The State Water Resources Control Board, also known as the State Water Board, has several upcoming meetings in which we need members of the public like you to voice your support for Eel River dam removal!

The State Water Board manages the Section 401 Water Quality Certification process – this process is California’s most direct tool to ensure dam removal improves water quality, restores habitat, and protects downstream communities and Tribal resources. We urge the State Water Board to frame the water quality certification for the Potter Valley Project as a watershed restoration tool, not merely a construction permit.

The Section 401 process is where California ensures the Eel River dam removals deliver on their promises: cleaner water, thriving salmon, restored Tribal fisheries, and a resilient watershed for future generations.

Meeting Dates

Talking Points for the General Public

1. Please complete this process quickly. The Potter Valley Project causes significant water quality impacts to the Eel River every day that it remains in place. These impacts include increased water temperature, continued accumulation of methylated mercury, and disruption of sediment movement downstream from the project. Because of the historical decline and severely depressed state of anadromous salmonids in the Eel River, dam removal should proceed expeditiously and without unnecessary delay to improve salmon populations and other beneficial uses in the Eel River.
2. The long-term effects of dam removal are a net positive. Dam removal projects are large-scale river restoration projects, and the State Water Board has treated them as such. The North Coast Regional Water Board’s Restoration Policy allows staff to certify projects with short-term impacts when there will be long-term benefits, which clearly applies in this case.
3. The short-term impacts of dam removal must be analyzed and, to the extent possible, minimized and mitigated. Dam removal is expected to have short term negative impacts, namely the release of sediments built up in the Potter Valley Project’s reservoirs. We need to better understand the conditions necessary to quickly transport this sediment downstream, how to time this release of sediment to minimize impacts to aquatic life, and what additional mitigations like revegetation with native plants can do to limit erosion. However, recent large dam removals on the Klamath, White Salmon, Elwha and Sandy Rivers show it is feasible to effectively manage risks while safely removing dams.
4. The State Water Board needs to assess the current Project flows to the Russian River as the baseline. The Potter Valley Project has failed for power generation, and diversions to the Russian River have been significantly reduced due to storage restrictions on Lake Pillsbury. Because the dams will never again function as intended, the State Water Board should consider current diversions to the Russian River as the baseline rather than historic diversions.