Scott Dam at Lake Pillsbury, Mike Wier
Scott Dam at Lake Pillsbury, Mike Wier

 

The Partnership seeks to explore terms for a new license that will materially benefit both basins by advancing the following shared objectives:

  1. Minimize or avoid adverse impacts to water supply reliability, fisheries, water quality and recreation in the Russian River and Eel River basins;
  2. Improve fish passage and habitat on the Eel River sufficient to support recovery of naturally reproducing, self-sustaining and harvestable native anadromous fish populations including migratory access upstream and downstream at current project dam locations;
  3. Reliance on best available science and engineering analyses as the basis for evaluating options for restoration, water delivery, and hydroelectric generation pursuant to a new license;
  4. Collaboration on funding;
  5. Active participation of tribes and other stakeholders who are willing to support the other Shared Objectives;
  6. Economic welfare of both basins;
  7. Continued hydroelectric generation; and
  8. Protecting tribal cultural, economic, and other interests in both the Eel and Russian River basins.

In 2018, Congressman Jared Huffman convened a diverse stakeholder group in a collaborative Ad Hoc process designed to develop recommendations to inform the FERC relicensing process for the Potter Valley Project. The Two-Basin Partnership is a direct outgrowth of that collaborative effort, which brought together diverse stakeholders to develop a compromise solution for the future of this aging hydroelectric project.

For more information about the Ad Hoc process and the Project more generally, please visit www.pottervalleyproject.org.