photo credit: CA Water Resources Control Board
Cape Horn Dam, the lower of the two dams which form the Potter Valley
Project on the Eel River.

The Biden Administration may be over, but the long horizon of 2021's Inflation Reduction Act is keeping DC dollars flowing to the North Coast.

$15 million dollars in federal money is going towards two major Eel River projects.

North Bay congressman Jared Huffman's office said part of the money, awarded through the Bureau of Reclamation, will pay for Eel River Estuary restoration work, in collaboration with the Round Valley Indian Tribes.

The federal dollars will also go towards construction of a new wintertime water diversion. That will send Eel River water into the east fork of the Russian River in Potter Valley.

Potter Valley water project owner PG&E plans to remove Cape Horn and Scott Dam, draining Lake Pillsbury, much to the dismay of neighboring residents.

The new federal funding offers a kind of "down payment" on a reformed Potter Valley Project; one that will allow salmon and steelhead unimpeded access to upper reaches of the Eel River, while continuing water diversions to support Russian River flows and water levels in Lake Mendocino.