###

CORRECTION: As pointed out in the comments below, this headline probably shouldn’t have implied that Elsinore Valley is done, or even that it’s done insofar as the FERC process is concerned.

FERC denied Elsinore Valley’s late application to “intervene” in the case, meaning that they denied Elsinore Valley’s application, in effect, to have a seat at the table during decommissioning proceedings. But the water district still has lots of ways to attempt to insinuate itself into the larger matter of the future of the project itself.

So: Sorry if that was misleading. — Ed.

###

PREVIOUSLY:

• POTTER VALLEY DAM UPDATE: The U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Says That a Municipal Water District in Riverside County is Interested in Taking Over the Project
• Statements From PG&E and Friends of the Eel on SoCal Agency’s Potter Valley Dam Bid
• That SoCal Water Agency Says It’s Just in the Very Initial, Exploratory Phase of its Potential Bid to Take Over the Eel River Dams
• ‘This is Not OK’: Huffman Says He’ll Launch an Investigation Into the Trump Administration’s Eel River ‘Water Grab’ Scheme
• Internal Documents From a Southern California Water Agency Outline a Vision to Turn Eel River Water Rights Into a Cash Bonanza — at the Expense of Local Users

###

This morning, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission – the agency overseeing Pacific Gas and Electric’s effort to decommission two dams on the upper Eel River – told a Southern California water agency that its late bid to take over the project, along with the water rights that come with it, will not be allowed to proceed.

In making its decision, FERC staff told the Elsinore Valley Municipal Water District that it presented no compelling argument as to why it should be allowed to intervene in the case more than eight months after the deadline to do so had passed.

“[T]he District failed to demonstrate that good cause exists to grant its untimely motion to intervene because it did not provide any explanation for the untimeliness of its motion,” reads the commission’s denial. “Therefore, the District’s late motion to intervene is denied.”

Elsinore Valley now has 30 days to ask the commission to revisit the decision, according to the notice.

The Elsinore Valley Municipal Water District, a Riverside County operation with about 150,000 customers, launched its bid to assume control of PG&E’s Potter Valley Project in April, when Brooke Rollins, the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture, tweeted that a “legitimate buyer” for the project had been found, several months after FERC’s deadline for such buyers to step forward had passed.

Elsinore Valley — which seems never to have discussed its bid to take over the operation in open session of its own board of directors — did not file a request to enter the proceedings until earlier this month.

The water district’s move sought to upend the “Two-Basin Solution” hammered out under the auspices of Congressman Jared Huffman, which would see the decommissioning of the two outdated and non-functional dams, the transfer of the associated water rights to the Round Valley Indian Tribes, and a long-term lease which would allow continued diversion of Eel River water to Russian River water users downstream in Mendocino and Sonoma counties.

Though there was no discussion of their intervention at meetings of the district, internal documents from Elsinore Valley seemed to suggest that the goal was to sell the water to downstream users at market rates, using the proceeds to subsidize its own operations.

The FERC document archive in the case — click here and search docket number “P-77-332” — continues to be filled with comments from Potter Valley agricultural interests, most of which present the historically odd spectacle of Northern California water users pleading for a Southern California water agency to assume the rights to their supply.

“Please reconsider this brainless idea and at the very least consider Elsinore as a option to saving our community,” writes “second-generation Potter Valley graduate” Joe Goeken in a letter to FERC dated last week, arguing that it would be cheaper to fix the dams than remove them.

In a letter filed today, Rep. James Gallagher, who is running against Sen. Mike McGuire to represent portions of Mendocino and Sonoma counties in Congress in the fall, likewise objects to PG&E’s efforts to decommission the dams and the subsequent implementation the “Two-Basin solution” plan.

“I write to express my strong opposition to Pacific Gas & Electric Company’s proposal to dismantle Scott Dam and drain Lake Pillsbury,” Gallagher writes. “This proposal threatens the health, safety, and economic well-being of many communities throughout Northern California that depend on Lake Pillsbury as a reliable, year-round source of water.”

Elsinore Valley’s effort to intervene in the proceedings was officially opposed by the Round Valley Indian Tribes, the Wiyot Tribe, Friends of the Eel and California Trout.