MENDOCINO CO., 9/20/26 — The U.S. House voted Wednesday to order the Army Corps of Engineers to speed up its study of raising Coyote Valley Dam at Lake Mendocino — a study the Corps stopped last October for lack of federal funding.
The bill doesn’t provide any money.
Lake Mendocino supplies drinking water to more than 650,000 people in Mendocino, Sonoma and Marin counties, according to the Mendocino County Inland Water and Power Commission, one of the Corps’ two local partners in the study.
The vote was 415-9 for the Water Resources Development Act of 2026, H.R. 9497. Rep. Jared Huffman, D-San Rafael, voted yes. In a statement Wednesday, his office said the bill “advances evaluation of improvements to increase flood protection while expanding water storage and strengthening long-term drought resilience” at the dam near Ukiah.
Section 202 of the bill puts Coyote Valley Dam on a list of feasibility studies the secretary of the Army “shall expedite.” If a finished study finds the project justified, the Corps may go directly to preconstruction engineering and design.
A water resources bill authorizes Corps studies and projects. It doesn’t pay for them. The money comes separately, through annual spending bills.
The 2016 water resources law authorized the study. Congress has given the Corps this instruction about this dam four times since. The 2018, 2020, 2022 and 2024 laws each put the study on a list for expedited completion. The 2024 law was signed Jan. 4, 2025.
The study started that spring. On March 31, 2025, the Corps signed a cost-sharing agreement with the commission and the Lytton Rancheria of California, according to the commission’s September progress report. The agreement set a $3 million budget, split evenly between the federal government and the local partners, with a $658,000 credit for the tribe’s participation.
The study got as far as an interagency kickoff meeting in June 2025, a series of planning sessions in July and a site visit to the dam on Aug. 5, 2025. On Oct. 20, 2025, the Corps paused it “due to a lack of federal funding,” according to a Sept. 10 commission staff report.
Congress appropriated $500,000 for the study in fiscal year 2024. It appropriated nothing in fiscal years 2025 and 2026, the progress report shows. Neither the Corps’ 2026 work plan nor the president’s 2027 budget included money to continue it, according to the staff report.
Possible work-arounds
There is money for the study in a different House bill, the fiscal year 2027 energy and water spending bill. The project list published with that bill shows $1,858,000 for “Coyote Dam, CA” under Corps investigations, requested by Huffman. The House Appropriations Committee approved the bill May 20 on a 34-25 vote.
Huffman’s website lists his request for the study at $400,000. His office did not immediately respond to questions.
The Senate has its own water resources bill, S. 4949, which a committee sent to the full Senate on July 15. It doesn’t name Coyote Valley Dam. The two chambers would have to agree on one bill before anything becomes law.
Since June, the commission has been weighing other ways to get the dam raised. In August its committee on the dam recommended three: restarting the Corps study if money arrives; paying for a locally run study that the Army would review; or asking Congress to authorize construction outright, relying on the Corps’ 1950 report on the dam.
The commission is working against another project’s clock. Pacific Gas and Electric Co. has applied to surrender its federal license for the Potter Valley Project, the century-old system that diverts Eel River water into the Russian River. Those diversions have made up more than 30% of the summer water supply in the Russian River watershed, according to the Russian River Flood Control and Water Conservation Improvement District.
A regional agreement calls for new infrastructure, the New Eel-Russian Facility, so diversions can continue after PG&E leaves. One of the commission’s stated goals in choosing a path is to have new storage at Lake Mendocino ready when that facility starts delivering water.