Screenshot of today’s Humboldt County Board of Supervisors meeting.
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After nearly a decade of planning and negotiations, the Humboldt County Board of Supervisors today unanimously approved a water diversion agreement that will support PG&E’s plan to decommission the aging Potter Valley Project and demolish its two dams — Scott Dam and Cape Horn Dam — on the upper stretches of the Eel River.
The historic agreement marks a major turning point in a years-long effort by federal, state, tribal and local agencies to craft a “two-basin solution” that meets the needs of communities in both the Eel and Russian River basins, which have long been at odds over ownership and control of water diverted from the Eel River.
“This agreement has been a long road,” Humboldt County Public Works Deputy Director Hank Seemann said at today’s meeting. “There’s been give and take, and I think there’s a lot of mutual respect on both sides. I think it’s an achievement to work together and not have a zero-sum game, but create something that is attentive to each party’s needs and also provides a strong foundation for moving forward in collaboration.”
Scott Dam at Lake Pillsbury — a key component of the Potter Valley Project. | Photo: PG&E
If you’re new to this topic, here’s a little background on how we got here: PG&E has been looking to rid itself of the 100-year-old Potter Valley Project — a hydropower system that diverts water out of the Eel into the headwaters of the Russian River for municipal and agricultural use in Mendocino, Sonoma and northern Marin counties — since at least 2018, and the Potter Valley powerhouse stopped generating power in 2021.
The project license expired in April 2022, and just one month later, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) directed PG&E to develop a plan to surrender its license and decommission the project to make way for dam removal.
In 2023, county officials began negotiating a water diversion agreement with Sonoma Water, Mendocino Inland Water and Power Commission, Round Valley Indian Tribes, California Trout, Trout Unlimited and the California Department of Fish & Wildlife. The parties came up with a plan to create a new water diversion facility — New Eel-River Russian Facility (NERF) — and establish the Eel-Russian Project Authority (ERPA), which will oversee construction, operation and maintenance of the NERF. The Humboldt County Board of Supervisors approved a memorandum of understanding with the parties earlier this year.
During a lengthy presentation at today’s meeting, Seemann explained that the 30-year agreement sets “co-equal goals” that support the recovery of native fish populations — including Chinook salmon, coho salmon, steelhead and lamprey — while maintaining a reliable water supply to the Russian River basin. The agreement also sets diversion rules for each season based on the natural flow regime and historic fish runs, with the bulk of diversions occurring in the winter and early spring.
Seemann | Screenshot
“Humboldt County’s position going into these negotiations is that our first preference — our strong preference — would be for Eel River water to stay in the river, but we would consider this agreement if there were strong protections and benefits for the Eel River,” Seemann said. “And, speaking for staff, we feel like this agreement does provide strong protections and benefits.”
Under the agreement, PG&E’s water rights would be transferred to the Round Valley Indian Tribes, who would then lease them back to the ERPA for $750,000 per year, which amounts to 21 percent of the estimated operating costs of the NERF. The staff report notes that the annual payment could increase if public funding covers more than 75 percent of construction costs for NERF.
Following staff’s presentation, Brian Johnson, senior policy advisor for Trout Unlimited’s Pacific region, urged the board to approve the agreement and underscored his organization’s support for dam removal.
“We support this, knowing full well that many of our members would prefer to just see the diversion go away,” Johnson said. “We feel pretty strongly that’s not the right approach … because not doing so and allowing a water war could easily lead to delay in dam removal, or in a worst case scenario, a diversion that isn’t conditioned to protect the Eel River.”
Alicia Hamann, executive director of Friends of the Eel River, expressed enthusiastic support for the agreement, noting that her organization was founded for the very purpose of “freeing the Eel.”
Hamann | Screenshot
“As Friends of the Eel has emphasized many times, to reap the benefits of dam removal on the Eel, it has to happen quickly,” Hamann said. “This deal makes an important shift when it comes to the way that flows are managed in the Eel, diverting only a percent of natural flows that the Eel can spare, and only during the appropriate wet season. … While we are one of those groups that would prefer to see the diversion ended, we feel confident that the flow schedule developed by the technical team will protect habitat in the Eel and set appropriate seasonal boundaries.”
During the board’s discussion on the matter, Fourth District Supervisor Natalie Arroyo called the agreement “a wise and a reasonable approach that gives us the best chance of moving forward,” though she also said she would prefer to keep Eel River flows in-basin.
Third District Supervisor Mike Wilson praised the county’s attorneys, Destinee Valeska and Joel Campbell-Blair, for their work in representing the county throughout the negotiation process and voiced support for the agreement.
Wilson | Screenshot
“This has been a lot of work to get to this place, and we’re gonna have a lot of work moving forward, negotiating [with] the institutions and organizations, and the work that’s going to be done to restore the river and bring back the fish,” Wilson said. “These fisheries are part of the broader health of the ecosystem — it’s not just in the main stem.”
Board Chair Michelle Bushnell expressed her support as well, adding that “this is the best outcome that we can move forward with right now.” Fifth District Supervisor Steve Madrone and First District Supervisor Rex Bohn agreed, with both noting that this “is the best we can get.”
“So let’s just be the best we can and accept it,” Bohn said.
Bushnell made a motion to approve the agreement, which was seconded by Wilson and approved in a unanimous 5-0 vote.
The remaining parties still have yet to vote on the agreement. PG&E’s final license surrender application and decommissioning plan must be submitted to FERC by July 29. While the document is under review, PG&E will conduct several more studies to assess mitigating impacts for dam removal, which is still “several years” out.
[WEDNESDAY UPDATE: All of the signatories have signed off on the water diversion agreement. PG&E has not agreed to any terms of the agreement as of yet.]
A clarification from Friday’s article: Storz doesn’t own Royal Crest Mobile Estates. They only manage the day-to-day operations for the actual owners, something no one from Storz mentioned during repeated phone calls asking for comment.
The Outpost has received a letter from Anthony Rodriguez, a lawyer representing the California Limited Partnership that owns the Royal Crest Mobile Estates (they are nameless in the letter, but from what we can find, they’re called “Royal Crest Investors LP.” As for the identity of the people who own that organization, they remain anonymous).
To sum the 14-page letter up, Royal Crest Investors LP does not want the Fortuna City Council to pass a Rent Stabilization Ordinance (RSO), and also rejects the idea that they don’t treat their residents fairly.
In a separate email to both the Outpost and Fortuna’s city councilmembers, he also denied that people who live at the park who complained about the rent raises or any subpar infrastructure were censured by the owners.
“Preliminarily, I must note that there have been suggestions the park is owned by a large corporation, that it is only concerned with profits, with no concern for the well being of its residents,” Rodriguez writes. “Nothing could be further from the truth.”
Rodriguez says the rent increases (about 21% over the last four years) are a reflection of money invested into the park’s infrastructure, $727,000 over the last five years to fix problems caused by earthquakes and fires, as well as inflation (also about 21% nationally, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, but the data on California shows its CPI rose more like 19%).
He also claims that a 1985 court case, Sierra Lake Reserve v. City of Rocklin, gives his client the right to raise rent on mobile homes to get a solid return on infrastructure investments.
Additionally, Rodriguez says that the homes in the park are worth way above market price, and therefore the rent should also be higher. Data in the letter, pulled from public records, show that the homes are selling for about $52,000 more on average than they were purchased for ($84,600 vs. $32,500), although the time elapsed in between those sales isn’t mentioned.
Because the price of mobile homes has an inverse correlation with the lot rent, the high sales price of these houses suggests to him that the rent is far below what it could be. In fact, the thinking goes, the low rent could exacerbate a housing shortage in Fortuna by making the original sales price of the home unaffordable.
But the main concern is making a return, and that’s the main summation of the argument — with a hint that they’re not above some court battles.
“The recent rent increases at Royal Crest Mobile Estates barely allow the parkowner to keep pace with the excessive inflation that has occurred since 2021, let alone recover a fair return on the hundreds of thousands of dollars in capital improvement due to factors beyond the parkowner’s control,” reads the letter. “…Rent control in mobile homes parks routinely results in litigation to determine the appropriate rent level, and in some cases, even results in closure of the property. As a result, the relationship between mobilehome parkowners and residents can easily become adversarial, creating unwanted stress, anxiety and expense for all concerned. In order to avoid these negative consequences, my client respectfully requests the City Council to reject rent control at this time.”
The mobile home owners in the park think the RSO they’re proposing is perfectly fair and allows for a healthy profit.
“I think that, yes, from a company perspective, this is their investment, and it’s what they’ve chosen to do, which is fine, but it needs to be reasonable as well,” said homeowner Layne Moon in an interview with the Outpost last week. “And, you know, they should make a profit, but not a gouging profit.”
“Mr. Wilburn was located and in good health,” the Sheriff’s Office writes. “We are currently providing assistance and will be clearing the scene shortly.”
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Press release from the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office:
Wilburn.
On July 22, 2025, at approximately 11:55 a.m., deputies from the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office
(HCSO) responded to the area of the Eagle Prairie Bridge, Rio Dell, for the report of a missing person.
Through their investigation, it has been determined that William Andrew Wilburn (age 59) fled from
personnel with the Rio Dell Volunteer Fire Department after they were attempting to provide aid.
Wilburn is described as white male adult, 5’9”, 200 lbs., bald, with blue eyes (see attached
photograph). Wilburn was last seen wearing black pants, a black vest, and carrying a red milk crate.
HCSO Search and Rescue, Boating Units, and Drone Teams are actively in the area. If you happen to
see Mr. Wilburn, please contact HCSO immediately at 707-445-7251.
On July 21, 2025, at 1440 hours Humboldt Communications Center received a 9-1-1 call of a two-vehicle crash on US-101 near MPM 76 in Mendocino County.
A Porsche Macan, driven by Justino William Faenzi-Glass (43), was traveling northbound on US-101 towards a Honda CRV traveling southbound. For reasons still under investigation, Faenzi-Glass allowed the Porsche to cross over the solid double yellow lines and collided head-on with the Honda. CHP personnel arrived on scene at approximately 1450 hours. At approximately 1505 hours, the solo occupant of the Honda was pronounced deceased. The name of the Honda driver is being withheld pending the notification of the nest of kin by the Mendocino County Coroner.
Upon evaluation, Faenzi-Glass was determined to be Driving Under the Influence and was placed under arrest for 23153(f) VC, 191.5(a) PC, 273a(a) PC. Faenzi-Glass was transported to Mendocino County Jail and booked on the above charges.
Faenzi-Glass was travelling with two juveniles, neither of which were injured and were released to a relative on scene.
Additionally, at 1809 hours Humboldt Communications center received a second 9-1-1 call of a two-vehicle crash on US-101 near MPM 80 in Mendocino County. A gray Acura TSX, driven by Zachary Nathan Mostad (29), was traveling southbound on US-101 towards a white Ford Explorer traveling northbound. Due to Mostad’s level of impairment, Mostad allowed the Acura to travel onto the oncoming lane of traffic and collided with the Ford. Mostad was determined to be Driving Under the Influence and was placed under arrest for 23152(f) VC. Mostad was transported to Howard Memorial Hospital for a complaint of pain to his left shoulder and later booked into Mendocino County Jail.
The passengers of the Ford were uninjured and drove away from the scene of the crash.
The Garberville Area CHP would like to thank the citizens who stopped at both collisions to render aid. The following agencies assisted with this investigation: Cal Fire Laytonville, Caltrans, and Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office.
If anyone has any additional information, please contact the CHP Garberville Area Office at (707) 932-6100.
On July 21, 2025, at approximately 6:53 PM, Eureka Police Department (EPD) patrol officers and Humboldt Bay Fire (HBF) responded to a fully engulfed van fire in the parking lot of a business in the 800 block of Broadway. HBF personnel quickly initiated fire suppression efforts. Unfortunately, the van’s driver was found deceased at the scene.
Following standard protocol, EPD’s Criminal Investigations Unit and Major/Fatal Injury Traffic Investigations responded to investigate the incident.
Preliminary Timeline of Events (approximate):
6:46 PM – Fortuna Police Department contacted EPD’s Communications Center to report a stolen vehicle: a New Life Service van.
6:47 PM – The van’s owner informed EPD the vehicle may be entering Eureka, though the information was second-hand.
6:50 PM – California Highway Patrol advised EPD the van was speeding northbound on U.S. Highway 101 and may have hit a guardrail.
6:50 PM – A witness reported to EPD the van was traveling north on Broadway, driving into oncoming traffic.
6:51 PM – EPD received a call reporting a fully engulfed van on fire on the 800 block of Broadway, with one person still inside.
6:53 PM – An EPD officer arrived on scene and confirmed the van had been involved in a collision and was fully engulfed in flames.
Initial Findings:
The stolen van was traveling north on Broadway at a high rate of speed when it veered off the road, jumped the northeast curb at W. Grant Street, and continued north along the sidewalk.
It entered a parking lot in the 900 block of Broadway, crossed W. Washington Street, broke through a fence, and collided into two parked vehicles—one of which was occupied.
The impact scattered debris, injuring three pedestrians.
The van caught fire upon hitting a curb, then became engulfed, igniting one of the vehicles it struck.
A total of 12 vehicles were damaged in the incident.
The occupant of the parked vehicle and the injured pedestrians were transported to a local hospital with minor to moderate injuries.
The van’s driver, a female, was pronounced deceased at the scene.
The Humboldt County Coroner’s Office is working to confirm the driver’s identity and notify next of kin.
Anyone who witnessed the incident or has relevant information is asked to contact EPD’s Criminal Investigations Unit at 707-441-4300.
Operational Updates: Firefighters had a productive day on the Butler Fire July 21 as cooler temperatures moderated fire activity. With temperatures in the low 80s and humidity up to 45 percent, firefighters were able to construct handline more directly on the fire’s edge and complete control lines around a number of spot fires and slop-overs from the day before.
Crews completed handline around the previous day’s spot fire near Tripp Point on the north end of the fire. Firefighters mopped up along the Salmon River Road corridor, extinguishing interior pockets of heat that still threatened the roadway.
Across the Salmon River in the Crapo Creek drainage, crews constructed direct handline from the river up to Yellow Jacket Ridge. Crews also built handline from Sawyers Bar Road up to Yellow Jacket Ridge along the fire’s eastern perimeter in Murderers Gulch.
Overnight firefighters took advantage of moderating weather conditions to conduct strategic firing operations to reduce available vegetation between the fire and structures around the confluence of the Salmon River and its north fork.
Crews extinguished or contained fire that had spilled or spotted into the Knownothing Creek drainage the previous day. They evaluated options for indirect control lines along Hotelling Ridge, while also identifying structures and infrastructure needing protection.
The west side of the fire stayed within control lines bordering the boundaries of the 2024 Boise Fire and 2023 Pearch Fire.
The Red Fire remains stable with no growth in days. Infrared flights have shown progressively less heat around the fire’s perimeter and interior.
Photo: Six Rivers National Forest
Evacuations: Siskiyou County Sheriff’s Office expanded its evacuation orders July 20 to include zones to include zones SIS-1802 and SIS-1903. The following zones continue to be under evacuation orders: FRK-1709 (Forks of Salmon), SIS-1703, SIS-1704 (Butler Creek, Lewis Creek, Bloomer Mine residents and Nordheimer Campground), SIS-1707-A, SIS-1707-B, SIS-1708, SIS-1710, SIS-1803-A, SIS-1804, SIS-1805 and SIS-1808.
The Siskiyou Office of Emergency Services has established a dedicated phone number to assist people with their evacuation needs: 530-340-3539.
Zones SAW-1713, SIS-1705, SIS-1712, SIS-1803-B, SIS-1811, SIS-1906 and SIS-1907 are under an evacuation warning, where residents are advised to be prepared to evacuate if conditions become more threatening. The latest evacuation information can be found at https://protect.genasys.com.
Closures:
Butler Fire: Salmon River Road between Butler Flat and Nordheimer Campground remains closed as rocks and burning debris continued to fall onto the roadway.
National Forests: The Six Rivers and Klamath National Forests issued a joint closure order July 16 within the vicinity of the Butler Fire. The closure includes Nordheimer and Oak Bottom campgrounds. The Pacific Crest Trail remains outside of the closure area, but hikers are advised to exercise caution.
Weather and Fire Behavior: A local red flag warning is in effect today with a 20 percent chance of dry thunderstorms forecast for this afternoon. Outflow winds are expected out of the northeast with gusts up to 40 miles an hour, which could result in multi-directional fire spread and spotting up to a mile.
Fire Safety and Prevention: The Six Rivers National Forest implemented level 1 fire restrictions July 21. Restrictions cover a range of potential fire-igniting activities, such as building and maintaining campfires in certain areas, smoking, and operating spark-causing equipment and other tools.
For more information, visit the forest website at https://www.fs.usda.gov/r05/sixrivers/alerts. USDA is an equal opportunity provider, employer and lender.
Heather Altman, at her Long Beach home on July 11, 2025, worries she won’t be able to afford health insurance under the newly approved GOP budget bill. Photo by Jules Hotz for CalMatters
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This story was originally published by CalMatters. Sign up for their newsletters.
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Heather Altman quit her corporate job and opened an environmental consulting business in 2014 when the Affordable Care Act made it possible for her to afford independent health insurance. Her monthly premium for a platinum plan was $356.
Today, Altman has downgraded to a gold plan and pays $1,147 per month. That’s a 222% increase over the past decade for less comprehensive coverage. Medical inflation has always outpaced general inflation, but early analyses project premiums will increase even more dramatically as a result of the reconciliation budget recently signed by President Donald Trump, and Altman is worried she won’t be able to pay for health insurance any longer.
“Since the Senate passed this monstrosity I’ve been trying to figure out how I can land on my feet,” Altman said.
Altman is one of nearly 2 million people in California who rely on the Affordable Care Act marketplace, commonly known as Obamacare or Covered California. Many own their own businesses like Altman or work for small employers that don’t provide insurance.
The majority of enrollees are lower- to middle-income earners making $60,240 or less as individuals or $124,800 or less as a family of four. Nearly 800,000 people in California make half that amount.
Trump’s budget bill made significant changes to Covered California that experts and insurers say will increase out-of-pocket costs for consumers. This includes more complicated enrollment and verification procedures; eliminating automatic re-enrollment; prohibiting people who sign up outside the end-of-year open enrollment period from qualifying for financial assistance; prohibiting certain immigrant groups – including legal refugees – from receiving financial assistance; and requiring people who inaccurately predict their income to repay all subsidies received, a change from when previous repayments were capped based on income.
The biggest hit to consumers came by omission: Trump’s budget bill did not extend enhanced subsidies, which will expire at the end of this year. Those subsidies were enacted during the COVID-19 pandemic to ensure more Americans could afford health insurance. As a result, premiums fell for all income levels and enrollment doubled nationwide from 12 million to 24 million people between 2021 and 2025.
In California, nearly 90% of enrollees receive federal subsidies.
Some of these changes, including the expiration of subsidies, will go into effect next year, which means consumers will see higher prices as soon as November when open enrollment starts. Other changes, such as who can enroll and when, will start in 2028.
Cost will rise significantly
In California on average, premiums are expected to increase by 66%, or $101, per month starting next year without subsidies, according to projections from Covered California. Lower-income people will see even higher increases because they receive more subsidies.
Those making less than 400% of the federal poverty level (about $60,240 per year for an individual) are projected to pay an average of $191 more monthly, according to Covered California data.
More than 170,000 middle-income enrollees will lose financial assistance entirely. Some federal subsidies will still be available, but they are less comprehensive than the enhanced subsidies, and fewer people qualify.
Altman said even without any changes to the Affordable Care Act marketplace, the regular annual premium increases are “almost unsustainable.” Most years, she makes too much money to qualify for subsidies, but health care costs are still a drain on her finances.
On average over the past decade, Altman’s premiums have increased by more than 11% annually, according to data she shared with CalMatters. In comparison, the Consumer Price Index, a measure of inflation, increased an average of 2.7% annually during the same time period, according to U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data.
Heather Altman works at her desk, inside her home office in Long Beach on July 11, 2025. Photo by Jules Hotz for CalMatters
“If this is what I knew the situation would be when I started my business, I never would have done it,” Altman said. About one in four Covered California enrollees is self-employed. Altman is contemplating asking a colleague to hire her without salary just for the benefits, she said.
That type of thinking is common right now, said Janae Trevillion, a long-time human resources consultant who works with small businesses. She said some of her clients, like Altman, are trying to get corporate jobs just for the benefits.
“There’s a lot of movement happening,” Trevillion said.
600,000 could drop Covered California
The enrollment changes that will take effect in 2028 will also cause people to get rid of their Covered California insurance, Trevillion said. As the paperwork and verification processes get more complicated, fewer people will be willing to go through the sign up process, she said.
“People get frustrated easily,” Trevillion said. “People are going to say ‘I’m not interested,’ and people are not going to want to participate in having a marketplace plan.”
Between added enrollment complexities and higher out-of-pocket costs, Covered California estimates that 600,000 Californians will drop their insurance.
“We have tried for our entire existence to make the process easier, to minimize administrative barriers, to simplify … to remove this friction from the system,” said Covered California Executive Director Jessica Altman, who is not related to Heather Altman. “We know that it matters, and so anything that goes the other way is going to result in less people covered.”
About 70% of Covered California enrollees are automatically re-enrolled each year, a process that will end under the new policies implemented by Trump’s budget reconciliation.
As more people drop out, costs will increase even further, said Edwin Park, a research professor at Georgetown University and a leading expert on Affordable Care Act expansions.
“Any time you have big reductions in enrollment, the ones who are most likely to be disenrolled … are the healthiest, lowest cost people, so that means a sicker risk pool, which in turn means higher premiums for those inside the marketplace,” Park said.
In recent years, California has consistently had one of the lowest-risk insurance pools in the country because Covered California has successfully attracted younger and healthier people to sign up for insurance, Jessica Altman said.
The Congressional Budget Office estimates that premiums for Affordable Care Act benchmark silver plans, the second-to-lowest-cost silver plan in each state, will increase by an additional 7.9% as risk pools become sicker.
