FOER comments/letters
Friday, December 24, 2021 Hank Seeman Humboldt County via email Re: Comments on Draft Groundwater Sustainability Plan Dear Hank and Groundwater Team: Thank you for the informative presentation on the draft GSP last Friday. The following brief notes and comments may help to improve the final plan. At this writing, several technical memos remain outstanding. … Read more
December 9, 2021 Re: Support for Cutting the Green Tape Grant Proposal To Whom It May Concern: Friends of the Eel River supports the Cutting the Green Tape grant proposal by California Trout, the University of California Berkeley, and the Wiyot Tribe to evaluate and test a fish weir in the South Fork Eel River. … Read more
December 8, 2021 Humboldt County Planning Department 3015 H Street Eureka, CA 95501 Submitted via email to planningclerk@co.humboldt.ca.us Re: Friends of the Eel River Support for Proposed Marshall Ranch Streamflow Enhancement Project Dear Planning Commissioners, Friends of the Eel River advocates for the protection and recovery of native fisheries in the Eel River watershed. Redwood … Read more
In September, Senator McGuire introduced SB 307 to address the threat of outside interests seeking to haul coal through the Eel River Canyon by utilizing the NCRA rail right-of-way. This bill clearly asserts that state money shall not be used to “initiate, improve, or operate” rail service on the unviable North Coast rail line north … Read more
Wednesday, November 17, 2021 The Honorable Carlos Monje Undersecretary U.S. Department of Transportation 1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE Washington, D.C. 20590 Re: Mendocino Railway RRIF loan application Dear Under Secretary Monje, Friends of the Eel River (FOER) advocates for the protection and restoration of Northwestern California’s Eel River watershed and its critical but imperiled fisheries. … Read more
By now, news of the impending threat of coal trains coming to town has spread far and wide. Municipalities from Sonoma to Humboldt have passed resolutions opposing the storage, transportation, and/or export of coal through their communities. Senator Mike McGuire introduced legislation, SB 307, to help stop the proposal by prohibiting state funding to improve … Read more
Wednesday, October 27, 2021 President Marybel Batjer California Public Utilities Commission 505 Van Ness Avenue San Francisco, CA 94102 via electronic mail as feasible RE: Potter Valley Project Equipment Failure Dear President Batjer, This letter is meant to apprise you of important developments regarding PG&E’s Potter Valley Project (Project). The Project is a hydroelectric … Read more
Flows in the mainstem Eel River are at historically low levels. In fact flows are lower now than they were in 2014 when the river disconnected in the fall and left migrating Chinook suffering from elevated levels of disease. This is why we asked the Humboldt County Supervisors this week to take immediate action and … Read more
For the seventh time over the past nine years, PG&E is requesting yet another flow variance at the Potter Valley Project due to limited water availability. As the utility explained to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), PG&E is cutting diversions to Potter Valley and the East Branch Russian River to roughly half those normally … Read more
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) asked for our input on development of their new Office of Public Participation, so of course we didn’t hold back. Engaging with FERC and extracting the information necessary to advocate for river protection in an informed manner has always been an onerous task. We hope that FERC takes our … Read more