Aging dams pose growing safety and economic challenges. As debates intensify over projects like removal of Northern California’s Potter Valley dams, two Stanford experts discuss the challenge of fixing up or taking down dams when there is too little funding – public or private – to do either.

Dan Reicher is a senior research scholar at the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment and former assistant secretary of energy in the Clinton administration.

Felicia Marcus is the William C. Landreth Visiting Fellow with Stanford’s Water in the West program, and is former chair of the California State Water Resources Control Board.

The Potter Valley Project, built over a century ago, uses two dams – Scott Dam and Cape Horn Dam – to divert water from the Eel River basin into the Russian River basin while generating hydroelectricity. Pacific Gas and Electric Co., the project’s owner, has determined the dams are no longer economically viable for power generation, and plans to remove them. However, U.S. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins announced in April that a Southern California water agency had expressed interest in buying the dams to keep them operating.

Why is the Potter Valley Project generating so much controversy right now?
Marcus: What makes Potter Valley interesting is that you actually have this really unlikely set of allies that came together, including tribes, environmentalists, and counties whose economies depend on water. They developed what they call a “two basin solution” that allows for some continuing water diversions while restoring fish passage and acknowledging tribal water rights. But then you have opposition from people who understandably fear losing something, like their lakefront homes or their way of life. The politicization you note comes from treating dam removal as symbolic rather than looking at the actual merits of the particular dam at a particular stage of its existence.

Reicher: I think there’s a fundamental misunderstanding about what dams do. The first misunderstanding is that many U.S. dams make electricity. In fact, of approximately 500,000 U.S. dams, only 2,500 make electricity. In the case of the two Potter Valley dams, PG&E argues that these dams have reached the end of their useful life for electricity generation. On the other hand, the Elsinore Valley Municipal Water District contends that the dams should be kept operating to provide a reliable water supply for regional residents and farmers.