Monday February 3, 2025
PG&E via Maven’s Notebook —
On Jan. 31, PG&E made available its Final Draft Surrender Application and Decommissioning Plan for the Potter Valley Project (password: PV_Surrender).
The Potter Valley Project hydroelectric facility in Mendocino and Lake counties has a long history of generating power and diverting water from the main stem of the Eel River to the Russian River watershed, which has benefited agriculture and communities in southern Mendocino, Sonoma and northern Marin counties.
The project consists of the Potter Valley powerhouse built in 1908, Cape Horn Dam and Van Arsdale Reservoir, a fish passage and salmon and steelhead counting station at the Cape Horn Dam, a tunnel and penstock, Scott Dam built in 1922 and Pillsbury Reservoir. All portions of the Project were built more than 100 years ago.
While salmon and steelhead are able to use a fish ladder to get around the Cape Horn Dam at Potter Valley, the anadromous fish are unable to get past the Scott Dam.