The downstate bid for Mendocino’s Potter Valley Project

MENDOCINO CO., 5/15/26 — The Elsinore Valley Municipal Water District wants to buy the Potter Valley Project.

The district sits in Riverside County, more than 500 miles south of the Eel River. It has never run a hydroelectric dam. Its vice president, Darcy Burke, told a podcast in late April that her board considered the local plan to take Scott and Cape Horn dams down “criminal — their words, not mine,” she said. Its board president, Andy Morris, signed a letter to Congress last week saying the district has not made any decisions yet.