Letters
- Details
- Written by: Nishta Waland
I have personally witnessed the impacts of this while I was growing up in Lake County and now as a UC Berkeley student. In the Konocti Unified School District, where I went to school, I saw a concerning pattern of instructors arriving and disappearing. It always seemed that a brilliant instructor would quit because they were worn out, underpaid, or just couldn't afford to continue, just as a student would connect with them and succeed under their guidance. In retrospect, I strongly think that a similar collective movement at the time may have had better results, possibly even preventing some of those amazing educators from leaving the community.
What people don't realize is that when a teacher decides to leave, it has an impact on not only one classroom but also the school's overall atmosphere, student achievement, and the general well-being of the community. Teachers are essential to the future prosperity of the public, mental health support, and young development. We really cannot afford to lose them, or have them battle for recognition.
One thing that would genuinely make a difference is having a significant commitment to investing in teachers, not only financially but also through legislative reforms that emphasize education as the fundamental public benefit that it is. Before things become worse, Middletown teachers deserve to be valued, heard, and supported through more fair contracts for teachers.
Nishta Waland lives in Berkeley, Calif.
- Details
- Written by: Peter Luchetti, Angela Amaral, Jesse Cude, Holly Harris, Margaux Kambara, Tom Lajcik and Chuck Lamb
This dam’s removal will profoundly and detrimentally affect our local economy, environment and public safety. Both Scott Dam and Lake Pillsbury are completely inside Lake County’s boundaries. Yet for years, PG&E, along with agencies and coalitions from outside of Lake County systematically failed to engage with the people who will bear the greatest burden of such an action and continue to trivialize the negative impact on Lake County. It is unacceptable that such a major action is being pushed forward without ensuring the residents of Lake County — those who live, work, and rely on Lake Pillsbury — have a real seat at the table.
Lake Pillsbury is not just a body of water; it is a vital resource for our region. Economically, the lake supports tourism, recreation, and local businesses, all of which depend on its existence. Without the lake, we risk devastating financial losses for small businesses and property owners who rely on its steady flow of visitors. The dam also plays a crucial role in wildfire mitigation, as it provides an essential water source for firefighting efforts in an area that has been repeatedly ravaged by wildfires.
The potential removal of Scott Dam without a clear plan to protect Lake County’s interests is reckless and irresponsible. That is why the Board of Supervisors is right to demand that the state and federal governments intervene. PG&E must not be allowed to move forward without a thorough, transparent process that genuinely includes local stakeholders.
Lake County deserves better. We deserve the right to be heard, to have our concerns addressed, and to ensure any decision about Scott Dam prioritizes the well-being of our community.
LC CAP urges all residents to stand with the Board of Supervisors in calling for a fair and inclusive process — one that recognizes the undeniable importance of Lake Pillsbury to our county’s economy and wildfire resilience.
Lake CAP Community Action Project Founding Members are Peter Luchetti, Angela Amaral, Jesse Cude, Holly Harris, Margaux Kambara, Tom Lajcik and Chuck Lamb.
- Details
- Written by: Frank Lynch
In the recent Huffman-Rogers Town Hall meeting in Ukiah, Representative Huffman suggested the Potter Valley Project issue should not be political and that a “firehose of disinformation" has risen. Talk about the pot calling the kettle black. Mr. Huffman’s hand-picked “very inclusive ad-hoc community" included numerous members of the environmental community who dominated the entire process.
Cal Trout, Trout Unlimited, Friends of the Eel River were all allowed to join the ad hoc and by extension, their affiliates American Rivers and Sierra Club, Native Fish Society and more. Lake County was given one seat out of 30 and was shut down every time they spoke up.
The Lake Pillsbury Alliance formed itself so it could have a potential seat at the table and when they did show up, they were personally told by Mr. Huffman to leave.
The political determination that the dams must come out was clear at the outset. No alternative voices were permitted. Some of the members made it clear that if dam removal was not the outcome of these discussions, they would pursue litigation. Was that not being "political?"
PG&E was regulated out of having a profitable operation, with no opportunity to counter the argument that the dam was the only cause for the decline in fish populations.
Are the years of over harvesting, historic unregulated timber operations and decades of watershed decline created by the cannabis industry even considered? Was the fact that fisheries have declined on rivers and streams without dams considered? Was any other method other than dam removal to create the visional dream of volitional fish passage considered? Was any alternative thought to having the US Army Corp or a funded regional entity take over dam operations, such as they already have for the other water reservoirs within the region?
The answer is no. Instead, the headwaters of the Eel River located in Lake County, which provides important water supply for the entire region, is to be given up by a representative whose district does not even include the Eel River headwaters and Lake Pillsbury.
Has Mr. Huffman sought any funding for dam rehabilitation or has he only sought funds for projects that will be needed to make up for the loss of water storage and controls that already exist?
Tear down the dam, update the water diversion facility, build a new dam and/or create a pump back system for Potter Valley, put in new ground water recharge facilities in Sonoma County, raise dams in Marin County (getting water from the Russian River), and raise the dam at Lake Mendocino?
Lake Mendocino cannot function or operate independently without the Eel River water diversions. Under the new plan, diversions will only happen when there are sufficient “high flows” in the Eel in the winter and early spring as opposed to year round. What happens when we have back-to-back dry years? Lake Pillsbury would have some water available for management during these times if it were to remain.
Without Lake Pillsbury, when the dry and high fire danger seasons come around, when the area above Scott Dam goes dry (as it frequency does during the late summer and early fall), there will be no water to protect the headwaters region of the Mendocino National Forest, which includes communities that exist because of Lake Pillsbury.
Mr. Huffman has a lot of political nerve calling those who challenge his politics and views on the PVP issue as spreading “disinformation.” To date, he has tried to be the puppet master controlling the narrative about our region's future.
Environmentally conscious people understand the importance of balancing the needs of man and nature.
Working with nature, what alternatives do exist to maintain the region's water supply in a cheaper and more balanced way? Is it being “political” when you disagree with Mr. Huffman?
Are we “very political people” for wanting to save Lake Pillsbury?
Frank Lynch is a member of the Lake Pillsbury Alliance. He lives in Cloverdale, California.
- Details
- Written by: Bob Schneider and Chad Roberts
PG&E identifies this action as a business decision because of the project’s failure to produce revenues that offset its operating costs, even though PG&E customers pay higher rates for delivered energy than just about everywhere else in the United States.
In our opinion, PG&E has determined to rid itself of the PVP for a different kind of economic consideration, after determining that the Scott Dam represents an economic liability that the company cannot afford.
A key factor in this determination is the increased understanding of the seismic hazards represented by the Bartlett Springs Fault Zone, or BSFZ, which runs through Lake Pillsbury approximately 5000 feet east of Scott Dam.
As part of the PVP relicensing process, FERC held an auction for potential alternative licensees for the PVP. No takers made offers to accept the ownership of and responsibility for this existing hydropower license, for the same reason that PG&E does not want the responsibility for these existing conditions: a recognition of the outstanding risk that the BSFZ represents for the PVP licensee.
The history of the PVP doesn’t need to be repeated here, but the scientific understanding of Earth sciences that has developed in the past century, which is critical in considering the best options for the future of the PVP, is less well-known.
The geological framework represented by plate tectonics is particularly significant in understanding the circumstances presented for the PVP. The dynamics of plate tectonics were not understood in the early 1900s when the Cape Horn and Scott Dams were designed and constructed.
Over this past century, the scientific understanding of plate tectonics (including the Bartlett Springs Fault Zone) has developed continuously, and most of our current understanding of how tectonic dynamics affect northwestern California has developed fully only in the most recent 30 years.
A short summary of western California’s geological history shows that until about 28 million years ago the western continental margin was a “subduction zone” with the Farallon Plate subducting beneath the western margin of the North American Plate. West of the Farallon Plate was another plate (the Pacific Plate), with a surface movement direction toward the northwest. When the margin between the Pacific Plate and the Farallon Plate reached the edge of the North American Plate, the relative dynamics of the plate boundary changed to become a “transform margin”, with the Pacific Plate moving northwest relative to the North American Plate. This margin is known today as the San Andreas Fault Zone, or SAFZ.
The SAFZ is not just a line on a map, but a 50-mile-wide zone of fault activity on a number of collateral major faults in addition to the San Andreas Fault itself. The Bartlett Springs Fault Zone is the easternmost fault in the SAFZ.
The BSFZ extends 50 miles from the Middle Fork of the Eel River southeast to Round Valley, past Lake Pillsbury and Bartlett Springs to just north of Cache Creek. Related faults in the same alignment system to the south include Wilson, Hunting Creek, and Green Valley faults.
Nobody we know can accurately predict when a seismic event might occur. However, based upon the length of the fault zone and other criteria geologists can estimate the potential magnitude of a major seismic event. Recent studies have identified the Bartlett Springs Fault as capable of producing an earthquake of Moment Magnitude between 6.7 and 7.2 (as documented by geological studies published by B.L. Melosh et al. 2024, V.E. Langenheim et al. 2023, and J.C. Lozos et al. 2015).
Earthquakes with magnitudes between 6.7 and 7.2 are major seismic events. Prior events within the memories of individuals living in northern California that fall within this magnitude range include the 1994 Northridge Earthquake (M6.7), the 1992 Cape Mendocino Triple Junction Earthquake (M7.2), the 1989 Loma Prieta Earthquake (M6.9), and the 1980 Eureka (Gorda Plate) Earthquake (M7.3).
The 1992 Mendocino Triple Junction event (M7.2) resulted in damage in Ferndale (in Humboldt County) very similar to the damage that occurred in Ferndale from the 1906 (M7.9) event in San Francisco. The 1980 Gorda Plate earthquake (M7.3) resulted in a collapsed Highway 101 overpass near Humboldt Bay. The 1989 Loma Prieta Earthquake (M6.9) was on an oblique fault very close to the San Andreas Fault in the Santa Cruz area, and may be more directly indicative of effects associated with the Bartlett Springs Fault at Lake Pillsbury. The event was memorialized on TV because it occurred at the start of a World Series game in San Francisco. Long sections of the I-580 freeway in Oakland collapsed during the quake, and a large part of the Marina District in San Francisco was damaged because of liquefaction in the poorly consolidated fill on which it was built.
An earthquake in this magnitude range on the Bartlett Springs Fault in the vicinity of Lake Pillsbury could result in an immediate failure of Scott Dam as a consequence of the seismic shaking per se. Moreover, the existing large landslide at the south end of the dam, on which the south abutment is based, would likely be mobilized (as occurred widely in northwestern California in 1992 with the Triple Junction event), leading to the destruction of the south end of the dam, and the rest of the structure would follow. This location was not then, and is not now, a safe location for a dam.
Dams do fail and while the specific dynamics are different, the St Francis Dam failure in Los Angeles County in 1928 is a relevant example. A common joke among geologists is that a sure way to find a new fault is to look for an older dam, an indication of how significant a risk geologists consider fault movement to be with respect to dam safety, particularly for older structures. Geological science clearly indicates that the BSFZ represents a significant risk of failure for Scott Dam. While we have yet to see the internal studies conducted by PG&E for the Scott Dam, we suspect that those studies say the same. We strongly believe that discussions among members of the public and their elected decision-makers about the future of the Potter Valley Project should include a greater appreciation of these geological realities.
Bob Schneider has a Bachelor of Science degree in Geology from UC Davis. Chad Roberts is a senior ecologist with a Ph.D. in ecology from UC Davis. They live in Davis, California.
How to resolve AdBlock issue?