Partnership to Preserve Eel to Russian River Diversion

Updated February 2025

Two Basin Partnership Memorandum of Agreement (MOU)

From the Press Democrat, February 12, 2025:

Stakeholders on the Eel and Russian rivers have reached agreement on a framework for future water diversions from the Eel into the Russian River, once PG&E decommissions its Potter Valley power plant, through which flows have been directed for nearly 120 years.

A memorandum of understanding to be signed in a ceremony in Sacramento on Thursday [February 13, 2025] allows for limited diversions to continue, but only when the Eel River has sufficiently high flows to accommodate different life stages of federally protected salmon and steelhead trout.

The mostly wintertime diversions will reduce annual transfers into the Russian River watershed from a current level of about 40,000 acre-feet a year to about 35,000 acre-feet. (An acre-foot is equal to 325,851 gallons, or about the amount of water needed to flood most of a football field one foot deep.)

PG&E’s water rights for the diverted flows will be transferred to the Round Valley Indian Tribes, which will collect $1 million a year from Sonoma and Mendocino County users in exchange for diverted flows.

Russian River users also will pay $750,000 to $1 million annually into an Eel River restoration fund to pay for fish recovery and environmental restoration efforts on the Eel River, which has long been impacted negatively by diversions and dams in the river.

The agreement will stand for a 30-year term plus a possible 20-year renewal, but Russian River users are intended to wean themselves from the Eel River by developing new water storage and supply solutions.

Parties to the agreement also agree to endeavor to raise $50 million or more for new diversion facilities and $50 million or more for additional restoration funding.

Signatories include the Sonoma County Water Agency, known as Sonoma Water, the Mendocino County Inland Water and Power Commission, Humboldt County, the Round Valley Indian Tribes, Trout Unlimited, California Trout and the California Department of Fish and Wildlife.

Two Basin Partnership DRAFT MOU, February 2025.pdf MCIWPC MOU Press Release 2-11-25.pdf

UPDATED OCTOBER 2023:

Regional Partners Submit Proposal to Preserve Potter Valley Diversion and Fish Passage Options

On August 7, 2023, the Mendocino County Inland Water and Power Commission (MCIWPC), the Round Valley Indian Tribes (RVIT), and the Sonoma County Water Agency (Sonoma Water) submitted a proposal to advance a regional solution for preserving flows in the Russian River and improving Eel River fisheries.

On October 3, 2023, PG&E issued a statement on the Proposal for Potter Valley Project’s Draft Surrender Application and Decommissioning Plan :
PG&E has made a non-binding acceptance in concept of the Sonoma County Water Agency, Mendocino County Inland Water and Power Commission and the Round Valley Indian Tribes proposal and agrees to include it in our November 15th 2023 initial draft Surrender Application and Decommissioning Plan (SA). The acceptance of this proposal is non-binding and allows for continued discussion and public comment. The initial Draft SA will be available for public review in November 2023 and will also include PG&E’s proposal to remove Cape Horn Dam. This proposal states that it has co-equal objectives of fish migration and water diversions. PG&E will include both the third-party proposal as well as our decommissioning plan in our initial Draft Surrender Application and Decommissioning Plan.