-related storage restrictions, drought, and reduced water availability during the dry season.”
The Eel River east of Potter Valley is summertime slow and lazy creating a spot for day use with water backed up by the Van Arsdale Reservoir at the Cape Horn Dam, Friday, June 7, 2024. (Kent Porter / The Press Democrat) 2024
Christopher Chung/ The Press Democrat
Water diverted from the Eel River flows out of the Potter Valley Powerhouse into the east fork of the Russian River in Potter Valley on Thursday, April 6, 2017. (Christopher Chung/ The Press Democrat)
Kent Porter / The Press Democrat
Guinness McFadden checks on the flow of diverted Eel River water at his private powerhouse in Potter Valley, Wednesday, May 14, 2025. (Kent Porter / The Press Democrat)
A day of hot weather was enough for Joseph and Rosie Hoaglen of Covelo with their dog dozer to cool off in the middle fork of the Eel River in Dos Rios, Wednesday March 7, 2016. (Kent Porter / Press Democrat) 2016
The north end of Potter Valley in Mendocino County basks in sunlight on May 14, 2025. (Kent Porter / The Press Democrat)
John Burgess / The Press Democrat
From left, PG&E Hydro Licensing Director Janet Walther, Sonoma County Supervisor David Rabbitt, Sonoma Water Division Manager David Manning and SSU Economics Professor Dr. Robert Eyler take questions Tuesday, July 1, 2025, at a Potter Valley Project town hall meeting at the Finley Center in Santa Rosa. (John Burgess / The Press Democrat)
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The Eel River east of Potter Valley is summertime slow and lazy creating a spot for day use with water backed up by the Van Arsdale Reservoir at the Cape Horn Dam, Friday, June 7, 2024. (Kent Porter / The Press Democrat) 2024
An acre-foot is roughly the amount of water it takes to cover a football field up to one-foot deep.
Jon Foreman, chair of the Water Advisory Committee, told Reese in a July 22 letter that his group — a consortium of eight jurisdictions, including Santa Rosa and five other Sonoma County cities, that purchase water from the Sonoma County Water Agency — generally supports PG&E’s proposal, while advocating for the ongoing environmental review process to be thorough and inclusive.
You can reach Phil Barber at 707-521-5263 or phil.barber@pressdemocrat.com. On X (Twitter) @Skinny_Post.