MENDOCINO CO., 2/27/26 — The Mendocino County Board of Supervisors this week discussed allocating a half-million dollars to regional entities involved with the decommissioning of the Potter Valley Project, with one supervisor questioning the need for it and another saying it was essential.
Ultimately, the board approved $500,000 earmarked for the Mendocino County Inland Water and Power Commission and the Eel-Russian Project Authority. The money would go to “unanticipated” costs that may incur, according to Tony Rakes, deputy county chief executive officer.
The Potter Valley Project, owned by PG&E, is a hydroelectric facility that will be dismantled as soon as 2028. The Potter Valley Project diverts water from the Eel River to the Russian River watershed through two dams — the Scott Dam at Lake Pillsbury and Cape Horn Dam at Lake Van Arsdale. The two lakes supply water to communities throughout Mendocino and Sonoma counties. The water has been crucial for agricultural, municipal, and environmental uses.
The Inland Water and Power Commission is a joint powers authority that works to protect the Russian and Eel river watersheds and is comprised of representatives from the city of Ukiah, Mendocino County, and several local water agencies.
The Eel-Russian Project Authority is an organization formed between the Sonoma County Water Agency, Sonoma County, and the Inland Water and Power Commission.
PG&E will be transferring water rights of the Eel River diversion to the Round Valley Indian Tribes once the decommissioning takes place, which could happen as soon as 2028. The Round Valley Indian Tribes have agreed to lease part of those rights to the newly formed Eel-Russian Project Authority in exchange for yearly payments and protections for local fish species and ecological health.
At Tuesday’s meeting, before a motion passed to approve the funds, Supervisor John Haschak questioned the line-item on the budget.
“And just for clarification, the $500,000 for water, what was that again?” Haschak asked.
“That’s to go to the HO, or the water agency, for unanticipated expense, water expenses that we may have throughout the rest of this fiscal year,” Rakes explained.
“Is there any idea what those are?” Haschak questioned.
Mendocino County’s Chief Executive Officer Darcie Antle clarified by saying the money will support the ongoing work of the Inland Water and Power Commission and the Eel-Russian Project Authority.
But Supervisor Ted Williams questioned why $500,000 should be earmarked for water issues when there are many other infrastructure issues in the county.
“We are trying to reflect public values,” said Williams. “I know the community supports county roads — that’s what I hear the most. I don’t hear people talking about allocating $500,000 to projects related to water.”
Supervisor Maureen Mulheren sharply disagreed.
“I do hear people talking about the need for unanticipated consequences related to water in front of this board, quite vocally, related to the Potter Valley Project,” Mulheren said. “The IWPC and the Eel-Russian Project Authority are Mendocino County’s key ability to move forward with water security.”
She added that she didn’t think the costs are entirely unanticipated and that costs are already mounting.
“I’m surprised that we’re having this discussion right now,” Mulheren said.
The motion to accept the budget passed unanimously, but with the caveat that the county provide a report to the board at the next meeting outlining more concretely what the money would be used for.
The next Mendocino County Board of Supervisors meeting is scheduled for 9 a.m. March 10 in the board chambers at 501 Low Gap Road in Ukiah. Meetings can also be viewed virtually via Zoom. More information, including agendas, is available at this website.
It was super unfortunate that Supervisor Cline was unavailable to present her slide show on the last IWPC meeting that was still entered into the public record. That slide show has $500K to $1M going to legal and lobbying efforts for any of the multiple options that might be the final running for the new Eel-Russian Plan. Trouble is that no plan will be on the table for years to come. Mo is quick to say that Lake Mendocino has to be enlarged i.e. Coyote Dam raised further. It’s easy to talk about the most expensive longest running option ($1B & 20 years) when she won’t be in her seat more than another couple years. The Army Corps won’t even have the feasibility study ready for two more years. The catch phrase “water security” is just a way for any of the supervisors to hedge their bets and avoid throwing in with a plan that may be completely unworkable, whether financially or physically. I think supervisor Williams was correct to question spending like that during the fiscal crisis that this county is in when there is no working plan whatsoever. It’s just money set aside to waste on something that the majority will choose before any real solutions are on the table. Cline is in over her head and it shows already.
Too be honest Mendocino County is a difficult place to govern and this is putting it lightly. Such a large geographic county with people spread out all over the place and strung to together with rinky dink county roads and the 101 with the coast highway. Potter Valley is a naturally dry valley and putting water there is a huge effort from forces / resources outside this regional area. Mendocino County has kept itself in this Nimby club living off the subsidies for far too long. Whomever sits in the BOS chair is going to be unpopular because they have to tell their constituents that Santa Claus isn’t coming this time to help us. The county has more people with demands than solutions to their own problems. If your business depends on huge subsidies and/ or underfunded infrastructure consider it a risk of doing business here because subsides come and go and so do the underfunded roads. Maybe people should live closer together like in city blocks with parks and infrastructure. It’s much cheaper and resourceful on water usage and everyone is contributing to their community via a smaller foot print on nature and more tax payers in a smaller area. Living out on these ranches /Farms are resource heavy and require more expensive maintenance.
So disturbing that residents of Potter Valley and Mendocino County can’t have both water and safe roads. This is not acceptable and the BOS should be held accountable for this situation.
The BoS only has so much money. The state set the property tax scheme. The county had their hands tied decades ago with Prop 13. Without more development and a larger population to generate income for the county the coffers will continue to shrink. It’s not their fault. It’s the voter’s fault. Just wait until that referendum on no property taxes for 65 year olds is voted in. It will destroy the rural counties in all of California. We vote in our own demise. If either party has two brain cells between them they’ll join forces and tell the voters to abandon that idea.
PKG is spot on with this topic. Another issue I see is the county trying to save Potter Valley Farms at the expense of everyone else who doesn’t consume the vast majority of this water. Keep in mind over 95% of the water is consumed by Agriculture (Vineyards and Cannabis- Both losing value in today’s market place). Potter Valley has been living on borrowed time and its 611 residences with an even smaller minority within that consuming most of this water coming down south. Wealthy farmers are hijacking the term community like they care about the rest of the struggling people in this county. The BOS has to placate the average rural voter here because of the ridiculous economic physics this County would have to endear to satisfy the wealthy/legacy landowners.
Pike and community, you guys nailed it
It’s too bad this issue has been turned into a bashing of Mendocino county growers by
some very uninformed people. Take a look at the recent released Mendocino county crop reports to see the value of county agriculture.
Does the Agriculture community not use 95% of this water?
Does the report include all the subsidies that tax payer and utility users pay to make Mendo agriculture stay solvent?
Also last I checked Wine consumption has been declining each year since 2023 and Cannabis margins have been shrinking since 2016.
I think people would support farmers using the water if farmers were growing food for the locals, and hiring the local youth to work the fields, but instead big ag is growing intoxicants, and hiring cheap migrant labor.
If potatoes and beans and veggies and grains were being grown to nourish the people, then even my earth first heart would condone the water use. But we’re not, are we? There’s no trickle down from these hereditary land holders, and they certainly don’t care about the “community”.
I cannot believe this County. But it doesn’t surprise me at all unfortunately 🙄😒
Half a million for “unanticipated expenses” – I guess that’s the new euphemism for “slush fund”. Without any clear proposal, there is no way to ever hold anyone accountable for misusing it. Just another bag of candy to be passed around among friends.
How many families actually get water from the PV Project? How much do they pay for it? How much are these agencies planning to spend to keep those families in business, and who is going to pay for that? Those are key questions that don’t seem to be getting addressed by the reporting here.
Potter Valley people need to be studied. I believe their remote isolation has led to a micro culture stuck in time. It’s both fascinating and sad.
I would ask the BOS where they are pulling this 500K from…Which other service(s) has to suffer to save these insufferable legacy landowners? I would recommend all the city localities to start taking more control over their respective valleys and leave the county to take care of health & human services, voting, jails, courthouses, and property assessments (That’s it). If a region can’t afford to support the business model it brings in, it shouldn’t be someone else’s problem to save them from themselves. The BOS is acting as a conduit to save legacy landowners’ poor planning and inefficient business model. You would get better representation being in an incorporated city than remaining inside the county. If the county cries budget problems, then why are they already redirecting funds to a small minority of landowners during a debt crisis?
I thought Mendocino County was in debt. This is the latest debacle with the current Supervisors, the last being with David Eyster. This never should have been approved.
Water needs to be managed in a very careful, calculated way. No more free water usage for Potter Valley residents, but they should get a share of it. It doesn’t have to be all or nothing. On high water years and during atmospheric rivers why can’t water be diverted to the Russian where it can be in stored in Potter and also Lake Mendocino. It does mean that individual ranches in Potter need to create storage which will be costly but necessary. Many can afford it many can’t, so maybe a cooperative solution would work.
This problem has been looming for a long time. There should have been clear plans made for this by those most affected by it, but none were made.
Do not give this substantial amount of money away that can be better used on clear outcomes needed in this county, like road maintenance.
It’s not just 611 people it will effect and not just in Mendocino County. Perhaps researching a bit might be well worth it. The water is a crucial resource for more than 600,000 people. Also, I’m not sure if anyone commenting here remember the many destructive wildfires that occurred approximately 10 – 12 years ago, but you haven’t seen anything yet. It will come and very well could take out much more than your so called “Nimby club” and move into the area of the “city blocks with parks and infrastructure” where some of you want everyone to live. Not to mention I would love to know where the hell any of the folks talking about the ranches who are consuming all the water, think there food comes from?! Let me guess, someone snaps their finger and food magically appears. People who live in the concrete jungles need to be thanking those ranches and so many more ranches and farms who raise and farm the food they consume, not just throw them to the side and not care what happens to them. If you take some time and look into it, fire departments and even CalFire are strongly urging them to reconsider what they are about to unleash by decommissioning these dams.
When did Cannabis and wine grapes feed people? Also it is not affecting 600K people. Most of the 600K you speak of don’t use this water. They live in houses, in suburbs, and in urban centers. The grapes and cannabis are not feeding the local community here. They are exported all over the world to make the margins for the legacy growers. Salinas grows more food than the entire Northern Ca corridor. The Costco isnt pulling its produce from Mendo or Sonoma Farms nor is Safe way, grocery outlet.
The wild fires are the big reason the Dam is being decommissioned in the first place. This region cost PG&E billions of dollars in fire damage and the Dam is just another money losing venture with expensive maintenance coming due.
Largest employers:
Mendocino County: Adventist Health, County, Costco…
Sonoma County: Kaiser, (Several other heath care companies) and Santa Rosa Junior College, Tech companies…
The Ag industry here is a minority among the employers. They don’t even pay locals that well and rely on immigrant labor. Stop simping for legacy growers.
Commenters here think they get their food from grocery stores. Americans get their food from farmers and ranchers.
Stop the divisive rhetoric against agricultural properties and a rural lifestyle. Get off your computer and go outside and work – you may better understand that, no, 95% of the water does not go to PV landowners but to human beings for life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. I honestly believe that many of you are never, can never, and will never be happy. It is a terrible way to live just hating others you don’t know and creating divides for your emotional fuel.
Funding for the Dam is going to be based on results for humanity not empty platitudes. The BOS is cutting some of its own humanity off by reallocating sparse county resources to a minority industry over other pressing issues in the county. Making accusations about your critics isn’t making your position more valid. There are plenty of elderly people here who need care and homeless people who need housing, but, no, the BOS will create a slush fund to give a sense of support to make sure vineyard and cannabis farms stay afloat all while that money may have already been allocated for something else just as or more pressing given the County is not short on having problems.
I’m not knocking the rural lifestyle but I also don’t know if PV is really Mendocino County’s bread basket. No matter which crops are being grown at the moment I don’t think that a massive fight against PG&E over their right to surrender a money losing business in a tiny corner of their enormous area of responsibility is the right move. It’s just business for them. Private land owners who became dependent on a giant corporation were being naive to believe that would go on forever. But trying to get the federal government to force PG&E to take care of them forever is bonkers. That’s what it looks like is happening. The Eel River infrastructure is really old. It loses the giant corporation money every day. The dams won’t be saved. The focus should be on dealing with the situation to the benefit of the largest number of people possible. It’s going to be hugely expensive. It’s got to support the most people across the largest area to avoid it looking like a handout to people who stubbornly aren’t preparing for change. And our supervisors should understand that anything else is unacceptable and politically toxic. Cline can advocate for that tiny corner of her small district but it looks really bad if she’s trying to get a government handout for them at the expense of a larger vision that will serve as many people as possible. Sensible tax spending like that should be a priority for a republican like her.
So sad that our BOS and unlicensed officials are so naive or lying to the public. It is a FACT that more than 600k people in Mendocino County and Northern Sonoma county depend on the Potter valley diversion project. The Russian River historically would run dry or almost dry to a trickle every summer prior to the Eel river diversion project (that was a hydroelectric project) over 100 years ago. Since then there has been lots of development all relying on water sources (wells) along the Russian River. It doesn’t matter how big you make lake Mendocino if the diversions from the eel river don’t continue. Why? Lake Mendocino water shed is incredibly small and relies on other the diversion to be filled. It’s also only a 8 month yield lake versus neighboring lake Sonoma is a 3 year yield lake. The big players in this with teeth and money (Sonoma Water) probably don’t care about thier neighbors to the north because their customer base will still have water flowing year round in the Russian river via Dry Creek flow from lake Sonoma. So every community north of the mouth of dry creek which is Healdsburg and everything north of Healdsburg will be entering into unknown territory. No one truly knows if all these wells along the river will still produce with little to no water flowing down the Russian River. Especially Ukiah, Hopland and Cloverdale. As some commenters said just move into town. Seriously are y’all that ignorant? How close ti the river is Ukiahs wells to the river? So close that the state has already deemed those sources “surface water influenced” by the Russian River. Cline is the only BOS that doesn’t have her head in the sand or absolutely ignorant to the issue and facts
City of Ukiah Water Usage:
6,685 Af/year
City of Ukiah’s Water recycling program:
1500 Af/y in saved water
=(6685-1500=5185)/16500 = .31 Af/y per resident
Ag Ukiah Valley Water Usage:
7789 Af/year
Ag Redwood Valley Water Usage:
750 AF/Y for residential
1,450 AF/Y for agricultural purposes
Potter Valley Water usage Est:
9000 Af/y
Total Ag: 18239 Af/y
Total Muni: >6000 Af/y
75% Ag used water
25% Muni used water
(These numbers would be more skewed toward Ag consumption if I included Hopland water consumption which is still mostly Ag use.)
The Farms around Ukiah, Redwood and Potter Valley will no longer be syphoning water (or significantly less water) due to prohibitively higher water costs, fewer usable wells and the Ag value in real estate will collapse, which is already happening now due poor market conditions in Ag industry. If you delete most of the Ag consumption due to water cost spikes, the municipalities are much better prepared for a valley that uses much less water.