Huffman: Federal Potter Valley intervention could be catastrophic for Northern California water

Congressman says Rollins’ tweet on potential buyer may revive threats of SoCal ‘water-grab’

April 22, 2026

This Tuesday, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins announced that she had heard from a potential buyer for the Potter Valley Project, a now-defunct hydroelectric project composed of the Scott and Cape Horn dams and related facilities.

Rollins said that the buyer, a water district in Southern California, could take over the project and return the dams to operating status, an assertion local stakeholders and many familiar with the project say is unlikely if not impossible.

PG&E, who had operated the project and is in the process of surrendering and decommissioning the project with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), said that it has “had some previous communication with the Secretary’s staff” and met with the identified potential buyer earlier this year, but that no proposals have been made.

Many stakeholders expressed confusion about the announcement, but U.S. Representative Jared Huffman (D-San Rafael) is spreading the alarm that this might be part of a broader effort to reshape water rights in the state and shift control from the North Coast to Central and Southern California water interests.

...

For full article, click here.


By:  Robert Schaulis
Source: Eureka Times-Standard