The agreement on Eel River diversions and future river restoration will begin to redress past injustices against Eel River tribes and stakeholders.
Mary Callahan, Press Democrat 2/14/25
There was emotion in the room Thursday as public officials from around the North Coast gathered in Sacramento for a ceremonial signing.
They were putting their names to a historic agreement on the future of the Eel River that secures crucial water supplies for the Russian River watershed while redressing past oversights and injustices.
Negotiated over more than six years to chart a way forward once Pacific Gas & Electric decommissions its Potter Valley powerhouse and tears out dams that have degraded the Eel River and imperiled fish species, the multiparty pact gives equal attention to river restoration needs and to modernizing water diversions for Russian River users in Sonoma and Mendocino counties.
In the process, it confers Eel River water rights to the Round Valley Indian Tribes in northeast Mendocino County, requiring beneficiaries on the Russian River to pay them $1 million a year for the privilege of transferring water from the Eel into the Russian River.
It further requires Russian River users pay $750,000 into a river restoration fund for the benefit of the river ecosystem and fisheries on which the tribes and Humboldt County communities long depended.
“We’ve been here since the beginning of time, and we’ll be here until the end of time,” Round Valley tribal President Joseph Parker told the crowd. “Today marks the turning point, today and the rest of the river’s life.”
Michelle Bushnell, chairwoman of the Humboldt County Board of Supervisors, referenced a “painful history” in which water resources have been diverted out of Humboldt County for the benefit of neighboring counties without any input or consent of stakeholders in the northern county, one-third of which is in the Eel River watershed.
“As I read this, I get chills,” she said at the end of her statement. “It’s been a long time coming.”
All involved cited more work to come to flesh out and implement the memorandum of understanding signed Thursday. The agreement outlines a two-pronged framework negotiated by representatives for Sonoma, Mendocino and Humboldt counties, the Round Valley Indian Tribes, Trout Unlimited, Cal Trout and the California Department of Fish and Wildlife.
Fish and Wildlife Director Chuck Bonham, who was credited by the parties with ensuring negotiators reached a compromise, announced Thursday a state pledge to provide $18 million toward the mission, with $9 million for the diversion structure and $9 million toward “restoring the fabled Eel River and bringing salmon home.”
“For too long,” Sonoma County Board of Supervisors Chairwoman Lynda Hopkins said, “we have treated the Eel River watershed like a bank, and all we have done is take withdrawals from it. We have never put anything back.
“And so starting today we will start making deposits back in the bank,” she said.
Bonham and California Natural Resources Secretary Wade Crowfoot highlighted the beauty of diverse interests coming together and staying at the table long enough to work through more than a century of conflict over dams and diversions in what will soon be the longest, free-flowing river in California, particularly given the nation’s polarization.
While the paradigm for addressing contentious issues, especially water, is conflict and litigation, “you all chose a different way among a lot of different interests, different needs,” Crowfoot said. “This pathway is a model not only for California but for our country at this time.”
In a nod to recent rhetoric from President Donald Trump regarding California water policy, Bonham referenced critics who call the state “crazy,” incompetent and foolish for choosing “fish over water” supply.
“We can do ‘yes, and …’” Bonham said. “We can do it all in California.”