Coalition calls on USDA to respect the locally negotiated agreement that protects both the Eel River and Russian River water supply.
Press release from the Two Basin Solution Partners (Round Valley Indian Tribes | Sonoma Water | Mendocino County Inland Water and Power Commission | California Trout | Trout Unlimited)
Today, the coalition of water agencies, counties,Tribes, and conservation organizations behind the Two-Basin Solution expressed serious concern over reports that Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins convened a meeting with PG&E’s chief executive, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum and the Elsinore Valley Municipal Water District in Washington, D.C. regarding the future of the Potter Valley Project on the Eel River.
“We share the Secretary’s concern with maintaining water security in the region, but the USDA’s actions undermine our locally negotiated agreement that provides that security” said Mari Rodin, a member of the City of Ukiah City Council and an appointee to the Mendocino County Inland Water and Power Commission. “It is incredibly important to us and our communities that control of resources stay in local hands.”
The Two-Basin Solution is the product of years of good-faith negotiation among the Round Valley Indian Tribes, Sonoma Water, Humboldt County, the Mendocino County Inland Water and Power Commission, California Trout, Trout Unlimited, and the California Department of Fish and Wildlife. The collaborative agreement accommodates PG&E’s removal of its aging and uneconomic Eel River dams, facilitates restoration of the Eel River and builds modern, reliable replacement infrastructure to maintain water supply stability for the Russian River basin.
“The future of the Eel and Russian Rivers should be decided by the people who live along them and depend on them, not brokered in Washington between political appointees and outside interests,” said Charlie Schneider, Connectivity Program Manager for California Trout. “The Two-Basin Solution was built here, by this community, across both watersheds. It is the only plan that protects water supply stability for the Russian River while restoring the salmon runs that our northern California communities depend on.”
The Two-Basin Solution Partnership includes a sovereign Tribal Nation that has called the Eel River home since time immemorial, the water agencies responsible for providing reliable water supply to 600,000 people in the Russian River basin, local county governments, and conservation organizations that have worked for decades to restore fisheries which are important for the region’s economy. The proposed plan includes the creation of the New Eel-Russian Facility (NERF) which would allow for the continued diversions of water from the Eel River to the Russian River. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), which is overseeing PG&E’s decommissioning of the project, recently noted in its scoping documents that the NERF is a viable replacement for the aging infrastructure.
“We’ve been working diligently, and have secured the funding, to design the New Eel-Russian Facility to provide water supply reliability for Lake Mendocino, for future storage in Potter Valley and for the Russian River watershed,” said David Rabbitt, Board Chair of the Eel-Russian Project Authority, the entity created to construct and operate the NERF. “The Two-Basin Solution is how water supply stability is maintained.”
Round Valley leaders also expressed concern about the U.S. Department of the Interior’s involvement in the meeting in Washington D.C., noting that there are no Bureau of Reclamation facilities in the area and emphasizing that the department’s primary federal responsibility is its trust obligation to tribes, including the Round Valley Indian Tribes.
“Restoring the Eel is about healing our river and our community, and it was important to us to come to an agreement that supported our neighboring communities as well,” said Joseph Parker, President of the Round Valley Indian Tribes. “That is why we spent years at the table with our partners building the Two-Basin Solution, because we believe communities in both watersheds deserve a sustainable future. We are committed to that vision, and we will see it through.”
The partnership remains committed to the Two-Basin Solution and will continue engaging with PG&E to ensure the FERC decommissioning process moves forward on its current timeline.
“The Two-Basin Solution took years of detailed negotiations with tribes, irrigators, municipal users, and conservation groups to find a way to accommodate everyone’s interests when these dams are gone,” said Trout Unlimited’s California Director Matt Clifford. “It’s frustrating that a Southern California water agency would try to override what is a very locally focused and successful effort.”
About the Two-Basin Solution: The Two-Basin Solution is a collaboratively negotiated framework that addresses two co-equal goals: restoring the Eel River by removing Scott Dam and Cape Horn Dam to reopen fish passage for threatened salmon, steelhead, and Pacific lamprey, and maintaining water supply stability for the Russian River basin through the New Eel-Russian Facility. The Eel River will become California’s longest free-flowing river following dam removal.
