Lake County should stop wasting staff time and taxpayer money on a losing battle to stop the removal of Scott Dam.

Having attended a number of meetings of various groups and the CalWild Workshops held to discuss the Potter Valley Project (PVP), it is clear to me that Lake County’s opposition to the removal of Scott Dam is ineffective and risky.

Interested persons should review the surrender of license comments on PG&E’s Draft application for surrender of license and application for non-project use of project lands dated January 2025, that the county paid for, available at https://countyoflake.legistar.com.

In 2022 PG&E concluded that maintaining the dams was no longer economically viable and didn’t make sense for ratepayers. In recent years, the money-losing dams have stopped making electricity, rendering them useless for energy production.

After unsuccessful attempts to find an alternative operator to take over the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) license, seismic studies revealed additional risks associated with Scott Dam. As a result, the maximum water storage capacity of Lake Pillsbury was decreased by 25%. The area which is in the Bartlett Springs Fault Zone, part of the San Andreas complex, has shown the potential for a magnitude 7 earthquake in the area posing a substantial risk of catastrophic failure and major downstream flooding.

Some Lake County Board of Supervisors (BOS) members continue to downplay this danger. But, this threat is real. This dam, as any other structure that is over 100 years old, is subject to failure. There is also an active landslide adjacent to the southern abutment of the dam.

Given these considerable liabilities, it is unrealistic to expect the federal government or any other entity to assume responsibility, especially with the transactional approach of the current administration and the lack of profitability in this situation.

Regarding other concerns raised by the Lake County BOS, fire fighting capabilities in the Lake Pillsbury area certainly must be addressed and mitigated for, ideally by PG&E.

However, the greater regional firefighting efforts are minimally reliant on Lake Pillsbury. Cal Fire Chief and Director, Joe Tyler, has stated to Congressman Mike Thompson that removing Scott Dam will not negatively impact Cal Fire’s ability to fight fires in the region. Also, a large portion of that $750,000 tax base that the county is concerned about losing will be diminished anyway, since PG&E pays much of it.

Lake County needs to allocate time and resources to prepare for the significant changes ahead. Siskiyou County’s experience on Klamath River Dam removal effort demonstrates that the failure to proactively plan for residents, recreational users and local wildlife can lead to a loss of benefits.

Resources would be better spent planning future restoration efforts in the upper basin and developing new recreational opportunities. Asking the Mendocino Land Trust to make changes in the conservation easement held on the Eel River and Lake Pillsbury to allow for appropriate restoration is also needed. Fighting the inevitable loss of the dam makes no sense.

Concerns have been raised about the potential impacts on salmon and steelhead populations from the controlled sediment flushing. While some fish of both native and non-native species will die, these impacts are significantly smaller than having abandoned dams on the landscape or worse yet, the catastrophic losses expected from a sudden dam failure caused by a large earthquake.

Ecosystems have shown great resilience as evidenced by the rebound of fish and other wildlife observed following the removal of the Elwha and Glines Canyon in 2011 and 2014. Six years after the removals, the number of wild steelhead observed above the dams had increased from tens to hundreds of fish. The tribal communities, for whom these fish hold great cultural and spiritual significance, will greatly benefit from the restored habitats.

PG&E is required to submit its surrender application by July 29, 2025 and plans to begin the decommissioning in 2028. It is impossible, under FERC regulations, for PG&E to ever hold a license for the PVP again.

Change is not always welcome. But it is inevitable. Lake County can capitalize on the changes or let its chance slip away.

Deb Sally is chair of the Sierra Club Lake Group in Lake County, California.