Thursday April 23, 2026
San Francisco Chronicle —
The Trump administration injected a surprising twist into the fight over Northern California’s Eel River on Tuesday, offering up a potential plan to stop the removal of two dams in the basin — though how serious the plan is remains to be seen.
In a social media post, U.S. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said she had been in touch with a Southern California water agency that was interested in buying the Scott Dam in Lake County and Cape Horn Dam in Mendocino County and continuing their operation.
Such a move would run counter to longtime plans by Pacific Gas and Electric Co., the owner of the dams, to remove the facilities as part of the retirement of the century-old Potter Valley hydroelectric project.
PG&E says its Potter Valley Project is not worth keeping because the complex no longer generates cost-effective energy, while many people, including tribes and environmentalists as well as Gov. Gavin Newsom, support the deconstruction as a way to restore the Eel River and the struggling salmon runs there.
The enduring value of the hydroelectric project, though, is the water it moves from the Eel River to the Russian River. Some towns and farming communities in the Russian River basin, including many in the wine industry, have opposed the shuttering of the project and its dams because they don’t want to lose water supplies.